[October 18] Sancho III, king of Navarre

Surnamed: "The Great" (El Mayor)
Parents: García II, king of Navarre, and Jimena of Cea
Born: circa 992
House: Jiménez
Spouse(s): Muniadona Mayor, daughter of Sancho, count of Castile, and Urraca of Castile
Predecessor: García II

Reign: 1004 – 1035
Brief: Becoming king of Navarre as a minor, Sancho had great aspirations for his country and for Iberia in general. As early as 1015, he was working to expand his frontiers into Umayyad Spain. Opportunities arose to annex Sobrarbe and Ribagorza, and the county of Barcelona was forced to become a vassal to the Navarrese king. Next, he managed to annex Castile in 1027 following the untimely death of its count. The majority of Christian Spain was now under Sancho's control. Borders now secured, Sancho improved the major thoroughfare through the Pyrenees to Gascony where his ally, the duke of Gascony, could send pilgrims and knights to fight in the Reconquista. In 1034, after years of fighting, Sancho subdued and annexed León, the ancestral senior kingdom in Iberia, and had himself crowned Emperor of Spain. Unfortunately, a year later he was assassinated. His Iberian empire was divided between his many sons, never to be reunited again.

Date of Death: 18 October 1035
Successor: García III

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Jin Mingdi, emperor of China (325)
• Leopold IV, duke of Bavaria (1141)
• Gregory XII, pope of Rome (1417)
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[October 17] Petronila, queen of Aragón

Parents: Ramiro II, king of Aragón, and Agnes of Aquitaine
Born: 29 June 1136
House: Jiménez
Spouse(s): Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona, son of Ramon Berenguer III, count of Barcelona, and Douce I, countess of Provence
Predecessor: Ramiro II

Reign: 1137 – 1164
Brief: From the moment Petronilla was born, it was known that she would rule as queen regnant. She was married at the age of one to the count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer IV. Her father then abdicated the throne and resumed his monastic life leaving the regency of Aragón to Ramon Berenguer.  At the age of 15, she consummated her marriage and eventually produced five children. In 1162, her husband died and for two years she ruled solely. In 1164, she abdicated the throne in favor of her son, Ramon Berenguer, who changed his name to Alfonso II. He had already become count of Barcelona when his father died and, upon succeeding to the Aragonese throne, he became the first ruler over both realms. Petronilla does not seem to have taken up the regency for her son and died a decade later. She was buried in Bercelona Cathedral, though her tomb has long since been lost.

Date of Death: 17 October 1174
Successor: Alfonso II

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Boniface II, pope of Rome (532)

[September 8] Alfonso I, king of Aragón & Navarre

Surnamed: "The Battler" (El Batallador)
Parents: Sancho V, king of Aragón and Navarre, and Felicia of Roucy
House: Jiménez
Born: circa 1073
Spouse(s): Urraca, queen of Léon, daughter of Alfonso VI, king of León, and Constance of Burgundy

Predecessor: Pedro I

Reign: 1104 – 1134

Date of Death: 8 September 1134

Successor: Ramiro II (in Aragón) and García IV (in Navarre)

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Sergius I, pope of Rome (701)
• Leo IV, emperor of Constantinople (780)
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• Faisal I, king of Iraq (1933)

[March 8] Urraca, queen of León and Castile

Parents: Alfonso VI, king of León and Castile, and Constance of Burgundy

Date of Birth: April 1079

House: Jiménez

Spouse: Raymond of Burgundy, then Alfonso I, king of Aragón and Navarre

Reign: 1109 – 1126

Predecessor: Alfonso VI

Summary: Unlike many other states, Spain has had its fair share of female monarchs. Urraca, though was one of its firsts and one of the earliest queens regnant in post-antiquity. Urraca was heiress to León and Castile from the time of her birth with only a brief interruption from 1107 until 1108 when her father, Alfonso VI, recognized her illegitimate brother, Sancho, as heir. At the age of eight, she was married to the Raymond of Burgundy, a Crusader and adventurer and the fourth son of the Burgundian duke. By the age of 13, Urraca was pregnant and, though her first birth was a miscarriage, her birth in 1105 produced Alfonso, her future heir. Raymond died in 1107 and she remarried in early 1109 Alfonso I, king of Aragón and Navarre just months after her father died leaving all of León and Castile to her.

Despite her father's death and her lack of desire to marry Alfonso, she did so anyway, thereby briefly unifying most of northern Spain together for the first time since the Visigoth era nearly 300 years earlier. Her marriage prompted rebellions in Galicia, the region north of Portugal, where her sister, Theresa, and brother-in-law, Count Henry of Portugal, were consolidating power. Within a year of their marriage, Alfonso and Urraca separated. This ended some of the opposition she had been facing. By 1111, full-blown warfare broke out between León and Aragón, culminating in the Battle of Candespina. A truce was negotiated in 1112 and their marriage was annulled two years later. The annulment came at a loss to Castile, half of which was occupied by Aragonese forces. Parts of the west, meanwhile, were occupied by Portugal. Yet the queen moved forward with her plans. She reclaimed most of her lost lands by the end of her reign and pushed further into the Muslim south of Hispania. Like her father, she claimed the title "Empress of All the Spains" and, to assert her authority over her sister, included the title "Empress of All Galicia" which included Portugal. She died in childbirth, having been impregnated by her lover, Pedro González de Lara, and was succeeded by her son, Alfonso VII, who continued in his mother's footsteps.

Date of Death: 8 March 1126

Successor: Alfonso VII

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Celestine II, pope of Rome (1144)
• William III, king of England (1702)
• Charles XIV John, king of Sweden (1844)