Individual Details

Biography

Garcia VI was born about 1099, the son of Ramiro Sanchez of Navarra, lord of Monzon, and Cristina Rodriguez, the daughter of Rodrigo Diaz 'El Cid'. His father was a son of Sancho Garcés, lord of Uncastillo y Sanguesa, illegitimate son of Garcia V 'el de Nájera', king of Navarra, and half-brother of Sancho IV 'el Penalen', king of Navarra.

When Aragón, which had been united to Navarra, lost its warrior king Alfonso I 'the Battler' and fell into a succession crisis in 1134, Garcia managed to wrest Navarra 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. In addition, 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 Aragón, because the nobles refused to enact the late king's unusual will. At the siege of Bayonne in October 1131, three years before his death, Alfonso published a will leaving his kingdom to three autonomous religious orders based in Palestine and politically largely independent of the pope: the Knights Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, whose influences might have been expected to cancel one another out. The will has greatly puzzled historians, who have read it as a bizarre gesture of extreme piety uncharacteristic of Alfonso's character, one that effectively undid his life's work.

Ramiro's accession did raise protest from Rome and was not uncontested within Aragón, much less in Navarra, where Garcia 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 Aragón, while Ramiro strongly objected to his election in Navarra. In light of this, the bishop of Pamplona granted Garcia his church's treasure to fund his government against Ramiro's pretensions. Among Garcia'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; Garcia 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 Garcia 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 Aragón. Garcia's submission to Castile has been seen as an act of protection for Navarra which had the consequence of putting her in an offensive alliance against Aragón, which thus forced Ramiro to marry, to forge an alliance with Raymund Berengar IV, conde de Barcelona, and to produce an heir, now that Garcia, his adoptive son, was out of the question. On the other hand, Garcia may have been responding to Ramiro's marriage, which proved beyond a doubt that the king of Aragón was seeking an heir other than his distant relative and adopted son.

Before September 1135 Alfonso VII granted Saragossa to Garcia as a fief. Recently conquered from Aragón, 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 Garcia in Navarra 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 recognise him as king of Saragossa. In 1137 Saragossa was surrendered to Raymund Berengar, though Alfonso retained suzerainty over it. By then Garcia's brief reign in Saragossa had closed.

Some time after 1130, but before his succession, Garcia 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. Garcia'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, Garcia 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. Garcia and Urraca became the parents of a daughter Sanchia who would have progeny.

In 1136 Garcia 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 Almeria in 1147. In 1146 he occupied Tauste, which belonged to Aragón, and Alfonso VII intervened to mediate a peace between the two kingdoms.

Garcia died on 21 November 1150 in Lorca, near Estella, and was buried in the cathedral of Santa Maria in Pamplona. He was succeeded by his son Sancho VI.

Garcia left, as a monument of his reign, the monastery of Santa Maria de La Oliva in Carcastillo. It is a fine example of Romanesque architecture.