Jimena of Pamplona

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 37411

Jimena — Alfonso III of León. Alfonso (son of Ordoño I of Asturias) was born Abt 848; died 20 Dec 910. [Group Sheet]

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• Reference Number: 37409

Notes:

Ordoño II (c. 873-924, León) was king of Galicia from 910, and king of Galicia and León from 914 until his death. He was the second son of King Alfonso III the Great and his wife, Jimena of Pamplona.

His father sent him to Zaragoza to be educated in the court of the Banu Qasi. Upon Alfonso's death in 910, the kingdom was divided between his three sons; León went to García, Galicia to Ordoño, and Asturias to Fruela. Asturian primacy was nevertheless recognised, though Ordoño was of a harder temperament than his brothers. Upon García's death in Zamora in 914, Ordoño succeeded him to the throne of the León.

Ordoño continued thereafter the expansion of the Christian polity of his forefathers on two fronts. In his south-western territiories, he sacked Mérida and Évora and forced the Muslim governor of the region to buy his retreat.

In his eastern territories, he united with Sancho I Garcés, king of Navarre, against the emir of Córdoba, Abd-ar-Rahman III. The Moors were put to rout at San Esteban de Gormaz (917). Arnedo and Calahorra were taken the next year from the Banu Qasi. The reaction of Abd-ar-rahman, however, was severe. In 920, he put to march an army to recover Osma and San Esteban de Gormaz. He crossed into Navarre and defeated the Christians at Valdejunquera and took the bishops of Tui and Salamanca captive. Though intending to crush Pamplona itself, he turned around to deal with his immense booty.

Ordoño II-who had come at King Sancho's request-attributed the loss to the absence of the counts of Castile, who had not come at his call. He brought them together at Tejares and had them killed. The Christian counteroffensive was immediate, occupying La Rioja and incorporating into Navarre Nájera and Viguera.

He suffered frequent raids into his territory from the armies of Abd-ar-Rahman III and he confronted the Castilians who were aspiring to foment revolt in León.

Ordoño married three times. His first wife, and the mother of his children, was Elvira Menendez, daughter of count Hermengildo Gutierrez and aunt of San Rosendo. He then married Aragonta Gonzalez, daughter of count Gonzalo Betotez. He set her aside because "she was not pleasing to him". And when he formed a political alliance with Sancho I of Pamplona, he was married to that king's daughter, Sancha. He died in 924 leaving young children, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving brother, Fruela, the king of Asturias, thereby reuniting their father's patrimony.

Ordoño — . Unknown [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 37408

Notes:

Ramiro II (c. 900-1 January 951), son of Ordoño II, was King of León from 931 until his death. Initially titular king only of a lesser part of Asturias, he gained the crown of León (and with it, Galicia) after his brother Alfonso IV abdicated in 931. The scant Anales castellanos primeros are a primary source for his reign.

Ramiro was the creator of a Navarrese/Leonese coalition that defeated the Muslims in the Battle of Simancas (939). This victory allowed the advance of the Leonine border of the Duero to the Tormes.

In the last years of his reign he could not avoid Castilian independence under the direction of Fernán González of Castile, but still in 950 he launched an expedition to the valley of the Edge and defeated the Muslims at Talavera.

He married twice, first to Adosinda Gutierrez, Ramiro's first cousin, being daughter of Gutier Osoriz and Ildonzia Menendez, niece of Ramiro's mother, queen Elvira Menendez and cousin of San Rosendo. By her had sons Bermudo and Ordoño III, and presumably daughter Teresa, wife of García Sánchez I of Pamplona. He subsequently married Urraca, sister of García, having Sancho I and Elvira.

He figures prominently in the romantic poem, the Miragaia, which tells the apocryphal story of Ramiro bedding Ortega, the daughter of a local Arab lord. By her he is given a son Alboazar, the progenitor of the Galician/Portuguese Maya family.[1] This Maya tradition was subsequently linked to another legend, that told in the Cantar de los Siete Infantes de Lara by giving Ramiro and Ortega (sometimes called Ortigueda) a daughter Ortega Ramírez, who is made to marry Gustios Gonzalez, grandfather of the legendary hero Mudarra Gonzalez de Lara. Subsequent elaboration of this legend gave further supposed descendants, but none of these Lara connections are accepted by modern scholars.

Ramiro — . Unknown [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 37407

Notes:

Ordoño III (c. 926 - 956) was the King of León from 951 to 956, son and successor of Ramiro II (931-951).[1] He confronted Navarre and Castile, who supported his half-brother Sancho the Fat in disputing Ordoño's claim to the throne.

He also had to deal with internal rebellion, attacks from the Moors of al-Andalus, and the rebellion of Galicia. In response to the Muslims, Ordoño III sent troops as far as Lisbon (955). Before this great show of force, the Muslims had nothing to do but ask for peace. Negotiations ended with a treaty between the king of León and the caliph of Córdoba Abd al-Rahman III (912-961).

He tried to continue the actions of his father in fortifying the land and the royal authority in the face of the contumacious and secessional Fernán González of Castile. He even married Fernán's daughter Urraca and later repudiated her over her father's alliance with Sancho.
Urraca bore him at least two children: a son named Ordoño who died young and a daughter named Theresa who became a nun. Ordoño III was also father of Bermudo II, but opinion is divided as to whether he was son of Urraca, or of a mistress, one of the daughters of Count Pelayo Gonzalez.

Ordoño III died at Zamora in 956.

Ordoño — . Unknown [Group Sheet]