Port · Kingdom of Castile · as at first light, 1 January 1200

San Sebastián

Navarre's port, founded as a chartered town by Sancho VI about 1180 under the hill of Urgull, with the fuero used for Jaca and Estella.

Gascon shipmen and merchants from Bayonne, whose own harbour was silting, settled it. The old monastery of San Sebastián, given to Leire, stands west of the town. In 1199 the town and its land passed to Alfonso VIII, who swore its fueros and began a run of privileges to keep the Navarrese traffic flowing and give its merchants a place in the Castilian market.

It is now Castile's outlet to the sea.

Who holds it

Name
Alfonso VIII of Castile (tenente on 1 January 1200 not pinned; Diego López de Haro holds the tenencia by 11 October 1200)
Title
Port town, Castilian since 1199
Since
1199, before 27 September
Confidence
medium

Navarre's tenente here was rewarded with another tenencia after the loss (Nabarlur, after Fortún); his name is not given.

Lord in 1200

Alfonso VIII of Castile, through a tenente not pinned.

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile (in fact)

How things stand that morning

Castilian-held; Navarre has not ceded it.

Wealth

Shipping and trade in wool and wine between Navarre, Castile and Gascony; fishing and whaling on the coast.

Military

Castle on Urgull; walls.

Threats

  • A Navarrese attempt to recover its port

Fuero

Sancho VI, about 1180. Fuenterrabía (1203) and later Oyarzun and Hernani were carved out of its term.

Council

Burgo council of Gascon and Navarrese burgesses (detail not pinned).

Communities

Gascons (Occitan speakers) and Basques.

Militia

Seamen; no record in 1199.

Quarrels

A quarrel with Sancho VII from 1194 (Spanish Wikipedia); the town's interests now lie with Castile.

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 1200Diego López de Haro holds the tenencia of San Sebastián for Castile.Depends on: Haro's favour. Stopped by: His fall in 1201.

Where the sources disagree

  • Spanish Wikipedia says Guipúzcoa accepted Alfonso VIII 'from 1200'; the September 1199 dating clause (Orella) puts it in 1199.

Evidence: Founding and settlers well known; the change of lord dated by a private charter of September 1199.

On the map: The early term from the Oria toward the Bidasoa, before Fuenterrabía, Oyarzun and Hernani were separated; limits approximate.

Primary sources for Castile

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
  • Chronicle of the World (Lucas of Tuy), Lucas de Tuy (1236, for Queen Berenguela). The Leonese counterpart to Rodrigo, written at San Isidoro for Berenguela. 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 Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Read online
  • The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. 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
  • Deeds of Philip Augustus, Rigord (about 1186 to 1206, in stages). The French court's own chronicle for the year, from the monk of Saint-Denis who called himself the king's chronographer. Read online

13 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.

Sources and studies

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

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