Sancho II of Castile

Sancho II of Castilla, called “el Fuerte” (Zamora, 1038 or 1039-ibid., October 7, 1072), was the first king of Castile, between 1065 and 1072, and, by conquest, Galicia (1071-1072) and León (1072). He managed to reunify the inheritance of his father Fernando I de León. However, he did not enjoy it for a long time, since he died months later in the siege of Zamora, inheriting the three united kingdoms that of his brother Alfonso.

Family origins

The eldest son of King Fernando I of León and his wife, Queen Sancha de León, he was the first child born when his parents were already Kings of León. His siblings were Alfonso VI of León, the infantas Elvira de Toro y Urraca de Zamora, and King García of Galicia, whom he deprived of the Galician throne. He spent the first years in Castilla where he appears confirming documents in various monasteries.

His father assigned him to the eastern border of the kingdom of Castile between 1060 and 1065. In 1063 he led an expedition to help the sultan of the Taifa of Zaragoza Al-Muqtadir in the battle of Graus against Ramiro I of Aragon, who died In the battle. Two years later, he participated with his father in a battle against Zaragoza for his refusal to pay the outcasts and, from there, they left with the aim of besieging Valencia, although the illness of his father Fernando made them return to León.

Ascension to the throne

As the firstborn son, he would have inherited all of his fathers' kingdoms. However, at the end of 1063, Fernando I convened a Royal Curia to publicize his testamentary provisions in which, following Navarrese law, he decided to distribute his patrimony among his children:

• Sancho corresponded to his father's state of heritage, the County of Castile, elevated to kingdom category, and the pariahs over the Taifa realm of Zaragoza.
• His brother Alfonso, his father's favorite, was recited by the Lion Kingdom which had incorporated the title of emperor and the rights over the Taifa realm of Toledo.
• His brother García corresponded to the Kingdom of Galicia created for this purpose and the rights over the Taifas kingdoms of Seville and Badajoz.
• His sisters Urraca and Elvira were given the infantazgo, that is, "the patronage and the rents of all the monasteries belonging to the royal heritage" on the condition that they could not marry..

Reign

After acceding to the Castilian throne on December 27, 1065, he appointed Rodrigo Díaz el Campeador ensign and one of his first actions was to renew the vassalage of the king of the taifa of Zaragoza, Al-Muqtadir, for which he laid siege to the city in 1067, an act that would lead him in 1068 to participate in the so-called War of the three Sanchos that would confront his cousins Sancho Garcés IV of Pamplona and Sancho Ramírez of Aragón, and that allowed him to recover part of the border territories with the Kingdom of Pamplona that had been conquered by the Navarrese.

The distribution of the inheritance among all the children of Fernando I never satisfied Sancho, who always considered himself the only legitimate heir, so he immediately mobilized to try to take over the kingdoms that had corresponded to his brothers in inheritance. Thus began a period of seven years of wars carried out by the three sons of Fernando I.

When Queen Sancha died in 1067, disputes began with her brother Alfonso, whom she faced on July 19, 1068 in Llantada in a judgment of God, in which both brothers agreed that whoever was victorious would obtain the kingdom of the defeated Although Sancho won, Alfonso did not comply with what was agreed, despite which the relations between the two are maintained as shown by the fact that Alfonso attended, on May 26, 1069, Sancho's wedding with an English noblewoman named Alberta and where both decided to unite to seize the kingdom of Galicia that had corresponded to García, the youngest of the sons of Fernando el Grande, counting on the acceptance of his sisters Urraca and Elvira, as well as the nobility of both kingdoms.

With the complicity of his brother Alfonso, Sancho entered Galicia and, after defeating his brother García, arrested him in Santarém, imprisoning him in the castle of Burgos until he was exiled to the taifa of Seville. After eliminating his brother, Alfonso and Sancho named themselves kings of Galicia in 1071 and signed a truce that would last for three years. The truce is broken when Sancho, who does not renounce the kingdom of León, which among other things carried the imperial title, marches against his brother with an army commanded by his right arm El Cid who defeats the Leonese army in the battle of Golpejera in 1072. While his brother Alfonso was imprisoned in Burgos, Sancho entered León and was crowned King of León on January 12, 1072, despite the refusal of the Bishop of León and the nobility, with which he returned to unify in his person the kingdom that his father had divided. After imprisoning Alfonso, the mediation of his sister Urraca allowed him to settle in the Monastery of Sahagún, from where the Leonese fled, fearing for his life, taking refuge in the court of his vassal King al-Mamún of Toledo. The Leonese nobility was dissatisfied with the Castilian, and its most prominent member, Pedro Ansúrez, followed Alfonso into exile.

In Zamora numerous noblemen opposed to Sancho met who supported his sister Urraca, owner of the city. Aware of the danger that this posed to his government, Sancho gathered his army and marched towards the city, passing through Carrión de los Condes where he was denied access and help for his hosts. According to the story collected in the Najerense Chronicle , which could come from a epic song, Sancho II was assassinated by Vellido Dolfos while carrying out the siege of Zamora, where his sister the Infanta Urraca de Zamora was, on October 7, 1072. The place of the regicide attack is marked with a stone cross on a wall and the place of death with the Cross of King Don Sancho on a menhir.

Cross that marks the place where he was attacked in Zamora.

Burial

Sepulchre of King Sancho in the monastery of San Salvador de Oña

On August 26, 1066, Sancho had designated the monastery of San Salvador de Oña for his burial, granting him the right to populate the town of Piérnagas and to give him the privilege he wanted, enjoying exemption from real rights. Obeying his orders, he was buried in said monastery. The wooden sarcophagus containing his remains is located under the canopy on the Epistle side, in the church of the Oña Monastery, next to those of his paternal grandparents, King Sancho Garcés III the Greater of Pamplona and his wife, Queen Muniadona de Castilla, with the sarcophagi placed on a surface decorated with exotic plant and animal motifs.

The sarcophagus that contains the remains of King Sancho is rectangular in shape, with a pyramidal cover and walnut wood. At the base of the chest there is a plinth with plant and animal decoration, and on the larger sides there are two shields, surrounded by circles that frame quadrilobes. The slopes of the cover are decorated with centaurs, surrounded by abundant decoration, which covers the entire sarcophagus. In the area corresponding to the head of the sarcophagus, the quartered coat of arms of Castilla y León is placed, between tenants who carry maces in their hands, and in the existing space on the coat of arms, inlaid wood of different shades, the following inscription:

Here he alreadyzes the king dõ sãcho to kill on zamora(here is King Don Sancho who killed over Zamora.)

Sancho II in literature

The Jura de Santa GadeaMarcos Hiráldez Acosta. 1864. (Palacio del Senate de España, Madrid).

According to the tradition collected in the Najerense Chronicle, in the last quarter of the XII century Upon learning of the participation of his sister, the Infanta Urraca de Zamora, in the flight of his brother Alfonso to the kingdom of Toledo, an irate Sancho laid siege to Zamora, the center of opposition to his new government and governed by his sister. Magpie.

During the siege of Zamora, a Zamoran nobleman, Vellido Dolfos, appeared before the king as a deserter and with the excuse of showing him the weak points of the walls, separated him from his guard and managed to end his life. This event was recorded in medieval literature in the hypothetical Song of Sancho II, whose existence could be deduced from the passage narrated in the Najerense Chronicle that could refer to the prosification of a lost epic song, although Hispanists such as Colin Smith, Georges Martin or Alberto Montaner Frutos doubt that the episode in the Najerense chronicle has its origin in non-preserved epic songs.

The Cantar de mio Cid does not allude to the legend of the «Santa Gadea Oath». This episode appears for the first time in Castilian chronicles of the XIV century. They could have as their source a lost epic song dating back to the end of the XIII century. This literary episode was handed down from the 15th century recast into epic-style romances.