Sancho García of Castile

Sancho García (died 1017), called of the Good Laws (in Spanish, el de los Buenos Fueros), was the count of Castile and Álava from 995 to his death.

Biography

Sancho was the son of count García Fernández and his wife Ava of Ribagorza, the daughter of Raymond I, Count of Pallars and Ribagorza. Sancho rebelled against his father with the support of Al-Mansur of Córdoba. This resulted in the partition of the county between father and son, and the county was not reunited until his father's death five years later. He renewed the Reconquista by rebelling against Almanzor, alongside his brother-in-law/cousin García Gómez and their mutual cousin García Sánchez II of Pamplona. Sancho led the coalition that was defeated at the Battle of Cervera in July 1000, but in early September successfully turned back the Córdoban invasion of his county. Almanzor died in 1002, leaving the Caliphate of Córdoba in crisis. Sancho ruled for another 15 years. In 1010, he intervened in Ribagorza, bringing about an end to Muslim domination there and leading to the abdication of his aunt countess Toda, and the establishment of a partition between Castilian-educated William Isarn, illegitimate son of Toda's brother and predecessor count Isarn, and Raymond Sunyer of Pallars, husband of Sancho's sister Mayor. Following his death in 1017, he was succeeded by his own son García.

Count Sancho García was called El de los Fueros (literally, "He of the Rights" or "of the Charters"), because of the rights or charters which he granted to the various cities.^[1]

Family and issue

Sancho married his cousin Urraca Gómez, sister of count García Gómez and daughter of the Beni Gómez clan leader, count Gómez Díaz of Saldaña by Muniadona Fernández of Castile, Sancho's aunt. They had:

• Muniadona, eldest daughter, married Sancho III of Pamplona, through whom the right to the county eventually passed.
• Ferdinand, died before 2 March 999
• Tigridia, abbess of the Monastery of San Salvador de Oña, which he founded for her to direct.
• Sancha, married Berenguer Ramon I, Count of Barcelona
• García, who succeeded his father

They may also have been parents of:

• Urraca, wife of Sancho VI William of Gascony

Ancestry

References