A More and Perfection Union: a tale of Spain

This tale comes out of several attempts by yours truly to break the blank page syndrome that has rendered me unable to go on writting for too much time for my liking. Those attempts never went beyond my brain, but this one had better luck, so, here it goes.

1. Going towards the union of the kingdoms.

The lack of realiable chronicles relating the key events that would eventually lead to the creation of the United Kingdom of Spain surrounds with a midst of mistery the early stages of that process. The first of these key events takes place during the last years of Sancho III of Navarre (990-1045), when a succession of accidents remove his bastard son, Ramiro (d. 1026) and his youngers sons, Fernando (d. 1036) and Gonzalo (d. 1040) -1-. Thus, his elder son, García Sanchez, becomes king of not only Pamplona, but also earl of Castille and lord of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza. Eventually, through military coercion and with the support of Rome, García III of Navarre would marry Sancha of Leon, sister of king Bermudo III of Leon. A vain attempt, as Bermudo III would be succeeded by his son Alfonso (1036-1085) in 1067.

Perhaps García III of Navarre was a victim of his vindictive nephew Alfonso VI of Leon, who claimed in his chronicles that his uncle had murdered his royal brothers to avoid the division of the kingdom. To this day it has been pointed out that García was only 14 years old when his elder brother Ramiro died, but this author believes that García was up to the task and, even if the proves are scanty and most of the "history" related by Alfonso VI's chronicles are just rumours and slander, we cannot rule out the participation of García in those events. Perhaps he just took profit for the untimely dead of Ramiro, but there are serious doubts about the endings of Fernando and Gonzalo, as both died while hunting with their brother -2-.

However, all the efforts of Garcia to unify Hispania would come to naught when his only surviving son, Sancho IV, would die without a male heir in 1110 after the tragic hunting accident that killed his only son, García Sanchez. After that event, Sancho IV declared as his heir his cousin, Fernando García, son of the elder sister of his father, Urraca Garcés and García Ordoñez, earl of Najera. Less than twenty years later, in 1129, a son of Alfonso VI of Leon would inherit the throne of the unlucky Fernando I of Navarre, as we shall see.

-1- Here you have the POD: the division of the kingdom of Pamplona made by Sancho III in OTL does not take place.
-2- As we are going to see in this timeline, hunting can be quite damaging to your health if you have a bit of royal blood in your veins.
 
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2. The civil war and the first union.

Every chronicle of the time agrees describing Fernando I of Navarre as a good spirited human being but also a as a dreadful king. At times he proved to be quick at reacting at unexpected news, as when the Leonese king began to raid the Castillian border in 1111. Fernando I reacted by rapidly marched west with an army, Sancho III of Leon, son of the late Alfonso VI, offered a truce that lead to an agreement where Sancho was forced to recognize the borders between Navarre and Leon.

However, he was less quick or even determined to act when dealing with his nobility, and by 1112, Fernando I was powerless to have the noblemen following his orders unless the goals of the king also suited their own. Thus, by 1114, Navarre was in a state close to a "organized" anarchy. His successful campaign against the bordering Muslim Taifas, that rendered the conquest of Zaragoza and Barbastro, depleted the royal treasury and increased the bad relations of Fernando I with his noblemen. Thus, when in 1116 he raised the taxes, part of the nobility rose in arms against him.

In the following conflict, Fernando proved to be a better commander in the field that a good administrator of the kingdom. By 1117 he had defeated the main rebel lords, but he was in no way willing to came to terms with the rebels, in spite of all the mediation of those who still were loyal to the Crown. Displeased with his actions and not willing to lower their heads in front of a king that was willing to crush any power that opposed his, the rest of the Navarrase nobility, along with the Castillian and Aragonese, who had remained neutral in the conflict, also rebelled against Fernando.

By 1125 the war was in a stalemate. Neither the king nor the rebels were able to obtain a crushing victory that put and end to the war and the conflict stagnated into a succession of skirmishes, raids and some ocasional siege of a castle. Then, in 1126, everything changed. Urraca García, granddaugther of Sancho IV and thus cousin of the king, run away to Leon with her only daughter, also called Urraca, who was soon married with Alfonso, son of Sancho III of Leon, who wasted no time in proclaiming Urraca as the true queen of Navarre and joining hands with the rebels.

Even then the war still went on for three more years. The military genius of Fernando I made him able to give the slip to his enemies and to defeate them a few times but, in the end, broke and without followers, he was finally defeated and killed in the battle of Peñalen (1129). Urraca, then, became queen of Navarre and countess of Aragon and Castille but she contented herself to be called queen and gave the real power, and the crown, to her husband, who thus became the de facto king of both kingdoms as Alfonso I of Navarre and VII of Leon.
 
Interesting and interested ...

Although I would have liked to bet that if a unification of Spain will would have managed to be made in this period... probably would be named how the all Hispanias' Empire in place of a United Kingdom...
Of course I can see the possible irony's potential, in relation to OTL the country that had this denomination...

PS; nice to see that the Muses have come back to inspire you.
 
Interesting and interested ...

Although I would have liked to bet that if a unification of Spain will would have managed to be made in this period... probably would be named how the all Hispanias' Empire in place of a United Kingdom...
Of course I can see the possible irony's potential, in relation to OTL the country that had this denomination...

PS; nice to see that the Muses have come back to inspire you.

If the Muses doesn't change my direction, there will be a time when the resulting union will be called Empire of all Hispania's, or something like that.
 
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