García Sánchez III of Navarre
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García Sánchez III, sometimes García III, IV, V, or VI (also García of Nájera, from Spanish: García el de Nájera, 1016-1054), was king of Navarre from 1035 to 1054. He was the eldest legitimate son and heir of Sancho the Great, born November 1016, and he succeeded his father to the crown of Navarre. He not only received the patrimony of his family, he was given a seniority amongst his brothers, a sort of "High Kingship". However, his father divided his many conquests among García's brothers: Ramiro, the eldest but illegitimate son, received the petty kingdom of Aragón; Ferdinand, the second eldest legitimate son, received Castile (which his father received through marriage to his mother); and his youngest surviving son (legitimate), Gonzalo, received the kingdoms of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza.
In 1037, Ferdinand requested García's aid against his brother-in-law, Bermudo III of León, in battle near Pisuerga. The two brothers defeated Bermudo, who died in battle, the final descendant of Pedro de Cantabria, and Ferdinand succeeded in León.
By aiding Ferdinand, García received his brother's favour and, in a repartition of Castile, he expanded Navarre to the bay of Santander and incorporating the entire Basque Country.
Soon he was confronted by his brother Ramiro at Tafalla (1043) and defeated him.
He was one of the Christian kings to profit greatly from the weakened taifa kingdoms inhabiting the "vacuum" that was the Caliphate of Córdoba. In 1045, he conquered Calahorra.
Relations eventually soured with Ferdinand and war broke out between the fraternal kingdoms, García dying in the Battle of Atapuerca, 15 September, 1054. His nickname comes from his foundation of the monastery of Santa María la Real in Nájera.
[edit] Family
He was married, in 1038, to Estefanía, daughter of Ramon Borrell, Count of Barcelona, an hereditary count of Barcelona (her dowry was the Cameros), and they produced nine children (four sons, five daughters):
- Sancho "El de Peñalén", king of Navarre, married Placencia
- Ramiro (d.1083), lord of Calahorra, married Teresa
- Ferdinand, lord of Bucesta, married Nuña de Vizcaya
- Raymond the Fraticide (Ramón el Fratricida), lord of Murillo and Cameros
- Ermesinda, married Fortún Sánchez de Yarnoz
- Mayor, married Guy II of Masón.
- Urraca (d.1108), married García Ordóñez
- Jimena
- Mencia (d.1106), married Lope de Nájera
He also had illegitimate sons:
- Sancho, lord of Uncastillo and Sangüesa, married Constanza, grandfather of García Ramírez, king of Navarre
- Ramiro
After García's death, Estefanía is said to have remarried to Roger de Tosny, a Norman adventurer. Estefanía may have been a widow at the time of her marriage to García. A traditional poem tells of the marriage of an illegitimate son of García (presumed to be Sancho) to his step-sister, a daughter of Estefanía by a former husband.
| Preceded by: Sancho III |
King of Navarre 1035–1054 |
Sancho IV |
