Jiménez dynasty

The Jiménez or Ximenes (pronounced "šimeneʂ") were a Spanish ruling family from the 10th century to the 13th century. They were the first Europeanisers of Spain (Ramón Menéndez Pidal) and brought her back within the wider European political scene while also giving her the political character and division that persisted until the end of the Middle Ages.

History

The first Jimenas, in the 9th century, were dukes or regents of parts of Navarre beyond the area of direct control of the Íñiguez of Pamplona. Probably the frontier areas of Álava and the western Pyrenees given the list of their landholdings preserved in a charter. It was long believed that their origins lay in Gascony.

In 905, one of their own, Sancho Garcés, used foreign assistance to displace the Íñiguez ruler Fortún Garcés and consolidated the monarchy in his dynasty's hands. Based on this, for several subsequent generations the family was sometimes called the "Banu Sanyo" ( _ar. بن سني) in Iberian Muslim sources.

The first great ruler of the dynasty was Sancho the Great, who ruled from 1000 to 1035 in Pamplona, but also ruled Aragon, Castile, and Ribagorza by right and eventually León (but not Galicia) by conquest. He received the homage of the Count of Barcelona and possibly of the Duke of Gascony. After his coronation in León, he even took up the imperial title over all Spain. His vast domains were divided amongst his heirs at his death and each of the medieval kingdoms of Spain was thus inaugurated with a Jiménez monarch.

Ferdinand the Great conquered León and Galicia in 1037 bringing them fully into the orbit of his ruling clan. He achieved a sort of hegemony over his brothers which he passed on to his sons, who fought for supremacy in his domains, which he had divided between them in his family's fashion. One of these, Alfonso VI, reclaimed the imperial title and even pretended to rule over both Christian and Moslem Spain.

Alfonso the Battler briefly reunited the holdings of the family through his father's acquisition of Navarre and his own marriage to Urraca, Queen of Castile and León, claiming the title "emperor". However, with the failing of this marriage and Alfonso's subsequent death, the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Navarre again went their separate ways, each eventually passing to other dynasties through heiresses: Urraca (Castile and León); Petronilla (Aragon), who married the ruler of Barcelona and thus united those two realms into the Crown of Aragon; and finally Blanca, sister of Sancho VII of Navarre, whose 1234 death brought Jiménez rule to an end.

Rulers

Emperors in bold. Date of assumption of imperial title in parentheses.

Navarre

*905–925 Sancho I
*925–931 Jimeno Garcés
*925–970 García Sánchez I
*970–994 Sancho II
*994–1000 García Sánchez II
*1000–1035 Sancho III (1034)
*1035–1054 García Sánchez III
*1054–1076 Sancho IV:"United with Aragon 1076 to 1134".
*1134–1150 García Ramírez
*1150–1194 Sancho VI
*1194–1234 Sancho VII:"Navarre to House of Champagne in 1234".

Castile, León, and Galicia

*1035–1065 Ferdinand I (1056):"Took León and Galicia in 1037."
*1065–1072
**Sancho II in Castile
**Alfonso VI in León
**García II in Galicia and Portugal
*1072–1109 Alfonso VI (1077) in Castile, León, and Galicia
*1109–1126 Urraca:"Galicia to House of Burgundy in 1111".

obrarbe and Ribagorza

*1035–1043 Gonzalo:"Sobrarbe and Ribagorza merged into Aragon in 1043".

Aragon

*1035–1063 Ramiro I
*1063–1094 Sancho
*1094–1101 Peter I
*1104–1134 Alfonso I (1109)
*1034–1037 Ramiro II
*1037–1162 Petronilla:"Aragon to House of Barcelona in 1037".

Viguera

*970–991 Ramiro Garcés
*991–1002 Sancho Ramírez
*1002–1005/1030 García Ramírez:"Viguera merged back into Navarre by 1030".