Sancho VII of Navarre

Sancho VII of Navarre, known as «the Strong», was King of Navarre between 1194 and 1234, the year in which he died in the castle of Tudela, Navarra. He was the son and successor of Sancho VI "el Sabio", of the Jimena dynasty, and brother of Berenguela de Navarra, married to Ricardo Corazón de León.

Introduction

He was nicknamed the Strong because of his enormous stature and strength. According to his biographer and forensic medical professor in Pamplona, Luis del Campo Jesús (1912-1995), he was between 2.28 and 2.31 meters tall; He reached such a conclusion by extrapolating to the rest of the body the measurement of his femur given in 1622 by Subprior Huarte, who saw his mortal remains.

Biography

Referring to his birth, it has been tried to locate him in Tudela based on the fact that his parents frequently resided in this city, but there is no data that supports this belief, and no matter how reasonable it is, there is no basis to prove it. Yes, it is true that he chose Tudela as his permanent residence and that he ended his life locked up in his castle.

Sancho married Constanza de Tolosa, daughter of Ramón VI, Count of Tolosa, and according to Luis del Campo (who, apart from forensics, was a biographer of this king), the marriage could have been celebrated around the year 1195. This marriage failed and Constance was disowned. There is no reliable record of a second marriage with Clemencia, daughter of Emperor Federico I Barbarossa, and neither of the two women gave him children, but he did have several bastard children, in whom the royal lineage of Navarre would continue between Navarrese and Aragonese nobles..

He continued with the relations that his father had established with Castile and, above all, with Aragon.

In 1196 an interview was held sponsored by the Holy See where the three kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Navarra met, at a point between Agreda and Tarazona, to try to unite the Christian kingdoms.

The Kingdom of Navarre at the time of Sancho VII the Fort: Kingdom of Navarre Territory lost to Castile (1198–1200) Land achieved through vassal (1196–1203) Kingdom of Castile Kingdom of Aragon

Alfonso VIII invaded Álava, with a long siege of Vitoria, Guipúzcoa and Duranguesado in 1199. Sancho VII went to negotiate with the Almohads so that they would attack Castile and with a second front they would have to lift the siege, without success. After the important territorial loss of the kingdom of Navarra, years later he would sign a truce with Castile for five years, on October 29, 1207 in Guadalajara, in which Navarra did not recognize the loss of the Basque territories. However, time was consolidating the Castilian positions.

Since then, his relations were tense with Alfonso VIII, although he willingly collaborated with him in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), where he gained prestige and improved his position with respect to the other Christian kings, with the recovery of some squares. In this battle, the troops of Sancho el Fuerte reached the shop of Muhammad An-Nasir, known by the nickname of Miramamolín, Almohad caliph, cutting the chains that protected it. According to legend H King Sancho had them placed on the coat of arms of Navarra, in memory of this feat.

His relations with the ultra-Pyrenean territories were better, where several lords declared themselves his vassals, and he even signed a treaty in favor of Juan Sin Tierra (1202), and with the Aragonese kings Pedro II and Jaime I.

Mausoleo de Sancho VII "El Fuerte" de Navarra located in the Chapel of San Agustín de la Colegiata de Roncesvalles.

Sancho VII and Jaime I signed a adoption treaty in Tudela (1231) (which was never fulfilled), by which they agreed that the one of the two who survived the other would occupy the kingdom without obstacles.

During the last few years, Sancho VII suffered from a disease that was supposed to end his life and was a varicose ulcer on the leg, according to his biographer. Because of this long and painful illness, Sancho was confined in his castle in Tudela, hence the nickname of Sancho "el Encerrado".

He had a son, according to the so-called Chronicle of the Prince of Viana, who at the age of 15 suffered a fatal accident as a result of a fall from a horse; Thus, Sancho was left without a legitimate son to succeed him and Navarre without a future king.

On Friday, April 7, 1234, Sancho died in his castle in Tudela, receiving burial in the parish church of San Nicolás de Tudela; although two years later his remains were transferred to the Royal Collegiate Church of Santa María de Roncesvalles.

Despite having several illegitimate children, and despite the existence of the adoption pact that established that James I of Aragon would succeed Sancho VII, his successor was his nephew Teobaldo de Champagne, son of Blanca, sister of the deceased monarch and ostensible of the champagne count dignity. Teobaldo I ascended the throne in Tudela on April 7, 1234, beginning the Champagne dynasty on the Navarrese throne, consequently ending the Jimena dynasty of which Sancho VII was the last representative of it.

Marriages

Seal of Sancho the Fort with the Black eagle.

Sancho was married twice. The identity of his second wife is disputed. Her first wife was Constance, daughter of Raymond VI of Toulouse, whom he married in about 1195. He later rejected and divorced her (1200).

His second wife was, according to some sources, Clemence of Germany, daughter of Frederick I, the Holy Roman Emperor. She is the woman who accompanies the praying figure of the king in the Chapel of San Agustín de Roncesvalles.

Other sources, however, name a daughter of Abu Yaqub II al-Mustansir, emir of Morocco.^{[citation needed]} However, Charles' chronicle de Viana recognizes not only a son who died at the age of fifteen in an accident, but also that the father had several known bastards: Fernando, Guillermo and Roderic. Maternity of these is unknown.

Ancestors