García Íñiguez of Pamplona

García
Representation of García Íñiguez in a book about the Portuguese monarchs
King of Pamplona
Tenure	851-2 – 870
Predecessor	Íñigo Arista
Successor	Fortún Garcés
Born	c. 805
Died	870
Burial	Monastery of Leyre
Spouse	Urraca
Issue	Fortún Garcés, King of Pamplona Sancho Garcés Oneca Garcés, Consort of Aragon
House	House of Íñiguez
Father	Íñigo Arista

García Íñiguez I (Latin: Garsea Enneconis, Basque: Gartzea Eneko; c. 805 – 882), also known as García I was the second King of Pamplona from 851-2 until his death. He was the son of Íñigo Arista, the first king of Pamplona. Educated in Cordoba, he was a successful military leader who led the military campaigns of the kingdom during the last years of his father's life.^[1][2]

Biography

Educated in Córdoba, as a guest at the court of the Emir of Córdoba, García was the son of Íñigo Arista, the first king of a Basque dynasty ruling in Pamplona up to the late 9th century.^[3] When his father was stricken by paralysis in 842, he became regent of the kingdom (or perhaps co-regent with his uncle Fortún Íñiguez). He and his kinsman Mūsā ibn Mūsā ibn Fortún of the Banu Qasi rebelled against the Cordoban emir in 843. This rebellion was put down by Emir Abd ar-Rahman II, who attacked the Kingdom of Pamplona, defeating García badly and killing Fortún. At his father's death in 851/2 (237 A.H.), he succeeded to the crown of Pamplona.

Following the death of Íñigo Arista, the Banu Qasi leader Mūsā ibn Mūsā pursued a policy of closer allegiance with Muhammad I of Córdoba, leaving García to look to Christian Asturias for an ally.^[1] In 859, the Vikings captured King Garcia Iñiguez, probably far removed from the his Basque kingdom of Navarre,^[4] somewhere in the Andalusian heartland, and extorted a hefty ransom,^[5] rising to around 70,000 gold dinars.^[6] Later the same year, Mūsā ibn Mūsā attacked the Pamplonese city of Albelda. García and his new friend Ordoño I of Asturias together dealt Mūsā a crushing blow, killing, it is said, 10,000 of his magnates in the Battle of Albelda. This, in turn, provoked a raid by Mohammed I of Córdoba^[7] in response and the next year, 860, saw García's son and heir Fortún captured and imprisoned by Mohammed I of Córdoba.^[7][6]

He languished in Córdoba for the next 20 years. In 870, García formed an alliance with the Muslim rebel Amrūs ibn Umar ibn Amrūs, who had killed Garcia's nephew Mūsā ibn Galindo of Huesca, and the next year was apparently in a new alliance with the sons of Mūsā ibn Mūsā, now in rebellion against Córdoba.

García's death has been subject to scholarly dispute, a result of a paucity of records from the last years of his reign. The lack of subsequent mention of him after 870 led to the suggestion that he died in that year, and as his heir was in the hands of his enemies, it was argued that García Jiménez then governed the kingdom as regent. García's son, Fortún Garcés, is then made to succeed upon his release in 880. There is, however, no evidence for such a regency, and Sanchéz Albornoz has cited evidence that García was still living at the time of his son's return.^[6] Thus it is likely that Balparda was reporting an accurate tradition when he suggested García and ally Umar ibn Hafsun fought a battle at Aibar, nor far from present-day Lumbier, against the troops of the Emir of Córdoba in 882, García dying there (although the age provided him, 84 years, is clearly exaggerated).

Marriage and descendants

García could have practiced polygamy and the identity of his wife or wives is poorly documented, and has been subject to much speculation. An undated confirmation of an earlier lost charter refers to King García and Queen Urraca Mayor, and this is thought by some to refer to García Íñiguez and an otherwise unknown wife. Based on her name alone and the fact that one of his son's name was Fortún, a common name among the Banu Qasi dynasty, it has been argued that Urraca could have been a granddaughter of Musa ibn Musa ibn Qasi, the leader of the Banu Qasi clan.^[8] Other historians, however, have given her different parentage, or even a different king as husband. Likewise, infanta Leodegundia, daughter of Ordoño I of Asturias, is known to have married a ruler of Pamplona, and García Íñiguez is one of those speculated to have been this prince.^[1]

• Fortún Garcés, King of Pamplona from 870 until 905 and married to Oria, daughter of Lubb ibs Musa, of the Banu Qasi clan.
• Onneca Garcés, married to Aznar Galíndez II, Count of Aragon.^[9]
• Sancho Garcés, father of Aznar Sánchez de Larraun, Count of Aragon — the second husband of his cousin Onneca Fortúnez — and Velazquita Sánchez, married to Mutarrif ibn Musa, the ruling clan of Huesca.^[9][10]

He could also have been the father of Jimena who married King Alfonso III of Asturias^[11] between 26 May and 20 December 873, both appearing together for first time in 874 making a donation to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.^[12]

References

1. Martínez Díez 2007, p. 23.
2. Levi-Provençal 1953, pp. 11 and 14.
3. Gibb et al 1986, p. 1079.
4. Collins & MacKitteric 1995, p. 267.
5. Collins 1990, p. 143.
6. Martínez Díez 2007, p. 25.
7. Collins 2012, p. 45.
8. Salazar y Acha 2006, pp. 33-34.
9. Martínez Díez 2007, p. 24.
10. Sánchez Albornoz 1959, p. 33.
11. Sánchez Albornoz 1959, p. 34.
12. Carriedo Tejedo 1993–1994, p. 144.

Sources

• Barrau-Dihigo, Lucien (1900). "Les origines du royaume de Navarre d'apres une théorie récente". Revue Hispanique (in French) 7 (21–22): 141–222. ISSN 9965-0355.
• Cañada Juste, Alberto (1980). "Los Banu Qasi (714-924)". Príncipe de Viana (in Spanish) (Year 41): 5–95. ISSN 0032-8472.
• Carriedo Tejedo, Manuel (1993–1994). "Nacimiento, matrimonio y muerte de Alfonso III el Magno" (PDF). Asturiensia medievalia (in Spanish) (Oviedo) (7): 129–145. ISSN 0301-889X.
• Collins, Roger (2012). Caliphs and Kings: Spain, 796-1031. Blackwell Publishing.
• Collins, Roger (1990). The Basques (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 0631175652.
• Collins, Roger; MacKitteric (ed.), Rosamund (1995). The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521362924.
• García Gómez, Emilio; Lévi-Provençal, Évariste (1954). "Textos inéditos del Muqtabis de Ibn Hayyan sobre los orígines del Reino de Pamplona". Al-Andalus (in Spanish) 19 (2): 295–316. ISSN 0304-4335.
• Gibb, H.A.R. (1986). The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. I. Coauthors: Kramers, J.H.; Levi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J. Brill. ISBN 9789004081147.
• Lacarra de Miguel, José María (1945). "Textos navarros del Códice de Roda" (PDF). Estudios de Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón 1: 193–284. OCLC 694519776.
• Lévi-Provençal, Évariste (1953). "Du nouveau sur le royaume de Pampelune au IXe siècle". Bulletin Hispanique (in French) (Université de Bordeaux) 55 (1): 5–22. ISSN 0007-4640.
• Martínez Díez, Gonzalo (2007). Sancho III el Mayor Rey de Pamplona, Rex Ibericus (in Spanish). Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia. ISBN 978-84-96467-47-7.
• Pérez de Urbel, Justo (1954). "Lo viejo y lo nuevo sobre el origin del Reino de Pamplona". Al-Andalus (in Spanish) 19 (1): 1–42. ISSN 0304-4335.
• Salazar y Acha, Jaime de (2006). "Urraca. Un nombre egregio en la onomástica altomedieval". En la España medieval (in Spanish) (1): 29–48. ISSN 0214-3038.
• Sánchez Albornoz, Claudio (1959). "Problemas de la historia Navarra del siglo IX" (PDF). Príncipe de Viana (in Spanish) (20): 5–62. ISSN 0032-8472.