- Sancho Ramírez, King of Aragon and Navarre
Sancho Ramírez (c. 1042 –
4 June 1094 ,Huesca ) wasking of Aragon (1063-1094, not formally until 1076) andking of Navarre (1076-1094, as Sancho V). He was the son ofRamiro I of Aragon andErmesinde of Bigorre , and he succeeded his father in 1063.Between 1067 and 1068, the
War of the Three Sanchos involved him in a conflict with his first cousins, both also named Sancho: Sancho IV theking of Navarre and Sancho II theking of Castile , respectively. The Castilian Sancho was trying to retakeBureba andAlta Rioja , which his father had given away to king of Navarre and failed to retake. The Navarrese Sancho begged the aid of the Aragonese Sancho to defend his kingdom. Sancho of Castile defeated the two cousins and retook both Bureba and Alta Rioja, as well asÁlava .Sancho Ramírez followed his father's practice, not using the royal title early in his reign even though his state had become fully independent. This changed in 1076, when
Sancho IV of Navarre was murdered by his own siblings, thus prompting a succession crisis in this neighboring kingdom that represented Aragon's nominal overlord. At first, the murdered king's young son, García, who had fled to Castile, was recognized as titular king by Alfonso VI, while Sancho Ramírez recruited to his side noblemen of Navarre who resented their kingdom falling under Alfonso's influence. The crisis was resolved by partition. Sancho Ramírez was elected King of Navarre, while he ceded previously contested western provinces of the kingdom to Alfonso. From this time, Sancho refers to himself as king not only of Navarre but also Aragon.Sancho conquered Barbastro in 1064,
Graus in 1083, andMonzón in 1089.He married first in c.1065 (divorced 1071),
Isabel of Urgel (d. c.1071), daughter of CountArmengol III of Urgel and second in 1076,Felicie of Roucy (dMay 3 ,1123 ), daughter of CountHilduin III of Roucy . A third marriage - toPhilippa of Toulouse - is sometimes given [Richard, Alfred, "Histoire de Comtes de Poitou, 778-1204"] but other evidence records him as still married to Felicie at the time of his death. [Szabolcs de VAJAY, "Ramire II le Moine, roi d'Aragon et Agnes de Poitou dans l'histoire et la légende", in "Mélanges offerts à René Crozet", 2 vol, Poitiers, 1966, vol 2, p 727-750; and Ruth E Harvey, "The wives of the first troubadour Duke William IX of Aquitaine", in "Journal of Medieval History", vol 19, 1993, p 315. Harvey states that, contrary to prior assumptions, William IX was certainly Philippa of Toulouse's only husband. Vajay states that the marriage to an unnamed king of Aragon reported by a non-contemporary chronicler is imaginary, even though it has appeared broadly in modern histories, and likewise he cites J de Salarrullana de Dios, Documentos correspondientes al reinado de Sancho Ramirez, Saragossa, 1907, vol I, nr 51, p 204-207 to document that Felicie was clearly still married to Sancho months before his death, making the marriage to Philippa several years earlier, as reported in several modern popular biographies of her granddaughter, completely unsupportable.]He perished in 1094 at the Siege of
Huesca .He was father of three sons: by Isabel, he had Peter; by Felicie he had Alfonso and Ramiro. All three succeeded in turn to the throne of Aragon. [An origin legend of the house of Ayala gives him another son, Vela or
Velasgutto de Ayala , by a Barcelona lady. An alternative version makes the father Ramiro I. This story is without solid foundation, and may represent a confused memory of a feudal relationship withSancho Ramírez of Viguera and his Vela clan vassals.]Notes and references
External source
* [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ARAGON%20&%20CATALONIA.htm#_Toc173982995 FMG on Infante don SANCHO Ramírez de Aragón]
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