Gonzalo Of Sobrarbe And Ribagorza
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Gonzalo Sánchez ( 1020 – 26 June 1043) was the king of
Sobrarbe Sobrarbe is one of the comarcas of Aragon, Spain. It is located in the northern part of the province of Huesca, part of the autonomous community of Aragon in Spain. Many of its people speak the Aragonese language locally known as ''fabla''. Th ...
and Ribagorza, two small Pyrenean counties, from 1035 until his death. He was the son of King Sancho III of Navarre and his wife,
Muniadona of Castile Muniadona of Castile (1066), also called Mayor or Munia, was Queen of Pamplona (10111035) by her marriage with King Sancho Garcés III, who later added to his domains the Counties of Ribagorza (1017) and Castile (1028) using her dynastic rights t ...
. Before his death in 1035, Sancho divided his kingdom between his sons, leaving Sobrarbe and Ribagorza to Gonzalo. He governed them as
vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...
of his elder brother, García Sánchez III, who had inherited Navarre. Gonzalo is thought to have been ineffectual and unpopular, with vassals defecting to his half-brother,
Ramiro I of Aragon Ramiro I (bef. 10078 May 1063) was the first King of Aragon from 1035 until his death, although he is sometimes described as a petty king. He would expand the nascent Kingdom of Aragon through his acquisition of territories, such as Sobrarbe and ...
, during his own lifetime. Within a decade of his death, his reign was being ignored and he was left out of a list of rulers of Ribagorza.


Reign

On 14 April 1035, according to a document preserved in the
monastery of San Juan de la Peña A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
, Sancho III granted Aragon to his eldest but illegitimate son Ramiro. In the same act the castle of Loarre and monastery of San Emeterio with their dependent villages were detached from Aragon and given to Gonzalo as part of his inheritance. There is no indication that the brothers were on poor terms. Gonzalo subsequently confirmed many charters alongside his brother and they often appear together in dating clauses. Gonzalo was present with all his brothers and his brother-in-law, King Vermudo III of León, when Ramiro granted ''
arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...
'' (a nuptial gift) to his future wife,
Ermesinda of Bigorre Ermesinda of Bigorre (Aragonese: ''Ermisenda de Bigorra''), born Gerberga or Gisberga (1015 – 1 December 1049), was a Queen of Aragon, a daughter of Bernard-Roger, Count of Bigorre and his wife Garsenda, Heiress of Bigorre. She was a member of t ...
on 22 August 1036. In Ramiro's charter recording the gift, Gonzalo is given the title of king. In 1037 Gonzalo joined his brothers García and Ramiro to confirm a donation of Jimeno Garcés, Ramiro's godfather, to the
monastery of Leire The Monastery of San Salvador of Leyre ( eu, Leireko San Salbatore monasterioa; es, Monasterio de San Salvador de Leire) is a religious complex to the south of the Sierra of Leyre, in northern Navarre, Spain, representing one of the most importan ...
. In this document García uses the title ''princeps'' (prince, from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "foremost") to indicate his suzerainty over his brothers, while Ramiro and Gonzalo use the title ''regulus'' (petty king). This meeting probably took place either in Leire or else in García's capital,
Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...
. Neither the day nor the month is preserved in the record. The use of a royal title, even one as low as ''regulus'', in the presence of his suzerain, García, is strong evidence that Gonzalo did not usurp a royal title, but that Sancho III intended to create kingdoms for Gonzalo and Ramiro. Gonzalo joined all his brothers, including the youngest,
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 ...
, at Anzánigo in 1037 (or perhaps as late as 1043), after Ferdinand had succeeded to the
Kingdom of León The Kingdom of León; es, Reino de León; gl, Reino de León; pt, Reino de Leão; la, Regnum Legionense; mwl, Reino de Lhion was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when t ...
.


Death

Gonzalo's death on 26 June appears in the
necrology An obituary (obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Acc ...
of the Sobrarbean monastery of San Victorián, but the year is not recorded and has been the subject of much debate. The early modern historian
Jerónimo Zurita Jerónimo (European Portuguese and Spanish) or Jerônimo (Brazilian Portuguese) may refer to: * Jerónimo (name), a given or surname, Jerome in English ** Jeronimo (singer) (born 1990), Dutch pop singer and actor * Jeronimo (band), German band ...
incorrectly placed it in 1035. José de Moret suggested 1042 or 1043. A late source, the ''
Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña The ''Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña'' (or ''Crónica pinatense'') is an Aragonese chronicle written in Latin around before 1359 in the monastery of San Juan de la Peña at the behest of Peter IV of Aragon. It was the first general history ...
'', places it in 1037, but there is charter of disputed authenticity dated September 1039 that is confirmed by Gonzalo. As Ramiro confirmed the rights of Bishops of Urgell in Ribagorza in September 1040, it would appear that Gonzalo was dead by then. Pérez de Urbel thus places it between December 1039 and September 1040 and casts doubt on the dates of several documents mentioning Gonzalo after 1040 (a donation of Blasquita from 1041, a charter of Ramiro's from 1042, and a donation of Ramiro to Atón Garcés in 1043). Accepting these, Ubieto Arteta places Gonzalo's assassination in 1046. Nelson gives reason to believe that it was 1043. The ''Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña'' reports that Gonzalo was assassinated by one of his own knights, Ramonat de Uasconya, who threw him from the bridge over the
river Esera A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
at Montclús, near Lascorz. He was interred in the monastery of San Victorián. On his death, García awarded his counties to Ramiro. Gonzalo left no heirs and his short reign was soon forgotten. The '' Historia silense'', written around 1115, does not even mention him in its version of the division of Sancho III's realm. It even records that Ramiro was given the "remote" region of Aragon on account of his illegitimacy, despite the fact that Gonzalo's division was more remote than Aragon and his legitimacy unquestioned. The anonymous ''
Chronica naierensis The ''Chronica Naierensis'' or ''Crónica najerense'' (originally edited under the title ''Crónica leonesa'') was a late twelfth-century chronicle of universal history composed at the Benedictine monastery of Santa María la Real in Nájera. In L ...
'' of about 1200, basing its account entirely on the ''Silense'', likewise ignores Gonzalo and blames Ramiro's position on his illegitimacy. The '' Liber regum'', also from around 1200 but independent of the ''Silense'', nevertheless shows no awareness of Gonzalo.Pérez de Urbel, pp. 6–7.


References


Notes


Sources

*Nelson, Lynn H. "The Aragonese Acquisition of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza." ''Estudios en Homenaje a Don Claudio Sánchez Albornoz en sus 90 Años'', 2 (1982):227–36. *Pérez de Urbel, Justo. "La división del reino por Sancho el Mayor." ''Hispania'', 14, 54 (1954):3–26. *Ubieto Arteta, Antonio. "Gonzalo, rey de Sobrarbe y Ribagorza." ''Pirineos'', 8 (1952): 299–325. * Zurita, Gerónimo. ''Anales de la Corona de Aragón I''. Edited by Antonio Ubieto Arteta and María Desamparados Pérez Soler. Valencia: 1967. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalo of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza 1020s births 1043 deaths 11th-century people from the Kingdom of Pamplona Assassinated Spanish politicians Sons of emperors