House of Zúñiga

Roots and Origin

Sancho Iñiguez (1040-1110) was alférez mayor (a hereditary court office, held by high nobility, of king's banner bearer and high military commander) of Alfonso I Sanchez the Warrior, king of Aragón and Navarre, and he was the lord of the estate and valley of Stunica (today Zúñiga / Estuniga), located in the district of Estella (Navarre, Spain). He was the first of the lineage, who called himself Sancho Iñiguez de Stunica at the beginning of the 12th century. Their members would later be called indifferently Estunega, Estuniga, Astunica, Stunica, Estúñiga, Stúñiga. Alvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán, I duke of Bejar and Plasencia, head of The House of Stunica/Estúñiga, castilianiced the surname in Zúñiga, after the pact of reconciliation with the queen of Castile and León Isabella I the Catholic signed on April 10, 1476.

Coat of arms of the Zúñiga lineage

The originally coats of arms of the Zúñiga lineage were: shield ground in gules (red) with a band in gold (yellow). The king Sancho VII of Navarre the Strong changed his coat of arms, commemorating the victory of the battle of Navas de Tolosa, waged on July 16, 1212, where he and his knights of Navarre defeated the stockade composed of the Black Guard, that chained together formed the human defense of the almohade caliph Mohammed al-Nasir, well known as Miramamolin. He changed his coats of arms from an eagle in sable (black) to a shield ground in gules (red) and put a chain of gold (yellow) of eight links and added one emerald (green) in its center. The chain represents the stockade composed of the Black Guard and the emerald symbolizes the caliph, known by his nickname the Green. His cousin Iñigo Ortiz de Stunica, II count of Marañón, lord of Stunica, Mendavía and others towns, who participated with his son Diego in the defeat of the stockade, made by the Black Guard, changed his coats of arms as well, adding a chain of gold (yellow) of eight links as border. As well other knights of Navarre, who participated in the defeat of the stockade, added the chain on their coats of arms, they were named Ramón de Peralta, Rodrigo Navarro, Ortun Diaz Urbina, Pedro Maza and Iñigo de Mendoza. Iñigo Ortiz de Stunica’s son Diego López de Stunica changed in 1270 the coats of arms of his lineage again as a sign of grief due to the death of king Saint Louis IX of France and king Theobald II of Navarre, who took part in the crusade called by pope Clement IV. The coat of arms of the Zúñiga lineage since this time is: shield ground in silver (white), a band of sable (black) and a gold (yellow) chain of eight links as a border.

Branches of the lineage

Civil war broke out in Navarre, beginning 1274, due to the quarrel over the tutelage during the minority of queen Joan I of Navarre and her matrimony with dauphin Philip IV of France the Fair, arranged by the queen mother Blanche de Artois (nice of Saint Louis IX of France). This was de facto an annexation of the Kingdom of Navarra by the crown of France. Iñigo Ortiz de Stunica (1255-1315), lord of Stunica, alférez mayor of Navarre, refused to support the queen mother and left Navarra in the end of 1274 with his whole family. They took refuge in La Rioja (Castile). The Stunica estates were seized in 1276 by the crown of Navarre. The king Alfonso X of Castile and León the Wise recognized Iñigo as rico-hombre (belonging to ancient nobility) of Castile and gave him the domains of Las Cuevas, Bañares and another villages in La Rioja. Iñigo was the progenitor of the following branches of the lineage of the House of Zuñiga:

Hereditary titles and hereditary court offices

The firstborn branch of the dukes of Béjar and Plasencia received from the kings of Spain the hereditary title of First Knight of the Kingdom and the hereditary court offices of justicia mayor y alguacil mayor of Castile (hereditary court office doing by high nobility to assume the duties of justice and interior minister).

Immemorial Grandee

In the realms of the Crown of Castile and León in the early 15th century there were only fifteen powerful families known as ricohombres (first nobility belonging) of Castile and León. The House of Diego López de Estúñiga was one of them. In 1520, the year of his coronation at Aachen (Germany) as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, king Carlos I of Spain reorganized the title of his Kingdom of Castile and created 25 grandees, known as Inmemorial Grandees. The House of Zúñiga received two grandees, one for the duke of Béjar and another for the count of Miranda del Castañar, subrogated later on to the duke of Peñaranda de Duero.

Military Orders of Chivalry

Members of the lineage proved their nobility at diverse times serving in orders of knights like the Order of Santiago, Order of Alcántara, Order of Calatrava and Order of San Juan de Jerusalén (today the Order of Malta), and as well in the Order of Carlos III of Spain.

Members invested in the Order of the Golden Fleece

The king Charles I of Spain, duke of Burgundy, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, the Sovereign Head of the Order of the Golden Fleece, invested with habit and collar of the order the following members of the House of Zuniga:

By the successive kings of Spain, Sovereign Heads of the Order of the Golden Fleece, were invested with habit and collar of the order the following members of the House of Zuniga:

Other historical and famous members

Patrimony

The members of The House of Zúñiga built and rebuilt many castles and palaces in Spain, which over the time were abandoned, turned into ruins and used as building material by neighbors. Today there are only a few remnants and ruins of others, in the list below are market with (m). Also they built magnificent palaces, as patron who were among the artists of his time and are in good conditions, some of them declared national historical monuments.