Bishops' city lordships · Kingdom of Navarre · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Pamplona

The bishop of Pamplona is lord of the city of Pamplona.

The old city, the Navarrería, is his directly; beside it the Frankish burg of San Cernin (fuero of 1129) and the burg of San Nicolás live under their own fueros and juries, and the three quarters feud with each other. The bishops keep the temporal lordship until 1319. In 1200 Navarre is losing its western lands: Alfonso VIII of Castile is besieging Vitoria, and Álava and Guipúzcoa are slipping to Castile while King Sancho VII campaigns in Africa.

Who holds it

Name
García Fernández (García Ferrández)
Title
Bishop of Pamplona
Since
1194
Confidence
high

Bishop from 1194 to 1205, after Peter of Paris (1167-1193) and the elect Martín de Tafalla (1193-1194). The campaign notes make him the bishop sent to Sancho VII for leave to surrender Vitoria, which Alfonso VIII of Castile is besieging while Sancho campaigns in Africa (1198-1200), probably in Almohad service.

What it holds

  • Pamplona: lordship of the city, directly over the Navarrería
  • Overlordship over the franchise burgs of San Cernin and San Nicolás, which have their own royal fueros

How it was acquired

Royal grants of the eleventh and twelfth centuries (details not pinned in the sources checked).

How things stand that morning

Held. The bishop is at the centre of the crisis over Vitoria.

Wealth

Rents and justice of Pamplona, on the pilgrim road to Santiago; tithes of the kingdom's main diocese.

Threats

  • The Castilian conquest of Álava and Guipúzcoa
  • Feuds between the city's quarters

Advocates and rivals

The king of Navarre; the burgesses of San Cernin and San Nicolás; the abbey of Leyre, which disputes the bishop's authority.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. Early 1200 (not pinned)Vitoria surrenders to Alfonso VIII once Sancho VII's leave arrives; Álava and Guipúzcoa pass to Castile during 1200.Depends on: Sancho VII staying abroad and giving leave; Alfonso VIII keeping up the siege. Stopped by: Sancho's return with help, or peace between Castile and Navarre.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The three boroughs and their feuds are attested; the bishop's lordship until 1319 comes from general histories and its founding grants are not pinned.

On the map: Drawn as the modern municipality of Pamplona.

Primary sources for Navarre

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Annals of Toledo and other short Iberian annals (12th and 13th centuries; Anales Toledanos I to 1219). Florez's volume 23 gathers the short annals of the peninsula. Read online
  • Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
  • Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
  • The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
  • History of the Affairs of Spain, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (completed 1243). The archbishop's history of the peninsula, written forty years on by a Navarrese who served Castile. Read online
  • The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
  • The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
  • The Great Book of Fiefs, Various; compiled by Ramon de Caldes for Alfonso II of Aragon (compiled 1192 to 1194). The register of the count-king's feudal rights, finished a few years before 1200 and in use at Peter II's court: some 900 charters of homage, convention, oath, sale and marriage arranged by county and lineage, covering Catalonia, Roussillon, Cerdanya, Pallars, Urgell, the Carcassonne and Beziers lands of the Trencavels, Provence and Aragon.

3 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.

Sources and studies

  1. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Pamplona y Tudela, list of bishops (en.wikipedia)
  2. Pamplona, history section (en.wikipedia)
  3. Sancho VII of Navarre (en.wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.