Name Garcia Ordonez | ||
Garcia Ordonez (died 29 May 1108), called de Najera or de Cabra and in the epic literature Crispus or el Crespo de Granon, was a Castilian magnate who ruled the Rioja, with his seat at Najera, from 1080 until his death. He is famous in literature as the rival of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the Cid, whose high position at court he took over after the Cid's exile in 1080. He was one of the most important military leaders and territorial governors under Alfonso VI, and was entrusted with military tutorship of the king's heir, Sancho Alfonsez, with whom he died on the field of battle at Ucles.
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Family and marriages
Garcia was the son of a count Ordono Ordonez whose identity is disputed. An Ordono Ordonez, grandson of kings Ramiro III and Bermudo II of Leon, has been suggested as being this count, but his geographical base was in Leon, whereas Garcia's was in Castile. Further, there is debate as to whether this Leonese Ordono Ordonez even existed. More recently it has been suggested that the Castilian count Ordono Ordonez, Garcia's father, was son of count Ordono Fafilaz of the Banu Gomez clan. This Ordono Ordonez can be shown from surviving documents to have served as alferez to Ferdinand I of Leon and Castile between 19 April 1042 and 1 July 1047. Garcia's mother was named Enderquina, but her origins are unknown. He was also related, somehow, to Alvaro Diaz de Oca.
Sometime before 1081 Garcia married the infanta Urraca Garces, a daughter of Garcia Sanchez III of Navarre and sister of Sancho Garces IV. The earliest reference to the marriage dates from 18 April that year, when the couple witnessed a donation of her brother Ramiro Garces. Urraca gave Garcia three children, two daughters (Elvira and Mayor) and a son Fernando, speculated to be identical to Fernando Garcia de Hita, progenitor of the House of Castro. A charter issued by Mayor in 1145 traces her royal ancestry.
Sometime after the death of his first wife (after 1095), Garcia married again, this time to a certain Eva, long identified as a daughter of Pedro Froilaz de Traba, although there is no documentary proof of her existence. More probably she was from southern France, being the daughter of Almanricus, viscount of Rochechouart and one of those French barons who had answered Alfonso VI's international call for aid against the Almoravids following the Battle of Sagrajas (1086). Eva had one son by Garcia: Garcia Garces de Aza, ancestor of the House of Aza, whose christening took place in 1106 according to the cartulary of the monastery of San Millan de la Cogolla. After Garcia's death, Eva married count Pedro Gonzalez de Lara. He also had an illegitimate son named Fernando Pellica.
Early career (1062–74)
Garcia's public career began late in the reign of Ferdinand I, when he subscribed a charter of 10 May 1062, now in the cartulary of the monastery of Arlanza. During the reign of Ferdinand's successor in Castile, Sancho II, Garcia was a figure on the rise. He subscribed three of the ten surviving royal charters of Sancho's reign, while his father confirmed five. During this time he was associated with Pancorvo in the northeast of the Bureba, along the Way of Saint James leading from Miranda del Ebro.
In 1072 Sancho II was assassinated, and his brother Alfonso VI succeeded him. On 8 December Alfonso granted a charter to the monastery of San Pedro de Cardena in Castile. Among the confirmants is Garcia Ordonez, who was thus among the first to reconcile himself to the new king. In 1074 Garcia was appointed the king's alferez by 20 February, a post he continued in down to 24 June at least. Thereafter he disappears from court records until 1080.
Outside of royal service (1074–80)
There is a false documented dated 1075 by which Alfonso VI purportedly made a grant of privileges to Burgos, which lists Garcia as a confirmant.
In 1079, Garcia was dispatched to Granada to collect the parias owed by that taifa to Leon–Castile. While there he led an army on behalf of Granada against the taifa of Seville. Among the other leaders on this campaign were two Navarrese magnates, Fortun Sanchez and Lope Sanchez, who had formerly been leading men in Navarre and in Castile under Sancho II. With this expedition Alfonso VI may have been intending to produce discord between the taifa kingdoms, furthering his hegemony in the south of the peninsula. Whatever the case, at the time of the attack, the Cid was leading a Castilian embassy to the court of al-Mutamid, rule of Seville, and he repulsed the Christian and Grenadine attackers at the Battle of Cabra, in the (probably mistaken) belief that he was defending the king's tributary. Garcia and the other Castilian leaders were taken captive and held for three days before being released. Bernard Reilly has read the circumstances as implying that Garcia was then an exile who had taken refuge in the south of the peninsula.
By 1080 the positions of Garcia and his rival the Cid in the eyes of Alfonso had been reversed. By May (or at least by 6 December 1081) Alfonso had placed the territory of La Rioja in his hands, with his chief seat at Najera. To that same month is dated the last charter recording the presence of the Cid at Alfonso's court.
Count of Najera (1080–1108)
Sometime shortly after his return to court, Garcia was raised to the rank of count (Latin: comes), the highest recognised rank in the kingdom before the 13th century and which meant a seat on the royal council beside the granting of fiefs and other lands. The precise date of his promotion is unclear. The earliest dated reference to his carrying this title is the carta de arras of the Cid, but it is mis-dated to 10/19 July 1074, whereas it must date from between July 1078 and July 1081. In the charter, redacted weeks after the last known reference to Garcia as alferez records Rodrigo Gonzalez as alferez, although he is only known to have held that post between January 1078 and June 1081. There is a royal charter dated 1077 that refers to "Garcia, count of Najera" (Garsias comes de Nazara), but he is not known to have received the lordship of Najera until 1081. The count being referred to is possibly Garcia Jimenez de Oca. Another royal charter dated 8 May 1080 lists nineteen counts, among them Garcia Ordonez, but the list appears to be anachronistic, as Fernando Diaz, not count until 1091, appears as Fernandus Didaz commes. Finally, there is a dubious royal charter from 3 December 1080 which was confirmed by one "Count Garcia". The earliest secure reference to Garcia as count is from 18 April 1081, also the first reference to his first wife, Urraca. Historian Ramon Menendez Pidal argued that Garcia was appointed count of Najera in 1076, a contention not generally accepted today.
At the same time as his return to court, Garcia thus received a vast fief comprising the erstwhile southern provinces of Navarre, promition to the highest aristocratic title (that of count) in the realm, and the hand in marriage of a Navarrese princess, presumably through Alfonso's actions, since the Navarrese royal family had fallen under his protection after the assassination of Sancho IV of Navarre in 1076. Also at this time, Garcia's chief rival, the Cid, was forced into exile, and, by July 1081, Garcia's brother, Rodrigo, had been appointed alferez to the king. It may be that the Lope Iniguez who by 1081 had been granted all three of the Basque senorios of Alava, Biscay, and Guipuzcoa was the same person as the Lop Jimenez who co-led the 1079 expedition against Seville. If so, then he is another ally of Garcia Ordonez who benefited from the latter's rise after his return to Castile.
In August 1084 Garcia made a donation to the Benedictine monastery of San Adrian de Palma. By 20 November 1085, according to a document in the cartulary of San Millan, Garcia's lordship was extended south to include Calahorra, an episcopal seat. By 1089 it was also included Granon and by 1092 Madriz. At this time, corresponding to the alferez-ship of Pedro Gonzalez de Lara from 1088 to 1091, Garcia was the most prominent magnate in the kingdom and he frequently attended the royal court, confirming eleven charters out of a total of eighteen from these years, the most of any count. At about this time, however, Raymond of Burgundy, a newcomer to the kingdom, was married to the king's eldest daughter, Urraca, and he quickly surpassed Garcia in power, although the latter still confirmed fifteen of twenty-seven royal diplomas of the period 1092–99, more than any other magnate.
In 1096, Peter I of Aragon and Navarre besieged Huesca, a city of the taifa of Zaragoza. In the late fall of 1096, the ruler of Zaragoza, al-Mustain II, received assistance from his nominal overlord, Alfonso VI, in the persons of Garcia Ordonez de Najera and Gonzalo Nunez de Lara. Alongside the Zaragozans, the Castilian counts led their personal retinues against the besiegers, but were defeated on 18 November in the Battle of Alcoraz. Garcia also took part in the Battle of Consuegra on 15 August 1097. This campaign had begun as planned harassment of Aragon, perhaps a concerted action with Zaragoza to re-take Huesca, but it was diverted by the arrival of an Almoravid army in the south centre of the peninsula. The result was a Castilian–Leonese defeat. Garcia's participation in court politics appears to have continued to decline after this. Of twenty-three royal charters issued between 1100 and 1107, a year before his death, he confirmed eleven, still a sizable portion, but now less than half.
On 1 February 1095 Garcia and Urraca granted a fuero to the town of Fresnillo de las Duenas. In 1106 Garcia made a donation to San Millan.
Tutorship of Sancho Alfonsez (1108)
According to the De rebus Hispaniae, Alfonso VI named Garcia tutor for his only son, Sancho Alfonsez. On 29 May 1108, he took part in the Battle of Ucles, where he died defending the life of the young Sancho, who would die in the same battle shortly after. His death is recorded in the De rebus Hispaniae, the Chronicon mundi, and the Chronica naierensis, where the battle is dated to 24 June. The death of seven counts at Ucles led the Christians to refer to the site as Septem Comitem (Siete Condes), although Garcia is the only count identified in the Chronica naierensis, which writes that "Count Garcia of Granon, called Crispus, and six other counts with him were killed". The Chronicon mundi states that "Sancho, the king's son, and Count Garcia Fernandez and Count Don Martin and many others died" at Ucles. "Garcia Fernandez" is probably an error for Ordonez, if the thirteenth-century Chronicon can be trusted, and Martin is probably Martin Lainez. The last reference to Garcia as living occurs in a private document of the monastery of Valbanera in the Rioja dated that year. His death left a power vacuum in the Rioja, which for much of the twelfth century fell outside Castilian control.