García Sánchez (died 1029) was the last independent

count of Castile This is a list of counts of Castile. The County of Castile had its origin in a fortified march on the eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Asturias. The earliest counts were not hereditary, being appointed as representatives of the Asturian king. Fr ...

from 1017 to his death. Son of Sancho García and his wife Urraca, he succeeded his father when he was only a boy. During his minority the post of

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

was held by several Castilian magnates and

Urraca Urraca (also spelled ''Hurraca'', ''Urracha'' and ''Hurracka'' in medieval Latin) is a female first name. In Spanish, the name means magpie, derived perhaps from Latin ''furax'', meaning "thievish", in reference to the magpie's tendency to collec ...

Abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Copt ...

of Covarrubias, the young count's aunt. The county fell under the protection of his brother-in-law, King

Sancho III of Pamplona Sancho Garcés III ( 992-996 – 18 October 1035), also known as Sancho the Great ( es, Sancho el Mayor, eu, Antso Gartzez Nagusia), was the King of Pamplona from 1004 until his death in 1035. He also ruled the County of Aragon and by marriage t ...

(Sancho the Great). He reached his majority in 1028 and the next year travelled to León to marry ''

Infanta ''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...

'' Sancha, sister of Bermudo III of León. However, as he was entering the church of John the Baptist for the ceremony, he was assassinated by a pair of exiled Castilian noblemen, the brothers Rodrigo Vela and Íñigo Vela.Bernard F. Reilly, ''The Contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031-1157'', (Blackwell, 1995), 26. The countship was assigned to his nephew

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

, younger son of his sister Muniadona and her husband Sancho the Great, who then married García's intended wife, Sancha.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Ii Of Castile 1029 deaths Assassinated Spanish people 11th-century people from the Kingdom of León People murdered in Spain Year of birth unknown House of Beni Mamaduna Counts of Castile