Kingdom of Navarre - Early History

Early History

The kingdom of Pamplona and then Navarre formed part of the traditional territory of the Vascones, a pre-Roman tribe who occupied the southern slope of the western Pyrenees and part of the shore of the Bay of Biscay. The area was completely conquered by the Romans by 74 BC. It was first part of the Roman province of Citerior, then of the Tarraconensis province and after that of the conventus Caesaraugustanus. Rome left a clear mark in the area in urbanization, language, infrastructure, commerce, and industry.

After the decline of the Western Roman Empire neither the Visigoths nor the Arabs ever succeeded in permanently occupying the western Pyrenees. The western Pyrenees passages were the only ones allowing good transit through the mountains, other than those through the southern Pyrenees. That made the region strategically important early in its history.

The Franks under Charlemagne extended their influence and control towards the south, occupying several regions of the north and east of the Iberian Peninsula. It is not clear how solid the Frankish control over Pamplona was. On August 15, 778, after the retreating Charlemagne had demolished the walls of Pamplona, the Basque tribes annihilated his rearguard, led by Roland, in a confrontation at a mountain passage known to history as the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. In response, the Cordoban Emirate launched a campaign to place the region under their firm control, and in 781 defeated a local leader called Ibn Balask ("son of Velasco") and seated a muwallad governor, Mutarrif ibn Musa, in Pamplona. The same year Basque leader Jimeno 'the Strong' submitted to the Emir.

In 799, Mutarrif ibn Musa was killed by a pro-Frankish faction whose leader Velasco gained control of the region. In 806 and 812 Pamplona fell again into the Franks' hands. However, when on account of difficulties at home the Frankish rulers were no longer able to give their attention to the outlying borderlands of their empire, the country gradually withdrew entirely from their allegiance. The Emirate also attempted to reestablish its control in the region, and in 816 fought a battle there against the "enemy of Allah", Balask al-Yalaski (Velasco the Gascon), who was killed along with Garcia Loup, kinsman of Alfonso II of Asturias, Sancho, premier knight in Pamplona, and Saltan, premier knight of the Mayus (pagans).

Also in 816, Louis the Pious decided to remove the rebellious Seguin as Duke of Vasconia, only to have another rebel, Garcia Semen arise in his place, with him being killed in 818. Louis' son Pepin, now King of Aquitaine, stamped out the Vasconic revolt in Gascony and then pursued the chieftains who had taken refuge in southern Vasconia, i.e. Pamplona and Navarre, no longer controlled by the Franks. He sent over an army led by the counts Aeblus and Aznar-Sanchez (the latter being appointed lord, but not duke, of Vasconia by Pepin after suppressing the uprising in the Duchy of Vasconia), accomplishing their goals with no resistance in Pamplona (still lacking walls after the 778 destruction). On the way back, however, they were ambushed and defeated again in Roncesvaux by a probable joint Vasconic-Muslim force. Out of this pattern of resistance against both Frankish and Cordoban interests arose the Basque chieftain Íñigo Arista, who tradition has elected as king of Pamplona in 824, giving rise to a dynasty of kings in Pamplona that would last for four score years.

At this point of history, Pamplona and Navarre were two separate entities. Pamplona is cited in 778 by Frankish accounts as a Navarrese stronghold, while this may be put down to their vague knowledge of the Vasconic territory. They do distinguish Navarre and the Vasconic main town in 806 though ("In Hispania, vero Navarrensis et Pampelonensis"), while the Chronicle of Fontenelle quotes "Induonis et Mitionis, ducum Navarrorum". The primitive Navarre may have comprised the valleys of Goñi, Gesalaz, Lana, Allin, Deierri, Berrueza and Mañeru which later formed the merindad of Estella.

In 905, the dynasty founded by Íñigo Arista was overthrown through the machinations of neighboring princes, and Sancho I Garcés (905–25), nephew of the Count of Ribagorza, was placed in the throne. He fought against the Moors with repeated success and joined Ultra-Puertos, or Basse-Navarre, to his own dominions, also extending its territory as far as Nájera. As a thanksgiving for his victories, he founded, in 924, the convent of Albelda. Before his death, all Moors had been driven from the country. His son and eventual successor, Garcia Sanchez I (931–70), who had the support of his energetic and diplomatic mother Toda (Teuda) Aznárez of the line of Arista, likewise engaged in a number of conflicts with the Moors. At this time, the county of Aragon, previously only nominally a vassal state, came under the direct control of the kings of Pamplona.

In the year 905 a Leonese chronicle mentions the extension of the Kingdom of Pamplona for the first time, being clear that it extended then to Nájera and Arba (arguably Araba), what for some implies that it included the Western Basque Country as well:

In era DCCCCXLIIII surrexit in Panpilona rex nomine Sancio Garseanis. Fidei Xpi inseparabiliterque uenerantissimus fuit, pius in omnibus fidefibus misericorsque oppressis catholicis. Quid multa? In omnibus operibus obtimus perstitit. Belligerator aduersus gentes Ysmaelitarum multipficiter strages gessit super Sarrazenos. Idem cepit per Cantabriam a Nagerense urbe usque ad Tutelam omnia castra. Terram quidem Degensem cum opidis cunctam possideuit. Arbam namque Panpilonensem suo iuri subdidit, necnon cum castris omne territorium Aragonense capit. Dehinc expulsis omnibus biotenatis XX' regni sue anno migrauit a seculo. Sepultus sancti Stefani portico regnat cum Xpo in polo (Obiit Sancio Garseanis era DCCCCLXIIII (A marg.)).

In the Era 944 arose in Pamplona a king named Sancio Garseanis. He was a man of unbreakable devotion to the faith of Christ, pious with all the faithful and merciful with oppressed Catholics. What more? In all his actions he performed as a great warrior against the people of the Ismailites; he inflicted multiple disasters on the Saracens. This same captured all the fortified places in the Cantabria, from the city of Nájera to Tudela. Indeed he possessed all the land of Degium with its towns. The "Arba" of Pamplona he submitted to his law, and conquered as well all the country of Aragon with its fortresses. Later, after suppressing all infidels, the twentieth year of his reign he left this world. Buried in the portal of Saint Stephen, he reigns with Christ in Heaven (King Sancho Garcés died in the era 964 (marginal note)).