Fortún Ochoiz

Early career on the frontier

The earliest reference to Fortún is from a list of witnesses to a document of 1013, at which time he was already ruling Viguera. From at least 1015 to around 1024 Fortún was the ruler (dominator) of Meltria (a region today known as Valdemetria). His lordship extended on both sides of the Ebro. The territory comprising Fortún's march was described in the carta de arras of king García (1040) as "[the fortress of] Viguera, both Cameros, Valle de Arnedo and all the villages of Cantabria." "Cantabria" probably refers more specifically to the Cerro de Cantabria, a region north of the Ebro by the mouth of the Iregua, where the city of Logroño is today. Fortún held this region at least from 1032 until 1044. The two Cameros were Viejo Camero and Nuevo Camero and included the valleys of the Iregua and the Leza. The "Valle de Arnedo" was the valley of the Cidacos.

In 1016 Sancho III of Navarre and Sancho García of Castile established by agreement the border between their respective realms. Sometime later, probably between 1028 and 1054, Fortún Ochoiz and his neighbour across the border in Castile, Nuño Álvarez de Carazo, re-confirmed the division and the frontier. This act, confirming only the border as it passed through the Sierra de la Demanda, is preserved in a short notice in a document from the Becerro Galicano cartulary of the Riojan monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. It is the only record of the division of 1016, only the surveying for which was perhaps undertaken, the hypothetical treaty never being drawn up or confirmed; otherwise, it is lost. It is also possible that Fortún and Nuño confirmed the old frontier in an act of rebellion, without authority from their respective lords.

The first paragraph of the treaty is in the preterite, indicating that the fixing of the border occurred in the past (1016), while the confirmation in the document is in the present tense, indicating it took place at a later date (after 1016). The title duenno (later don) was the prevalent form in Castile of the same title for which the Navarrese preferred sennor (later señor), both meant "lord" (from Latin dominus and senior, respectively). The "summit of the Cogolla" is today the Pico de San Lorenzo. The identification of the rivers Razón, Tera, and Duero is facile. Valle Venarie is Valvanera, while Garray is the ancient Numantia.

Marriage and ascendancy

In his early appearances in the surviving documents, Fortún's position is one of lesser importance, but he had risen in rank by the end of the reign of Sancho III (1004–35). He only became one of the leading Navarrese magnates in the second half of the reign of García Sánchez III (1035–54). After his marriage to Mencía (born c. 1030), an illegitimate daughter of the king, Fortún Ochoiz held the third rank in the kingdom after the king himself and Fortún Sánchez. The relative rarity of his appearance in documents before this marriage may reflect his distance from court as the governor of one of the marches.

The marriage to Mencía was either a late marriage for Fortún or a second one. It has been speculated that he had been married to a relative of García Ramírez of Viguera, and that it was in right of her that he succeeded to the territories formerly ruled by García Ramírez. The late marriage to Mencía may have been arranged by the king. In 1049 García Sánchez III conceded to Fortún certain heritable properties, some "already in your power" (hodie sunt in tua potestate), in Nalda, Leza, and Jubera, "because of your good service which you have given me" (propter tuum bonum servitium quod michi fecisti). At this time Fortún and Mencía were already married. Their marriage, perhaps in 1044, may have been responsible for Fortún's return to court that year, which in its turn may have facilitated preparations for the reconquest of Calahorra the next year (1045), by a joint Christian army under García. García's reference to good service is probably a reference to military service, most likely in the Calahorra campaign.

Fortún's disappearance from the record in 1050 may represent a retirement of sorts in light of the straining of the relationship between the bellicose kings of Castile and Navarre. It is interesting to note that Nuño Álvarez disappears from court in 1047, around the same time, perhaps both returned to the peace of their delimited frontier zones, for Fortún was still ruling Viguera. When he died, he was interred in "a sepulchre of wood with his own effigy" in San Prudencio de Monte Laturce. His wife was later buried beside him.

It has sometimes been assumed that the various lords (seniores) named Fortúnez (Fortunionis) who appear in the lower Rioja during the mid-eleventh century were children of Fortún Ochoiz and his wife Mencía. As a widow she appears beside a list of her children in 1057, when she made a donation to San Prudencio. These five children were: Aznar, who inherited Cantabria; Íñigo, who inherited Arnedo; Sancho, who inherited Huarte; Lope, who inherited Calahorra; and Ximeno, who inherited Cameros and Viguera. Only Aznar is given the patronymic Fortúnez in Mencía's donation. It is possible that only he was a child of Mencía, the others being her stepchildren from an earlier marriage of Fortún's. There are other Fortúnez from Viguera mentioned in contemporary documents (besides those listed beside Mencía), and it is possible that they too are progeny of an earlier marriage or marriages of Fortún Ochoiz.

Banu Qasi connexion

It has been speculated, on the basis of onomastics and geography, that Fortún was a relative of the Banu Qasi, a muwallad clan that was once the third power in Spain, and that his position in the Rioja may have derived from this connexion. The Banu Qasi leader Musa ibn Musa, the "third king of Spain" (tercer rey de España), had two sons who were both rulers in the Rioja in the late ninth century: Lubb ibn Musa in Viguer and Arnedo and Fortún ibn Musa in Tudela. Lubb is just the Arabic version of Lope (and thus Ochoa). Both of Fortún Ochoiz's names were current in the last generation of the Banu Qasi then ruling La Rioja.

The Islamic historian al-Udri records that the Banu Qasi became extinct in the 920s, with the loss of the upper Rioja to Navarre. Ibn Hazm records that a certain Fortún, a younger son of Lubb ibn Muhammad, and his cousin, also Fortún, a son of Abd Allah ibn Muhammad, both converted to Christianity. It has been theorised that they retained a certain independence after recognising the sovereignty of the kings of Navarre.

The lords who ruled the northern frontier during the Umayyad Caliphate, like the Banu Qasi, were generally independent of caliphal authority, as evidenced by the heritability of their power. The original power base of Banu Qasi may have been the triangle formed by Ejea, Olite, and Tudela north of the Ebro. Later in the ninth century their power was in Calahorra, Arnedo, and Viguera. The Banu Qasi territory may have been the basis for the late tenth-century kingdom of Viguera, whose territorial extension is poorly known, but which included Leza and probably the Cameros and. It remained semi-independent relative to Navarre, just as it had relative to Córdoba in the previous century. The description of Fortún's lands in the carta de arras of king García (1040) gives him an unusually high number of tenencias (five, compared to the usual one or two) and, more unusual still, they were all contiguous, extensive regions rather than isolated strongholds or castles. It appears then that the land controlled by the Banu Qasi in the ninth century, the kingdom of Viguera in the tenth, and Fortún Ochoiz in the eleventh had the same extension. The señorío of the Cameros in the twelfth century may be a fourth historical appearance of this semi-independent network of regional fiefs.

Table of appearance in documents

The following table lists surviving documents in which Fortún appears as a witness or a confirmant. If the date scholars assign the document differs from the date on the document itself, it is mentioned in the notes. The spelling of Fortún's patronymic is also given, as is his relative position in the list of witnesses and/or confirmants which would appear at the end of the document. Generally, a higher place in the list indicates greater importance, though the importance of an individual nobleman could vary depending on the transaction. Where Fortún appears second, it means that he was the first person to sign the document after the king. The archive where the document is preserved (usually a monastery) is also listed; footnotes indicate the published editions at their first appearance. The number is that given to the document in its published edition, for consistent and easy reference.