Antso IV of Navarre
| Antso IV | |
|---|---|
.png) Antso IV depicted in 1101 | |
| King of Navarre | |
| Reign | 1 September 1054 - 21 July 1104 |
| Predecessor | Gartzia III |
| Successor | Fernando I |
| King of Aragon | |
| Reign | 27 May 1073 - 21 July 1104 |
| Predecessor | Inès |
| Successor | Fernando I |
| Born | Circa 1039 Pampalona |
| Died | 21 July 1104 (aged 65) Zaragoza |
| Burial | Santa María la Real de Nájera |
| Consort | Adelhaid of Hungary (m. 1066; d. 1080) Estefania Jimena (m. 1096; d. 1098) |
| Issue | Fernando I of Navarre Ramiro Antsez, duke of Murcia |
| House | Jimena |
| Father | Gartzia III of Navarre |
| Mother | Estefania de Foix |
Antso IV (Castillian: Sancho IV), known as Antso the Quarreller (c. 1039 - 21 July 1104), was king of Navarre from 1054 and king of Aragon from 1073 until his death. He expanded the weak and reduced kingdom of Pampalona inherited from his father into a strong kingdom of Navarre, reigning for fifty years. Antso's campaigns to absorb the crown of Aragon and duchy of Barcelona left him a reputation as one of the greatest Navarrese kings.
Early life and reign
Antso was born probably in 1039, the eldest legitimate son of Gartzia III, king of Pampalona. On 1 September 1054 his father was killed at the battle of Atapuerca fighting Fernando, king of Castile and León. Antso, who had accompanied the campaign, was proclaimed king of Pampalona by his father's defeated soldiers in camp. Until his eighteenth birthday in 1057 the young king was heavily under the influence of his mother Estefania de Foix. In the late 1050s he applied pressure on the Hudid emir of Zaragoza in concert with his uncle Ramiro, king of Aragon.
On 26 December 1062 the legacy of Gartzia III's reign was crystallized by a treaty between kings Antso and Fernando that saw the former's kingdom reduced to a small strip of land in Navarra and Nájera. Fernando's death in 1065 removed the threat he posed to Antso's kingdom. His three kingdoms, Castile, and Galicia, were split between his three sons. In 1066 Antso concluded an alliance with his cousin Alfonso VI, the new king of León. Their pact was finalized with Alfonso's marriage to Antso's half-niece Estefania on 15 January 1069.
Expansion
In 1067 kings Antso and Alfonso invaded the Hudid emirate in concert with their cousin Sancho, king of Aragon. By the treaty of Teruel, signed in November 1067, Antso's lordship over the entire emirate was recognized. From this point onwards he began to style himself "king of Navarre" rather than king of Pampalona. In 1070 Antso conquered the sheikhdom of Larida. In 1078 Antso confronted and defeated a major Dhunnunid invasion. At a battle at Piedra in October 1078 the king was victorious against the Muslims but his brother Prince Ramiro Gartzez was slain.
The year 1069 brought the death of two kings, Sancho of Castile and Sancho of Aragon. Alfonso VI of León inherited Castile while the infant princess Inès Sanchez became queen of Aragon. In 1071 Pope Alexander II granted Antso the right to claim the crown of Aragon. In 1072-73 Antso invaded Aragon and conquered it after a difficult campaign. On 27 May 1073 he was crowned king of Aragon at Barbastro. To finance the ceremony Antso expelled the Jews from Navarre and seized their assets. In 1076-77 Antso waged a successful war to absorb the duchy of Barcelona and force the submission of its duke, Ramon-Berenguer de Barcelona.
El Peleador
Antso's wife Adelhaid of Hungary was assassinated in the spring of 1080. The king blamed Duke Ramon-Berenguer for her death, and from 1080-83 a civil war raged between the Navarrese crown and the duchy of Barcelona. Antso captured Barcelona in March 1081 but was unable to force the duke's surrender. Finally in 1083 he was brought to heel, amidst a Dhunnunid attack on his exposed duchy. Antso removed the de Barcelona family from power and installed his brother Prince Fernando Gartzez as duke of Barcelona, but he died unexpectedly in 1084. After this the duchy was ruled by his nephew Obeko Fernandez.
In 1085 Antso renewed his alliance with Alfonso VI of Castile and León after the latter seized the throne of Galicia. The alliance was immediately honored when a new Dhunnunid invasion of Aragon opened in 1086. On 29 May 1086 Antso was defeated heavily at Alpuente by a Muslim army and left without sufficient soldiers or money. Desperate, the king resorted to expedients such as razing the church of Calahorra for its gold, which drew condemnation from the church and the nobility. With these funds the king hired Catalan mercenaries and managed to assemble a new army of 7,000 men at Zaragoza. On 16 January 1087 Antso defeated the Dhunnunid emir at Alagón, winning the most spectacular victory of his reign and slaying over 4,000 of the infidel. Antso celebrated his victory with a great tournament at Pampalona, remembered for many years afterwards.
Later years
In 1089 Antso held a council of the nobles of Navarre and Aragon at which sixteen year-old Prince Fernando was acclaimed as heir apparent and dubbed a knight. In 1090 the king made a pilgrimage to Santiago along the Way of St. James. The 1090s were a decade of peace and prosperity for Antso's kingdoms. In his later years Antso became more religious and developed an interest in poetry and scripture. The king made frequent hunting trips to Albarracin in the company of his bastard son Count Gartzia de Noboa, chancellor of Navarre. In 1093 Antso agreed that the Jews could return to his realms and in 1096 he appointed a Jewish steward, Chelbo of Aden.
In 1091 Prince Fernando married Patricia de Poitou, duchess of Gascony. In 1097 the couple inherited Poitou from Patricia's sister. In 1098 a rebellion in Gascony by Dodon de Rodez was put down by a Navarrese army sent to aid the Gascon lords. In 1099 Antso summoned the prince back to Navarre, where he would remain for the rest of the reign, although Navarrese forces remained in Gascony suppressing the resurgent Rodez until 1100. In 1097 the king's second son Prince Ramiro married the German princess Beatrix Salian.
The death of Alfonso VI of Castile, León, and Galicia in 1096 ended the longstanding alliance. In May 1096, after sixteen years as a widower, Antso married his own half-niece, the widowed queen Estefania. She was already ill at the time of their marriage and died in February 1098. The advantage of Antso's remarriage was that it renewed his bond with Castile in the person of the young king Alfonso VII, Estefania's daughter and Antso's own great-nephew.