Sancho III
Sancho III
orSancho the Great
(sän`chō), c.970–1035, king of NavarreNavarre, Span. Navarra , autonomous community and province (1990 pop. 527,318), N Spain, bordering on France, between the W Pyrenees and the Ebro River. Pamplona is the capital.
..... Click the link for more information. (1000–1035). Having inherited the kingdom of Navarre, which included Aragón, he launched an annexation campaign that made him the leading power in Christian Spain. After conquering (c.1015–25) the territories of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza from the Moors, he took possession of Castile, Bizkaia (Vizcaya), and Araba/Álava (1028) as his wife's inheritance from her deceased brother, the count of Castile, for whom he had been protector since 1017. Sancho the Great also claimed overlordship of Barcelona, forcing Berengar Raymond I to become his vassal. He occupied the eastern part of León and was crowned in its capital in 1034. Although his kingdom was the largest Christian political unit in Spain, Sancho regarded it as his personal domain, to be divided at will. Its unity was thus broken at his death when he bequeathed his lands to his four sons. Navarre passed to García; Castile and Aragón, made into kingdoms, went respectively to Ferdinand IFerdinand I
or Ferdinand the Great,
d. 1065, Spanish king of Castile (1035–65) and León (1037–65). He inherited Castile from his father, Sancho III of Navarre, conquered León, and took parts of Navarre from his brother García.
..... Click the link for more information. and Ramiro IRamiro I
, d. 1063, first king of Aragón (1035–63), illegitimate son of Sancho III of Navarre, from whom he inherited Aragón. After the death of his half-brother Gonzalo he annexed Sobrarbe and Ribagorza and fought unsuccessfully against the Moorish king of
..... Click the link for more information. ; Sobrarbe and Ribagorza, joined as a separate kingdom, were given to Gonzalo.