Fortún of Pamplona
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fortún Garcés (d. after 925), called the One-Eyed or the Monk, was the king of Pamplona from 880 to 905.
He was the eldest son of King García I Íñiguez, himself the son of king Íñigo Íñiguez Arista, the founder of the kingdom. Fortún may have had one or more co-kings during his reign: García II Jiménez, Íñigo II Garcés, and possibly Sancho I Garcés, all members of the Jiménez dynasty. Fortún was to be the last king of the Arista dynasty.
Prince Fortún was taken prisoner by the Moors in 860 during the invasion of Emir Mohammed I of Córdoba and kept for the next 20 years. While Fortún was a prisoner in Córdoba, his father died in 870. The kingdom was governed by García Jiménez. Fortún was released in 880, and upon his return to Pamplona, was apparently recognized as king.
The regent and co-king García II was killed at Ayhar in 882 in a battle against the Emir of Córdoba, temporarily leaving Fortún without opposition. (Later in his reign, it is thought that Íñigo II Garcés served as regent, and he was likewise called 'king'.) However, an alliance of the Banu Qasi under Lope ibn Mohammed, King Alfonso III of Asturias, and the count of Pallars brought about a successful coup in 905 in favor of the latter's nephew, Sancho Garcés, son of García Jiménez, forcing Fortún to retire as a monk to Leyra, the oldest convent in Navarre, to which no less than seventy-two other convents were subject.
Fortún had several surviving children: his four sons Íñigo, Aznar, Blasco, and Lope, as well as a daughter, Oneca Fortúnez, who married firstly Abdallah ibn Mohammed, Emir of Córdoba, and secondly her cousin Aznar Sánchez of Larraun, becoming the mother of the future queens Toda Aznárez, wife of Sancho Garcés, and Sancha Aznárez, wife of 'king' Jimeno II of Pamplona.
| Preceded by García II |
King of Pamplona 880–905 |
Succeeded by Sancho I |
