In chapter 41, we examined the earliest male Delaforce ancestor, Jimeno Sanchez el Fuerte & some of his family. Now that the Carolingians & Gascons have caught up, we must examine the Navarrese line from the mid-ninth century.

During much of this period, Gascony and Aquitaine were in a state of anarchy due to the appalling devastation by the invading NORSEMEN and by the declining powers of the CAROLINGIAN ruling princes of France. None of Charlemagne's descendants were natural rulers and their nicknames were usually derisive, Louis the Pious, Charles the Bald, Louis the Stammerer, Charles the Fat, Charles the Simple.

About the time of Alfonso II 'the Chaste's technical submission to the Carolingians in 806, BERNARD was Comte de Marches de Gascoigne. Three Dukes of Gascony SEGUIN, GUILLAUME and ARNAUD were killed in battle fighting the Norsemen, usually at or near Bordeaux, in the period 848-864 AD. In 844 the Norsemen sailed up the Garonne to Toulouse. In 847 and 848 they attacked and sacked Bordeaux. In despair the Gascons sent a deputation of nobles to the Kingdom of Navarre for help. Prince Garcia Iniguez became Duke of Gascony in 864 AD. We met him as the father of Fortun Garces. He sent SANCHE GARCIA, nicknamed MITARRA, which is an Arab word for 'terror and destruction', or in French 'ruine et dégât'. He was also known as 'le montagnard, le terrible'. Sanche Mitarra was descended from a line we explored in chapter 50.

There were two Sanche Mitarras, father & son & their family tree is in the previous chapter.

Mitarra managed to hold his duchy together and his son, Mitarra 2nd in turn became King of Navarre in 901 AD. In the meantime, Fortun Garces had been King of Navarre. We start the trees from Jimena, the daughter of Garcia Iniguez, who married Alfonso III the Great, King of Asturias & of the Gothic line in chapter 44. He was the brother of his father-in-law's eventual second wife, Leodegundis, so tightly are all these families tied together. Their line stayed in the Asturias until Ramiro II's daughter Teresa married Garcia Sanchez, the King of Navarre. We examine his father, the "Optimo Imperator", after the next three family trees.

Lope de Bigorre was the grandson of Loup Centule, the son of Adalric, we met in chapter 48. His father Donat Loupa married Faquila de Bigorre & picked up the county. His daughter Dadildis was the mother of the Optimo Imperator. She had married Garcia Jimenez, King of Navarre, who we met in chapter 41.

Bigorre is the modern Tarbes, not a very attractive place, as little of the old town survives. To travel South through the county of Bigorre is to past bosky fields of bounteous vegetation, which appear optically flat but with the magnificent backdrop of the Pyrenees. It must always have been a rich area, when wealth depended on agriculture.

Lope & some girl fromToulouse.

One wonders how their son Ramon became Count of Ribagorza, which is over the Eastern Pyrenees in Spain, a long, thin county going down towards Zaragosa.

Meanwhile, back in France Charles the Simple, King of France in 911 ceded to ROLF or ROLLO, the Norsemen's chieftain, the districts of Rouen, Lisieux and Evreux (which the Normans already held). Rollo agreed to baptism. So Normany began as a Norse conquest in France.

However the Norse raids continued. Aquitaine and Auvergne were plundered in 923. Even the Magyars passed through Aquitaine in 951 looting, robbing and burning everything in their path.

So, the Delaforces are directly descended from the old Kings of Navarre. It is possible that the NAVARRE family name of FORTON might have eventually become the Latin FORT, FORTE, FORTO and finally FOURCE and FORCE. The Kings of Navarre married Moors - their Basque stock was a mixture of Celtic, Spanish, Visigoth and African Berber blood. Helped by their mountains they successfully defended their independence against Moslems, Franks and Spaniards. Pamplona is and was the capital of the Kingdom. In the old Benedictine monastery, Santa Maria la Real in Najera, near Longrono, are buried in the crypt more than thirty Kings and Queens of Navarre. The original links with Navarre lingered for centuries. The later merchant venturers of the 13th century in London, the Delaforces of the 15th and 16th centuries were diplomats and traders with Navarre.

Toda Aznarez de Larron was the grand-daughter of Fortun Garces, King of Navarre (chapter 42) & married Sancho Garces, the 'Optimo Imperator'.

Garcia I Sanchez, Andregoto Galindez & Teresa of Leon

Garcia & his father carved out the Kingdom of Viguera for Teresa’s son, at her insistance but it fitted in with the Optima Imperator’s grand strategy. We must digress to explain their deeds:-

Fortun I Sanchez, Vicomte de Labourd

Labourd is the area behind Bayonne & Biarritz & Fortun died in about 1062. Bayonne itself was controlled by the Normans. Who was this Fortun? We decided to investigate further, which lead into a tangle of family trees closely related to our line above.

Fortun was the son of Sanche, King of Viguera. His older brother Loup had held the viscountancy first. Viguera is in the Rioja, that is, in Banu Qasi country. Viguera Castle was so old, it was rebuilt by Lope ibn Muza (ben Fortun) because it had been damaged by Abd al-Rahman I, emir of Córdoba, in his conquest of the area in 759. In 918, King Ordoño II of Leon & Sancho Garces, the ‘Optima Imperator’, invaded the Rioja with the objective, it seems, of clearing out the unreliable Banu Qasi from this strategically important area & they did indeed slaughter many. (Where Ordono II fits into the family is shown above).

Although they lost one major battle to Abd al-Rahman III in 920 at Valdejunquera, who destroyed Viguera Castle again, they won the area in 923 & rebuilt the defences, adding a monastery. Garcia II succeeded the Optima Imperator, who died on 11/12/925. The victors set up the Kingdom of Viguera for his son Ramiro, who became King of Viguera from 970 - 981. (This was partly at the insistance of Sancho Garces’ Queen Toda Aznarez, who wanted all her sons to be kings of somewhere). Sanche was King of Viguera from 981 - 997. The last king died before 1030 & the land was ceded to Fortun of Labourd, together with much else in Cantabria, that is, Fortun’s holdings seem to have surrounded the Kingdom of Navarre. Maybe, the idea was a buffer state but presumably, he had to do fealty for Cantabria either to the King of Leon or Navarre. The Moors never occupied these lands again, so the Optima Imperator’s strategy was successful.

This is from the Viguera web site, which is in quaint English: "...Fortun Ochoiz Viguera, with both Cameros, Val of Arnedo and the others towns from Cantabria. The children of Fortun received the castle of Viguera in holding, Autol, Arnedo Jubera, Ocon and Quel."

Fortun was succeeded by his grandson Fortun II, as Viscount of Labord, but he had a son, Fortun, who was the Vicomte d’Arberone, a place of which nothing seems to be known. This seems a good place to drop these Fortuns & return to Gascony proper, although they do come from our area. The family trees for these people are below.

With Garcia Sanchez' son, William, (Guillaume Sanche) who was the second husband of his half-sister Uracca, we have the grandfather of Bernard de la Force, through his daughter, Toda. But she was also the mother of Azeline de Lomagne, the wife of Bernard de la Force.

With another of Garcia Sanchez' sons, Odon, we have the great-grandfather of Azeline. Genetically, this was bad news!

Sancho 'Abarca' Garces is not of our line, although his sister is. Abarca means sandals & he equipped his troops with 'new technology' sandals with welts (sewn on soles) which improved their mobility in the guerilla warfare he conducted against the resurgent Moors. In this, he was unsuccessful & had to swear fealty to the Emir of Cordoba Almanzor, then abdicated in favour of Garcia the Trembler. However, the Trembler, allied with Castile, smashed Almanzor's army at the Battle of Calatanazor in 1002, after Almanzor had trashed Pamplona in 998Abarca's father-in-law, Fernan Gonzalez, Count of Castile, the Kingmaker of Spain, was also his brother-in-law. It was the Trembler's son Sancho the Great, who pushed the Moors back from Navarre for ever. Some histories have confused several of these monarchs, mixing up Sancho, the Optimo Imperator, his son Garcia & his grandson Sancho Abarca.

So, the Delaforces are directly descended from the old Kings of Navarre. It is possible that the NAVARRE family name of FORTON might have eventually become the Latin FORT, FORTE, FORTO and finally FOURCE and FORCE. The Kings of Navarre married Moors - their Basque stock was a mixture of Celtic, Spanish, Visigoth and African Berber blood. Helped by their mountains they successfully defended their independence against Moslems, Franks and Spaniards. Pamplona is and was the capital of the Kingdom. In the old Benedictine monastery, Santa Maria la Real in Najera, near Longrono, are buried in the crypt more than thirty Kings and Queens of Navarre. The original links with Navarre lingered for centuries. The later merchant venturers of the 13th century in London, the Delaforces of the 15th and 16th centuries were diplomats and traders with Navarre.

Notes

Patrick's list of the Kings of Navarre from 824-1234 - the House of Jimenez

• ca 824 - 851 Inigo Iniguez Arista (Iñigo Iñiguez Arista). In Basque, Eneko Aritza.
• 851-880 Garcia Iñiguez, son of Inigo Iniguez Arista
• 880-905 Fortun Garces the One-Eyed Monk
• 905-926 Sancho I 'Optimo Imperator' Garces
• 926-970 Garcia I Sanchez, the last Delaforce King
• 970-994 Sancho II Garces Abarca
• 994-1000 Garcia II the Trembler
• 1000-1035 Sancho III the Great
• 1035-1054 Garcia III Sanchez
• 1054-1076 Sancho IV of Peñalen
• 1076-1094 Sancho V Ramirez, as Sancho I of Aragon from 1063-1094
• 1094-1104 Peter I
• 1104-1134 Alfonso I
• 1134-1150 Garcia IV Ramirez
• 1150-1194 Sancho VI the Wise
• 1194-1234 Sancho VII the Strong