Fortún Garcés ( Basque: ''Orti Gartzez''; died 922) nicknamed the One-eyed (''el Tuerto''), and years later the Monk (''el Monje''), was

king of Pamplona The Kingdom of Navarre (; , , , ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona (), was a Basque kingdom that occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, alongside the Atlantic Ocean between present-day Spain and France. The medieval state to ...

from 870/882 until 905. He appears in Arabic records as ''Fortoûn ibn Garsiya'' (''فرتون بن غرسية''). He was the eldest son of García Iñíguez and grandson of

Íñigo Arista Íñigo Arista ( eu, Eneko, ar, ونّقه, ''Wannaqo'', c. 790 – 851 or 852) was a Basque leader, considered the first king of Pamplona. He is thought to have risen to prominence after the defeat of local Frankish partisans at the Battle of ...

, the first king of Pamplona. Reigning for about thirty years, Fortún Garcés would be the last king of the Íñiguez dynasty.

Biography

Fortún was born at an unknown date, being the eldest son of García Íñiguez, king of Pamplona, and a woman named Urraca, who could have been the granddaughter of Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi, the leader of the

Banu Qasi The Banu Qasi, Banu Kasi, Beni Casi ( ar, بني قسي or بنو قسي, meaning "sons" or "heirs of Cassius"), Banu Musa, or al-Qasawi were a Muladí (local convert) dynasty that in the 9th century ruled the Upper March, a frontier te ...

clan. Little is known about his early life. King García Íñiguez had worked towards a closer relationship with the

Kingdom of Asturias The Kingdom of Asturias ( la, Asturum Regnum; ast, Reinu d'Asturies) was a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula founded by the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius. It was the first Christian political entity established after the Umayyad conquest of ...

, distancing himself and his kingdom from the

dynasty that ruled the lands near the

Ebro , name_etymology = , image = Zaragoza shel.JPG , image_size = , image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza , map = SpainEbroBasin.png , map_size = , map_caption = The Ebro ...

river. He was involved in repeated armed conflicts with the Muslim forces of the Banu Qasi, and Emir Muhammad I of Córdoba, who invaded Pamplona in the year 860 and captured Fortún in Milagro, along with his daughter Onneca and took them hostages in Córdoba. The

wali A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the ...

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Province of Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Ara ...

, Muhammad ibn Lubb, besieged and ultimately destroyed the castle of Aibar, resulting in the death of the King García Íñiguez. After the death of his father, Fortún Garcés was allowed to return to Pamplona to take his place as king. Fortún Garcés reigned with a policy very accommodating to the wishes of the Banu Qasi clan, which caused anger within the Pamplonese nobility. He would frequently retire to the

Monastery of Leyre The Monastery of San Salvador of Leyre ( eu, Leireko San Salbatore monasterioa; es, Monasterio de San Salvador de Leire) is a religious complex to the south of the Sierra of Leyre, in northern Navarre, Spain, representing one of the most import ...

Monasterio de Leyre, panteón de los reyes navarros

A drastic change took place in 905, when Sancho Garcés was chosen by the Pamplonese nobility to replace Fortún Garcés as king. The reasons behind this decision reside in the fact that Sancho Garcés had a very well respected military prestige and had the support of important figures such as Count Raymond I of Pallars and Ribagorza, Count Galindo Aznárez II of

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to s ...

and King

Alfonso III of Asturias Alfonso III (20 December 910), called the Great ( es, el Magno), was the king of León, Galicia and Asturias from 866 until his death. He was the son and successor of Ordoño I. In later sources he is the earliest to be called " Emperor of Spa ...

. Fortún Garcés permanently retired to the Monastery of Leyre in 905, where he died in 922.

Marriage and descendants

Fortún was married to Auria, whose undocumented origin has been subject to conflicting speculation, to whom the Códice de Roda assigns the following children: * Íñigo Fortúnez, married to Sancha Garcés, daughter of

García Jiménez of Pamplona García Jiménez was (sub- or co-) king of a part of Pamplona in the late 9th century, son of a supposed Jimeno. The Jiménez dynasty that would later rule the Kingdom of Navarre originally held the territory within that realm distinct from that h ...

and Onecca 'rebel of Sancosa'. * Aznar Fortúnez; little is known about him. * Velasco Fortúnez, who had three children: Jimena, wife of Íñigo Garcés, son of García Jiménez of Pamplona. * Lope Fortúnez * Onneca Fortúnez, according to the '' Códice de Roda'' first married to Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Umawi of Córdoba and later to Aznar Sánchez of

Larraun Larraun in Basque, Larráun in Spanish, is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonad ...

, with whom she had three children, including Queens Toda and Sancha of Pamplona. However, the order of Onneca's marriages has been questioned, as has the identity of Fortún's daughter as the Onneca who married Abdullah.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortun Garces of Pamplona 9th-century births 922 deaths 9th-century Navarrese monarchs 10th-century Navarrese monarchs Year of birth unknown Fortun Prisoners and detainees of Al-Andalus