Sancho III (Basque : Antso, Sanzio, Santio, Sanxo, Santzo, Santxo, or Sancio; French : Sanche; Gascon: Sans), called Mitarra (from the Arabic for "terror" or "the terrible"), Menditarra (meaning "the mountaineer" in Basque), was the Duke of Gascony in a very obscure period of its history between 864 and 893. He was probably duke from 872 to 887. [1] He is shrouded in mystery and legend, but is regarded as a great fighter of the Reconquista [ specify ] elected to his post as Carolingian power waned by the native Gascons.
His genealogy is obscure, but he was probably a son of Sancho II Sánchez. There is much confusion among the sources about the identity of Sancho Mitarra. Some give that sobriquet to Sancho II, while some give it to Sancho III. Some call the latter Mitarra Sancho and call him a son of the former. It seems likely that these two Sanchos are related. Genealogies of a "phantasmagorical" character assign to him a Castilian parentage. [2]
During the reign of Sancho III, Gascony became de facto independent, owing no allegiance to the King of France. He settled the Vikings at the mouth of the Adour and brought them under control[ citation needed ]. He was succeeded by either his son (most likely) or his brother, García II Sánchez.
Sancho Garcés III, also known as Sancho the Great, was the King of Pamplona from 1004 until his death in 1035. He also ruled the County of Aragon and by marriage the counties of Castile, Álava and Monzón. He later added the counties of Sobrarbe (1015), Ribagorza (1018) and Cea (1030), and would intervene in the Kingdom of León, taking its eponymous capital city in 1034.
Odo was Duke of Gascony from 1032 and then Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou from 1038.
Hunald I, also spelled Hunold, Hunoald, Hunuald or Chunoald, was the Duke of Aquitaine from 735 until 745. Although nominally he was an officer of the Merovingian kings of Francia, in practice Aquitaine was completely autonomous when he inherited it. His rule corresponds to the lowest point of the Merovingian monarchy, when the kingdom was in fact ruled by the mayors of the palace. Hunald was forced at the outset of his reign to accept the authority of the mayor of the palace Charles Martel, but he tried three times to throw it off in open revolt. He was unsuccessful, although he did manage to retain Aquitaine undiminished. In 745, he retired to a monastery, giving power to his son Waiofar. He later went to Rome, where he died during an attack on the city.
Lupo II is the third-attested historical Duke of Gascony, appearing in history for the first time in 769. His ancestry is subject to scholarly debate.
Seguin II, called Mostelanicus, was the Count of Bordeaux and Saintes from 840 and Duke of Gascony from 845. He was either the son or grandson of Seguin I, the duke appointed by Charlemagne.
Sancho II Sánchez or Sans II Sancion succeeded his brother Aznar Sánchez as count of Vasconia Citerior (Gascony) in 836, in spite of the objections of King Pepin I of Aquitaine.
García II Sánchez, called the Bent, was Duke of Gascony from sometime before 887 to his death.
Sancho VI William was the Duke of Gascony from 1009 to his death. His reign is most notable for the renewal of Gascons ties with Spain.
Lupo III Centule was the Duke of Gascony briefly from 818 until his deposition by Pepin I of Aquitaine in 819. He was either a son of García I or of Centule, a brother of Sancho I.
Sancho IV Garcés was the duke of Gascony from 930 until his death. During his tenure, Gascony shrank considerably as his brothers inherited important regions and the de facto and perhaps de jure independent duchy slipped into historical near-oblivion.
William II Sánchez, Duke of Gascony from circa 961 at least until 996, was the younger illegitimate son of duke Sancho IV and successor, around 961, of his childless elder brother, Duke Sancho V. He united the County of Bordeaux with the Gascony. Documents of his reign state that his grandfather came from Iberia, lending credence to "phantasmagorical" genealogies placing the origins of García II Sánchez across the Pyrenees. He died in 996 or 997 and was succeeded by his son, Bernard William.
Sancho V Sánchez was briefly Duke of Gascony from the death of his father, Sancho IV, between 950 and 955 to his own death. He was an illegitimate son whose rule did not last long before he died heirless to be succeeded by his brother William Sancho.
Berengar was the eldest son of Alausia, daughter of Sancho VI of Gascony, and Hilduin, Count of Angoulême. He succeeded to the Duchy of Gascony on Sancho's death in 1032.
Bernard William, sometimes Bernard I, was the Duke of Gascony and Count of Bordeaux from c.997 to his death. During his time, Gascony was effectively independent, its duke a sovereign and any connection to the Kingdom of France theoretical. His reign fell during a period of relative peace and prosperity: the Peace of God movement had originated in Gascony in his father's time, monastic reform was introduced during his reign and the period of Viking attacks was over. Nonetheless, it was also a period of increasing feudal fragmentation, and Bernard died a violent death.
Seguin I Lupo was Duke of Gascony from 812 until 816, when Louis the Pious deposed him "because of his boundless arrogance and wicked ways", according to the contemporary Frankish chroniclers. The "Basques across the Garonne and around the Pyrenees" rebelled against the removal of their duke, but the Frankish king received the submission of the rebels in Dax. The emperor crossed the Pyrenees and "settled matters" in Pamplona. This could imply that the Gascony of Seguin's day was trans-Pyrenean, i.e., comprised lands on both sides of the mountains.
Sancho I López or Lupus Sancho was a Duke of Gascony between the years 801 and 812.
The Duchy of Gascony or Duchy of Vasconia was a duchy located in present-day southwestern France and northeastern Spain, an area encompassing the modern region of Gascony. The Duchy of Gascony, then known as Wasconia, was originally a Frankish march formed to hold sway over the Basques. However, the duchy went through different periods, from its early years with its distinctively Basque element to the merger in personal union with the Duchy of Aquitaine to the later period as a dependency of the Plantagenet kings of England.
The Charte d'Alaon is a spurious and fraudulent charter purporting to provide a genealogy of the house of Odo the Great, Duke of Aquitaine. The 19th-century French historian Joseph-François Rabanis proved it to be a hoax fabricated in the 17th century. His research thus rendered a good deal of "known" Gascon and Navarrese genealogy meaningless.
AznarSánchez was the Duke of Gascony from 820. He was the supposed son of Sancho I of Gascony, though he has been identified with Aznar Galíndez I, Count of Aragon.
William the Good was the count of Bordeaux in the final decades of the 10th century. The last recorded count of Bordeaux before him was Amalvinus, who flourished in the first decade of the century. Little is known of his rule, which may have been occupied by defence against Viking raids. On his death the County of Bordeaux passed to Duke William Sánchez of Gascony.