Ramiro III, King of Leon 966-85

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maria emma escobar

Ramiro III, King of Leon 966-85

Legg inn av maria emma escobar » 11 nov 2005 08:57:02

Vermudo II and Ramiro III were cousins in first grade: their fathers: Ordoño III (Vermudo II´s father) and Sancho I ( Ramiro III´s father) were brothers, both Ramiro II´s sons.
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Re: Ramiro III, King of Leon 966-85

Legg inn av Todd A. Farmerie » 12 nov 2005 00:39:08

maria emma escobar wrote:
Vermudo II and Ramiro III were cousins in first grade: their fathers: Ordoño III (Vermudo II´s father) and Sancho I ( Ramiro III´s father) were brothers, both Ramiro II´s sons.



Just to amplify for Will's sake, father-to-son transmission of the crown
was the exception, rather than the rule. Looking at the 11 kings
following Alfonso III, only three, Fruela II, Ordono III and Ramiro III
followed their father (and even Fruela only reigned over the entire
kingdom after reuniting a partition with his brother Garcia, sort of
like Alfonso VI would later do), through Vermudo II, then a more typical
pattern is seen:

1. Alfonso III
2. Fruela II, son of 1.
3. Ordono II, son of 1.
4. Alfonso Fruelaz, son of 2.
5. Sancho Ordonez, son of 3.
6. Alfonso IV, son of 3.
7. Ramiro II, son of 3.
8. Ordono III, son of 7 by first wife.
9. Ordono IV, son of 6.
10. Sancho I, son of 7 by second wife.
11. Ramiro III, son of 10.
12. Vermudo II, son of 8.
13. Alfonso V, son of 12.
14. Vermudo III, son of 13.
15. Fernando I, husband of Sancha, sister of 14.

Why aren't 4 & 5 numbered? Alfonso Fruelaz, Sancho Ordonez and Alfonso
IV all reigned in the same year. Alfonso, son of Fruela, briefly held
sway as the senior member of the next generation (his uncle Ramiro, who
apparently also married Fruela's widow, put himself up as senior agnate
but he never was able to mount a successful claim although he is
sometimes refered to as anti-King). Months later, Alfonso lost power to
(and, IIRC, was blinded by) his cousin Sancho, whose claim was as eldest
son of Ordono. Sancho's brother Alfonso took advantage of the
instability, and using the support of his father-in-law the King of
Navarre supplanted his brother before the end of the same year. They
were recorded by the best-known chronicler simply as Alfonso, then
Sancho, then Alfonso, and this was interpreted by later historians as a
squable between the two sons of Ordono, Alfonso succeeding, experiencing
a winter of discontent at the hands of his brother, and then a glorious
summer. Hence he was numbered as Alfonso IV, while Sancho was
considered simply an interloping and eventually unsuccessful anti-King
or sub-King. It has since become clear that the two Alfonsos, the ones
before and after Sancho, were different men, and that Sancho too was
king, if only briefly. They all deserve numbers, but it would cause too
much confusion now, so Alfonso Fruelaz and Sancho Ordonez are simply
refered to by name and patronymic, as would have been the case in their
own time, (when mentioned at all, their brief reigns being historically
irrelevant).

Navarre also played a significant role in the later succession. Ramiro
II ran his brother Alfonso IV into a monastery, and was powerful enough
and reigned long enough to pass the crown to his adult son Ordono III.
On his death, Alfonso's son Ordono married his cousin's widow and
claimed power, but Ordono III's half-brother Sancho used his mother's
Navarre connections to take over (Sancho's mother was sister of Alfonso
IV's wife, and also sister of the wife of Fernan Gonzalez of Castile
[the maternal grandson of the anti-King Ramiro, above] whose daughter
would marry in succession Ordonos III and IV, so this is very much an
inter-family squabble writ large). He passed the crown to his son
Ramiro III, but then a faction of the nobles backed the son of Ordono
III, Vermudo, and he rode that faction to power, eventually supplanting
his cousin Ramiro.

Finally, through much of the 20th century, Vermudo III has been
considered a bastard. This was argued by Perez de Urbel based on the
fact that he didn't immediately succeed his father (but we have seen the
lack of significance in that), a vague reference to his son Alfonso V
being called son of a mule (whatever that means), and strongest, a
relational statement in which Vermudo calls a certain Count Gonzalo
Betotez his "grandfather" (male ancestor), while neither Ordono III nor
his wife descend from the Count. As it turns out, Vermudo's wife did,
and no distinction would have been made between his ancestors and his
wife's, so this evidence too does not hold. There is no reason not to
see him as legitimate son, too young or with insufficient power base to
resist the claims of his step-father and uncle.

taf

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