Garcia VI, king of Navarre
Leo
When Aragon, which had from 1076 been united to Navarre, lost its warrior king Alfonso I 'the Battler' and fell into a succession crisis in 1134, García managed to wrest Navarre from his Aragonese cousins. He was elected in Pamplona by the bishops and nobles of the realm against the terms of Alfonso's testament. That Alfonso, in drawing up a will, had ignored his distant relation (of an illegitimate line), is not surprising given the circumstances. Alfonso had nearer male kin in the form of his brother Ramiro. As well, since Alfonso seems to have disregarded Ramiro as well, the choice of an illegitimate descendant of Sancho 'the Great' would undoubtedly have aroused the opposition of the papacy to the succession.
Ramiro did succeed Alfonso in Aragon, because the nobles refused to enact the late king's unusual will. His accession did raise protest from Rome and was not uncontested within Aragon, much less in Navarre, where García was the chosen candidate once the testament of Alfonso was laid aside. Rome does not seem to have opposed him, but neither does he seem to have had much support within Aragon, while Ramiro strongly objected to his election in Navarre. In light of this, the bishop of Pamplona granted García his church's treasure to fund his government against Ramiro's pretensions. Among García's other early supporters were Lop Ennechones, Martinus de Leit, and Count Latro, who carried out negotiations on the king's behalf with Ramiro. Eventually, however, the two monarchs reached a mutual accord - the Pact of Vadoluongo - of "adoption" in January 1135: García was deemed the "son" and Ramiro the "father" in an attempt to maintain both the independence of each kingdom and the de facto supremacy of the Aragonese one.
In May 1135 García declared himself a vassal of Alfonso VII, king of Castile and León. This simultaneously put him under the protection and lordship of Castile and bought recognition of his royal status from Alfonso, who was a claimant to the succession to Alfonso I in Aragon. García's submission to Castile has been seen as an act of protection for Navarre which had the consequence of putting her in an offensive alliance against Aragon, which thus forced Ramiro to marry, to forge an alliance with Raymund Berengar IV, conde de Barcelona, and to produce an heir, now that García, his adoptive son, was out of the question. On the other hand, García may have been responding to Ramiro's marriage, which proved beyond a doubt that the king of Aragon was seeking an heir other than his distant relative and adopted son.
Before September 1135 Alfonso VII granted Saragossa to García as a fief. Recently conquered from Aragon, this outpost of Castilian authority in the east was clearly beyond the military capacity of Alfonso to control and provided further reasons for recognition of García in Navarre in return for not only his homage, but his holding Saragossa on behalf of Castile. However in 1136 Alfonso was forced to do homage for Saragossa to Ramiro and to recognise him as king of Saragossa. In 1137 Saragossa was surrendered to Raymund Berengar, though Alfonso retained suzerainty over it. By then García's brief reign in Saragossa had closed.
Some time after 1130, but before his succession, García married Marguerite de l'Aigle, daughter of Gilbert, seigneur de L'Aigle, and Julienne du Perche. She was to bear him a son and successor, Sancho VI, as well as two daughters who each married kings: the elder, Blanca, born after 1133, married Sancho III 'el Deseado', king of Castile, while the younger, Margarita, named after her mother, married Guglielmo I, king of Sicily. García's relationship with his first queen was, however, shaky. She took on many lovers and showed favouritism to her French relatives. She bore a second son named Rodrigo whom her husband refused to recognise as his own. She died in 1141, and on 24 June 1144 in León, García married Urraca Alfonso, called "La Asturiana" (the Asturian), illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VII, king of Castile and León, by Gontroda Pérez, to strengthen his relationship with his overlord.
In 1136 García was obliged to surrender Rioja to Castile, but in 1137 he allied with Afonso I 'o Conquistador', king of Portugal, and confronted Alfonso VII. They confirmed a peace between 1139 and 1140. He was thereafter an ally of Castile in the Reconquista and was instrumental in the conquest of Almería in 1147. In 1146 he had occupied Tauste, which belonged to Aragon, and Alfonso VII intervened to mediate a peace between the two kingdoms.
By his marriage to Urraca, García had also become a brother-in-law of Raymund Berengar IV, conde de Barcelona, with whom he confirmed a peace treaty in 1149. The count was promised to García's daughter Blanca while already engaged to Petronella, queen of Aragón, but García died before a marriage to Blanca could be carried out.
García died on 21 November 1150 in Lorca, near Estella, and was buried in the cathedral of Santa María in Pamplona. He was succeeded by his eldest son Sancho VI. He left a daughter Sancha by Urraca; she married Gaston V de Montcada, vicomte de Béarn, and had progeny.
García left, as a monument of his reign, the monastery of Sant María de La Oliva in Carcastillo. It is a fine example of Romanesque architecture.
M.Sjostrom
his daughter, Sanxie de Navarre,
was NOT married with any 'Gaston de Montcada'.
http://genealogics.org/descend.php?personID=I00020540&tree=LEO
She seemingly was married twice.
Her first husband was not 'Montcada', it was: Gaston V de Gabarret, 14.vicomte de Biarno
http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00373554&tree=LEO
That marriage must have been without (surviving) issue.
It was only Sanxie's later marriage which would (possibly) have produced progeny, even to the present day.
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all in all, Garxia VI has been regarded as pretty lousy king.
obviously, character expected of a grandson of El Cid, was not present in him.
Garxia's grandmother (presumably) had been Constanca, the daughter of queen Estefania. The marriage of Garxia's paternal grandparents had been a scandal of its era (the 1050s or so).
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there definitely was some connection with Normandy in Garxia's family. He himself married Marguerite, from north France.
But there may have been an earlier descent from the Norman lordlings - his grandmother was possibly daughter of that lord of Conches, Tosny
t...@clearwire.net
>
> She seemingly was married twice.
> That marriage must have been without (surviving) issue.
>
> It was only Sanxie's later marriage which would (possibly) have produced progeny, even to the present day.
>
> ----------
>
> all in all, Garxia VI has been regarded as pretty lousy king.
Had he been any stronger, Alfonso probably wouldn't have let him take
over. He was essentially a hand-groomed puppet.
> obviously, character expected of a grandson of El Cid, was not present in him.
It is not uncommon for such to be the case.
> Garxia's grandmother (presumably) had been Constanca, the daughter of queen Estefania. The marriage of Garxia's paternal grandparents had been a scandal of its era (the 1050s or so).
>
Or at least there is a legend that this was the case. However, there
was also a legend that Jarl Ulf was grandson of a wolf.
> there definitely was some connection with Normandy in Garxia's family. He himself married Marguerite, from north France.
> But there may have been an earlier descent from the Norman lordlings - his grandmother was possibly daughter of that lord of Conches, Tosny
Not necessarily. Alfonso VI was espoused to a Norman wife with no
family connection. If there was a prior connection to Toeny, no one
in Spain thought it was worth writing about.
taf