Sancho VI of Navarre
Sancho VI of Navarre, the Wise (c. 1133-Pamplona, June 27, 1194) was king of Pamplona and Navarre (1150-1194). He is the son of García Ramírez the Restorer and his first wife Margarita de l'Aigle. He married Sancha of Castilla and both were parents of Sancho VII of Navarre. His was one of the longest reigns in the kingdom (44 years).
His reign was characterized by constant confrontations with Castile and Aragon. His main achievements were to stabilize the Kingdom and strengthen his dynasty on the Navarrese throne. Likewise, he carried out important architectural works and founded numerous Cistercian monasteries.
He was also the first to definitively abandon the title of King of Pamplona to officially adopt that of King of Navarre (Navarre rex) (1162) although some years before it had already been used in other unofficial documents. The change was substantive because he ceased to be the king of a privileged group of people and assumed dominance over a territory "conceived as a framework in which various social groups were organized."
Biography
Son of García Ramírez de Pamplona and Margarita de l'Aigle, a Norman noblewoman and García's first wife, his paternal grandparents were the infante Ramiro Garcés and Cristina Rodríguez, daughter of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid while his maternal They were Gilbert, Lord of l'Aigle, married to Juliana de Perche, sister of Count Rotrou III de Perche.
Uncomfortable inheritance (1150-1162)
In 1150, he inherited from his father a recently split kingdom of Aragon, supported by vassalage to Castile, thus maintaining a delicate situation. His limited sovereignty was being harassed by both Emperor Alfonso VII, King of León and Castile, and Ramón Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and Prince (Regent) of Aragon. These two sovereigns agreed in 1140 to divide up the kingdom of Pamplona through the Treaty of Carrión. In addition, Rome did not recognize him as king, since, according to the will of Alfonso I, the kingdom should have been for the orders of the Temple, the Hospital of San Juan de Jerusalén and the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. For this reason, both García Ramírez and Sancho VI were called by Rome Dux Pampilonensium or Dux Navarrorum (Duke of the Pamploneses or Duke of the Navarros). The title of duke was the one given at the time to the leader or ruler chosen by the people.
When trying to get closer to Ramón Berenguer IV, Alfonso VII reacted by signing the Treaty of Tudilén with the count (January 27, 1151) by which they agreed to divide up the Navarrese territory. Three days later, King Sancho renewed the vassalage of his kingdom to Emperor Alfonso and married his sister Blanca de él to Sancho of Castilla, Alfonso VII's eldest son. The measures of the Pamplona monarch only served to somewhat delay the designs of the Castilians and Aragonese, who then continued the fight until mid-1153 when Sancho the Wise and Alfonso VII signed peace in Soria, which was consolidated with the betrothal of Doña Sancha, daughter of the emperor with the Navarrese king, who was knighted by her future father-in-law. In May 1157, a new treaty was signed (this time in Lérida) between Alfonso and Ramón Berenguer to divide up the kingdom of Sancho VI. On August 21, 1157, the emperor died, giving the King of Navarre a breather. Sancho VI swore vassalage to the new King of Castile, Sancho III, on November 11 of the same year.
The sudden death of Sancho III on August 31, 1158 left the Castilian throne in the hands of his only son, the three-year-old Alfonso VIII. The fight for the guardianship of the young Castilian king between the House of Lara and the House of Castro destabilized the neighboring kingdom, leaving it weak and defenseless. Sancho VI knew how to take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of the annoying vassalage.
Renewal of the monarchy (1162-1169)
On August 8, 1162, Ramón Berenguer IV died, leaving the kingdom of Aragon and the county of Barcelona to his wife, Queen Petronila, who abdicated in 1164 to Alfonso II, when he was seven years old. Another child-king left Sancho VI almost complete freedom to expand his kingdom. He agreed to a thirteen-year truce with the tutors of the Aragonese king to secure the eastern border and attack Castile.
Before the campaign against Castile began, a significant symbolic change took place. Sancho VI ceased to be titled Pampilonensium Rex (King of the Pamploneses) to become Rex Navarre (King of Navarre).
In the autumn of 1162 Sancho VI attacked Castile from all its fronts, annexing part of La Rioja.
In 1163 he sent an army to help the Wolf King, who was fighting the Almohads.
After the aggressive stage, he moved on to a more diplomatic one. On January 28, 1165, he signed the Treaty of Tudela with Ferdinand II of León, in October 1167 he agreed to a truce with Castile and on December 19, 1168 he reached an agreement with Alfonso II of Aragón to divide up the lands conquered from the Muslims..
On November 11, 1169, Alfonso VIII of Castile turned fourteen, for which reason he was declared of legal age. Once settled on the throne, stability quickly reigned in Castile again.
In June 1170, the King of Castile and the King of Aragon, with the mediation of Henry II of England, agreed in Sahagún to help each other against any enemy, they ratified the Treaty of Tudilén and, to seal their alliance, they entered into two Marriages: Alfonso VIII of Castile would marry Eleanor de Plantagenet, daughter of the King of England, and Alfonso II of Aragon would marry Sancha of Castilla, aunt of the King of Castile (complying with what was agreed in the Treaty of Lleida of 1157).
This rapprochement between Castile and Aragon once again surrounded Navarre, to which was added the friendship with the King of England, at that time also Duke of Aquitaine and, therefore, lord of the lands to the north of Navarre. Sancho VI was completely surrounded. This fact once again destabilized the kingdom, and some barons (owners of patrimonial señoríos, who governed small territories or were part of the administration of the kingdom) abandoned their king, rendering their services to the Castilian or Aragonese king.
Alfonso VIII did not take long to recover the lands lost in 1162. The first Castilian campaigns began in 1173. The first was in spring. There is evidence of the king's presence in Almazán on January 27 (granting some estates). In a document of July 31, the passage of the expedition that returned from Navarra through Enciso is recorded. A second expedition, larger than the first, was organized to leave in the autumn. He left for the kingdom of Sancho VI in September, arriving as far as Pamplona on October 23. On December 10, the army had already returned and was in Burgos.
For a stable peace (1170-1179)
At the end of spring 1174 a new campaign was organized, this time the armies of Castile and Aragon attacked jointly. In July, the Aragonese king took and destroyed the castle of Milagro. On his part, the Castilian king defeated the Navarrese army and surrounded the castle of Leguin (near Urroz-Villa), where Sancho VI himself was, who was finally able to escape. On August 15, the Castilian expedition had returned to Burgos.
In 1175 and 1176 there were two more expeditions. The first, in summer, returned to unite the forces of Castile and Aragon. In the second, also in summer, only Castilian troops participated, even taking the castle of Leguin (key in the redoubt system for the defense of Pamplona). This fact forced the armistice.
Sancho VI and Alfonso VIII decided to end the dispute on August 25 of the same year with a seven-year truce and request arbitration from the King of England to resolve their differences. On March 16, 1177, the sentence was pronounced. Both kings had to return the conquests made during the reign of Alfonso VIII, that is, return to the borders of 1158. Thus, Sancho VI had to return Logroño, Navarrete, Entrena and Ausejo, recovering Portilla and the castles of Leguín (Izagaondoa) and Don Godín (possibly the current Lapuebla de Labarca). In addition, King Alfonso had to pay Sancho 3,000 maravedíes annually for ten years.
Therefore, Castilla saw its domain over La Rioja and Vizcaya recognized, and Navarra his over Álava, Guipúzcoa and Duranguesado. As King Sabio was not satisfied with this sentence, a new agreement between Castile and Aragon was necessary to divide up Navarre —the Treaty of Cazola of March 20, 1179— for Sancho VI to resign himself to accepting the provisions in Westminster. From that moment on, Navarra lived under the pressure of two fearsome neighbours, Aragon to the east and Castilla to the west (to which France would eventually join to the north). In fact, it did not take many years for the Pyrenean kingdom to lose everything that had been recognized in the Westminster award in 1200, that is, Álava, Guipúzcoa and Duranguesado, which passed into the hands of Castile.
On April 15, 1179, the kings of Navarre and Castile met between Nájera and Logroño to sign a peace treaty, with the intention of clearly defining their borders and resolving conflicts over their delimitation. A significant fact is the exclusion in the document of any reference to the vassalage of Navarre with Castile, which de facto had disappeared after the death of Sancho III of Castile. After that, they mutually returned the conquered places.
Social and geographical reorganization of the kingdom (1179-1194)
During the 1180s, a period of little activity in foreign policy, the king devoted his efforts to reorganizing domestic policy. He highlights the development of a census to improve tax collection. He also granted privileges to various cities and encouraged trade.
On September 7, 1190, Sancho and Alfonso II of Aragon (who had distanced himself from Alfonso VIII of Castile) signed a pact of friendship and mutual aid in Borja in case of an attack by Alfonso VIII. In July 1191, the Navarrese and Aragonese kings met again, this time in Tarazona, to reaffirm their friendship. However, always trying to avoid irreversible commitments against the Castilian kingdom, Sancho did not become part of the Liga de Huesca (formed by Alfonso II of Aragon, Alfonso IX of León and Sancho I of Portugal). against Alfonso VIII of Castile.
To the north, the weak situation in Gascogne probably led to expansion towards the Lands of Ultraports. In 1189 the land of Cisa recognized Sancho as its sovereign and by 1191 the castles of San Juan de Pie de Puerto and Rocabruna had already been built. The wedding between Berenguela and Ricardo Corazón de León (May 12, 1191) and the determined participation of the infante Sancho, the future king, in the conflicts of Gascony to defend the interests of his captive brother-in-law favored a presence that gradually increased and took root until the first third of the XVI century.
Sancho VI died on June 27, 1194 and was buried in the cathedral of Pamplona.
Foundations
- In 1151 (or, according to other authors, in 1161) he founded Treviño, the county capital of the same name, which in 1190 became the power of Alfonso VIII.
- In 1164 it constituted as a villa and gave its way to Laguardia, in which there was a castle founded by Sancho Garcés I of Pamplona in 908.
- In 1172 he granted Laguardia to Saint Vincent de la Sonsierra.
- In 1180 he granted a villa to San Sebastian.
- In 1181 he founded the village of Nueva Victoria (now Vitoria) on the hill that occupied the primitive village of Gasteiz.
- In 1182 he awarded Fueros to the fortified villas of Antoñana and Bernedo in Álava
- In 1184 King Sancho VI the Sabio founded, next to the village of Atarrabia, the village of Villava (“Villa noua”), giving its inhabitants the same jurisdiction that the inhabitants of the new town of San Nicolás de Pamplona enjoyed. Theobaldo II, shortly after climbing to the throne in 1254, confirmed his idols.
Marriage and offspring
On June 2, 1157, he married Sancha de Castilla, daughter of King Alfonso VII of León and his first wife, Berenguela de Barcelona, in Carrión de los Condes (Palencia). They had six children:
- Berenguela (ca. 1165-1230), married in 1191 with Ricardo Corazón de León, king of England.
- Sancho VII the Fort (1170-1234), King of Navarre (1194-1234).
- Blanca (1177-1229), married to Count Teobaldo III of Champagne, mother of King Teobaldo I of Navarre. Their descendants will become the centuryXIII in the kings of Navarre.
- Fernando (m. 1207), possibly buried in the Royal Pantheon of Las Huelgas (Burgos).
- Teresa
- Constanza, who still lived in 1197 when his brother King Sancho, at his request, donated Elcorri in Aranaz to the monastery of Santa Maria the Real of Iranzu. He received burial at the Cistercian monastery that his parents founded in Marcilla.
| Predecessor: García IV Ramírez | King of Pamplona 1150-1162 | Successor: Change the title |
| Predecessor: New title | King of Navarre 1162-1194 | Successor: Sancho VII |
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