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

Tudela

The great city of the Navarrese Ribera, taken from the Muslims by Alfonso I of Aragon in 1119 (Lacarra studied the date).

Its Muslim people capitulated and were moved to a quarter outside the walls; they still farm the irrigated land along the Ebro and the Queiles. Its Jewish community is one of the most important in the peninsula: Judah Halevi, Abraham ibn Ezra and the traveller Benjamin of Tudela were born here. Tudela received a fuero from Alfonso I that became a model for the Ribera.

In 1197 it received the Almohad caliph's embassy to Sancho VII. The castle on the hill is a royal stronghold; Sancho VII will later make Tudela his favourite home.

Who holds it

Name
Tenente of Tudela not pinned for 1199-1200
Title
Royal city; the king's tenente in the castle
Confidence
low

Earlier lords: Count Rotrou of Perche (1123-1134), García Ramírez (1134), Rodrigo and Gonzalo de Azagra (1152-1157), Gonzalo Ruiz (1157-1158), Pedro de Arazuri (1159-1169), Pedro Ruiz de Azagra (1171-1174) (Valor Gisbert). The chancellor in 1198, don Fortún, was cantor of Tudela's church.

Lord in 1200

Sancho VII, through the tenente of the castle (not pinned).

Overlord

Sancho VII of Navarre

How things stand that morning

Navarrese and safe, though near Castilian Alfaro and Aragonese Tarazona.

Wealth

Irrigated farming, wine, the Ebro trade, Jewish and Muslim crafts and commerce; in 1203 the king and townsmen plan a new weir and bridge.

Military

Royal castle; walls; bridge over the Ebro.

Threats

  • Aragonese or Castilian raids
  • Banditry in the Bardenas

Fuero

Fuero of Tudela from Alfonso I after the conquest of 1119 (the text's date is argued; not pinned).

Council

Alcalde and other town officers recorded from the first half of the 12th century (Valor Gisbert).

Communities

Christians (Navarrese, Aragonese and Franks), Muslims (aljama in the morería), Jews (aljama; by tradition given the fuero of Nájera and a place by the castle by Sancho VI in 1170, not re-checked here).

Militia

Town militia; frontier duties toward Aragon and the Bardenas.

Quarrels

Rights in the Bardenas with the mountain valleys and with Aragon; raids in the Bardenas lead to a Navarre and Aragon brotherhood against them in 1204.

Places of note

  • Castle of Tudela: Royal castle above the city.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Communities and earlier lords well documented; the 1200 tenente not found.

On the map: Tudela's term with two of its villages; its rights in the Bardenas are shown in the Bardenas belt.

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. J. M. Lacarra, 'La fecha de la conquista de Tudela'
  2. D. Valor Gisbert, 'Cargos concejiles en Tudela durante la primera mitad del siglo XII'
  3. B. Pro Uriarte, 'Sancho VII el Fuerte y Tudela' (2021)

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