Tenancies · Kingdom of Navarre · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Sonsierra castles

The line of royal castles that faces Castilian Rioja across the Ebro and the Conchas de Haro: Buradón above the gorge, Toro, San Vicente de la Sonsierra (castle raised by Sancho VII in 1194), with the fortified towns of Laguardia and Labraza behind them, and Marañón further east in the Berrueza.

On 1 January 1200 Buradón, Toro and San Vicente are Navarrese: they are not in the chroniclers' list of Castile's 1199-1200 gains, though Buradón and Toro appear in 1204 among the places Alfonso VIII promised to return, so Castile took them between 1200 and 1204. Marañón is in the list of gains and was held for Castile by Diego López de Haro by 11 October 1200; whether it fell before or after 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Who he is

Name
Tenentes not pinned for 1199-1200
Title
Royal castles held by tenentes for Sancho VII
Confidence
low

No confirmation list of 1199-1200 was found; royal diplomas of these years are very few.

Overlord

Sancho VII of Navarre

What it holds

  • Castle of Buradón (Salinillas)
  • Castle of Toro (site not fixed)
  • Castle of San Vicente de la Sonsierra
  • Castle of Marañón (contested)

How it was acquired

Navarrese since the 12th-century settlement of the frontier; the 1179 treaty left the Sonsierra to Navarre.

Allies and rivals

Facing Castilian Haro, Briones and Logroño.

How things stand that morning

Buradón, Toro and San Vicente HELD; Marañón CONTESTED (falls to Castile during 1199-1200, date not pinned).

Wealth

Vineyards and the Ebro crossings.

Military

Castles; no garrison figures.

Threats

  • Castilian attack once Vitoria falls
  • Loss of Buradón and Toro before 1204

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. by 11 October 1200Marañón held for Castile by Diego López de Haro.Depends on: Castilian capture during the campaign. Stopped by: A Navarrese garrison holding out.
  2. 1200-1204 (not pinned)Buradón and Toro pass to Castile; Alfonso VIII's 1204 will promises to return them with Portilla and Atauri.Depends on: Further Castilian pressure or terms of the 1201 truce. Stopped by: A peace that leaves the Sonsierra whole.

Places of note

  • Castle of Toro: Site not fixed; placed at San Vicente for reference.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Status inferred from the chroniclers' list of gains (Orella, Auñamendi) and the 1204 will; no tenente names found.

On the map: Discs and one municipality mark castles, not districts.

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. Orella, 'Los orígenes de la Hermandad de Guipúzcoa'
  2. Auñamendi, 'Sancho VII el Fuerte'
  3. Spanish Wikipedia, 'San Vicente de la Sonsierra'

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