Ferdinand I ( 1015 – 24 December 1065), called the Great (el Magno), was the count of Castile from his uncle's death in 1029 and the king of León after defeating his brother-in-law in 1037. According to tradition, he was the first to have himself crowned Emperor of Spain (1056), and his heirs carried on the tradition. He was a younger son of Sancho III of Pamplona and Muniadona of Castile, and by his father's will recognised the supremacy of his eldest brother, García Sánchez III of Navarre. While Ferdinand inaugurated the rule of the Navarrese Jiménez dynasty over western Spain, his rise to preeminence among the Christian rulers of the peninsula shifted the focus of power and culture westward after more than a century of Leonese decline. Nevertheless, "[t]he internal consolidation of the realm of León–Castilla under Fernando el Magno and [his queen] Sancha (1037–1065) is a history that remains to be researched and written."Reilly 1988, 7–8.
Date and order of birth There is some disagreement concerning the order of birth of Sancho III's sons, and of Ferdinand's place among them. He was certainly a younger son, and he was probably born later than 1011, by which date his parents are known to have married.Martínez Díez 2007, 151–53. Most, and the most reliable, charters name Sancho's sons in the order Ramiro, García, Gonzalo, then Ferdinand. Three documents from the Cathedral of Pamplona list them in this way,Martínez Díez 2007, 152. They are, by date: 7 April 1014, albeit improperly dated (Ranimirus, proles regis, confirmat. Garseanus, frater eius, confirmat. Gundisaluus, frater eius, confirmat. Fernandus, germanus eius, confirmat.); 21 October 1022 (Garsias et Ranimirus, Gundesalbus et Fernandus, testes.); and 1033 (in presencia de filios regis pernominatos Ranimirus, Garseanus, Gundesaluus, Fredinandus), found in Jaime Goñi Gaztambide, Colección diplomática de la catedral de Pamplona (829–1243) (Pamplona: 1997), docs. 5, 7, 12. as well as four from the monastery of San Juan de la Peña.Martínez Díez 2007, 152. Although all of these one contain anachronisms, they are not entirely worthless. They are: two dated 21 April 1028, one of 1030, and one from 5 April 1031, found in Antonio Ubieto Arteta, Cartulario de San Juan de la Peña, I (Valencia: 1962), docs. 47–48, 51, 56. One charter from Pamplona, dated 29 September 1023, is witnessed by Sancho's mother, Jimena Fernández, his wife Muniadona, her children, listed García, Ferdinand then Gonzalo, and their brother, the illegitimate Ramiro.Martínez Díez 2007, 152: Sunt testes: Eximina regina et mater regis, regina dompna Maiora cum filiis suis dompno Garsia et Fredinando et Gundesalbo et fratre eorum Ranimiro in Goñi Gaztambide 1997, doc. 8.
In five documents of the monastery of San Salvador de Leire, Ferdinand is listed after Gonzalo.Martínez Díez 2007, 152. They are dated 21 October 1022, 26 December 1032, and 1033, found in Ángel J. Martín Duque, Documentación medieval de Leire (siglos IX a XII) (Pamplona: 1983), docs. 20, 23, 24. Two of these are dated to 17 April 1014. If authentic, they place Ferdinand's birth before that date.Martínez Díez 2007, 152. They read: Domina Maior regina confirmat. Ranimirus proles regis confirmat. Garseanus frater eius confirmat. Gundisaluss frater eius confirmat. Ferdinandus frater eius confirmat., in Martín Duque 1983, docs. 15–16. Three further documents from Leire are among the only ones to place Ferdinand second among the legitimate sons, but they suffer from various anachronisms and interpolations.Martínez Díez 2007, 153. Two date to 21 October 1015 and another to 29 September 1023, found in Martín Duque 1983, docs. 17–18, 21. Two preserved diplomas of Santa María la Real de Irache also put Gonzalo ahead of him.Martínez Díez 2007, 152–53. They are both dated 1024, one to 17 May, and are found in José María Lacarra, Colección diplomática de Irache, I (958–1222) (Zaragoza: 1965), docs. 2, 4. On the basis of these documents, Gonzalo Martínez Díez places Ferdinand third of the known legitimate sons of Sancho III (Ramiro being a bastard born before Sancho's marriage to Muniadona), and his birth no earlier than 1015. The Crónica de Alaón renovada, which Martínez Díez dates to 1154, but which other scholars dismiss as a late medieval concoction, lists García, Ferdinand and Gonzalo as Sancho III's sons by Muniadona in that order, but in the same passage mistakenly places Gonzalo's death before his father's.Martínez Díez 2007, 84.
Count of Castile (1029–37) Ferdinand was barely in his teens when García Sánchez, Count of Castile, was assassinated by a party of exiled Castilian noblemen as he was entering the church of John the Baptist in León, where he had gone to marry Sancha, sister of Bermudo III, King of León. In his role as feudal overlord, Sancho III of Navarre nominated his younger son Ferdinand, born to the deceased count's sister Muniadona, as count of Castile. Although Sancho was recognised as the ruler of Castile until his death, Ferdinand was granted the title "count" (comes) and was prepared to succeed in Castile. On 7 July 1029, before a council in Burgos, the capital of Castile, Óneca, aunt of the late García and queen Muniadona, formally adopted Sancho and Muniadona, making them her heirs. The record of the council is the first recorded instance of Ferdinand bearing the title of count.Martínez Díez 2007, 150: regnante gratia Dei, principe nostro domno Sanctio et prolis eius Fredinando comes ("[now] reigning by the grace of God, the prince our lord Sancho and his son count Ferdinand"). A later charter from the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña, dated 1 January 1030, explicitly lists Sancho as king in León (the overlord of Castile) and Ferdinand as count in Castile.Martínez Díez 2007, 150: regnante rex Sancio in Legione et comite Fernando in Castella ("[now] reigning king Sancho in León and count Ferdinand in Castile"). The first indication that Ferdinand was independently reigning over Castile, or was at least recognised as count in his own right, is a charter of 1 November 1032 from the monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza, which does not mention his father, but dates it to the time of "Fernando Sánchez bearing the county".Martínez Díez 2007, 150: Factum ... ipsas kalendas novembrii, era MLXX currente, Fredinando Sanzii comitatum gerente ("[this charter was] made ... these kalends of November, currently Era 1070 [AD 1032], Ferdinand [son] of Sancho holding the county"). Sancho's decision to name his son as count in Castile preserved its high degree of autonomy, although no Castilian document after 1028 is dated by the reign of Bermudo III nor is he ever named as king of León. The only sovereign whose regnal year was used was Sancho III, making Ferdinand the first count of Castile not to recognise the suzerainty of the king of León.Martínez Díez 2007, 150–51.
Sancho III arranged for Ferdinand to marry García of Castile's intended bride, Sancha of León, in 1032. The lands between the Cea and Pisuerga rivers went to Castile as her dowry. After his father's death on 18 October 1035, Ferdinand continued to rule in Castile, but he was not, as many later authors have it, king of Castile. Contemporary documents stress his status as count and his relationship of vassalage to the king of León. A document issued by his brother Ramiro on 22 August 1036 at San Juan de la Peña was drawn while "emperor Bermudo [was] reigning in León and count Ferdinand in Castile, king García in Pamplona, king Ramiro in Aragon, and king Gonzalo in Ribagorza."Martínez Díez 2007, 182: regnante imperator Veremundo in Leione et comite Fredinando in Castella et rex Garsea in Pampilonia et rex Ranimirus in Aragone et rex Gundisalbus in Ripacorça. Two private Castilian documents dated 1 January 1037 both express Ferdinand's continuing vassalage to the Leonese monarch explicitly, dating themselves by the reign of "king Bermudo and Ferdinand, count in his realms".In the first Rodrigo Téllez, on the occasion of his entering the Monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza, donated his inheritance in Jaramillo to the monastery (Martínez Díez 2007, 182: rex Vermudo et Fredinando comes in regnis suis). The second was issued by Ferdinand's great aunt, the Abbess Urraca of Covarrubias, and reads: Facta carta conparationis die sabbato, ipsas kalnedas januarias, era TLXXVa, rex Virimudo et Frenando comes in regnis suis (Martínez Díez 2007, 182).
In a dispute over the territory between the Cea and Pisuerga, Ferdinand, nominally a vassal of Bermudo III, defeated and killed his suzerain at the Battle of Tamarón on 4 September 1037. Ferdinand took possession of León by right of his wife, and on 22 June 1038 had himself crowned and anointed king in León.
King of León (1037–65)
Relations with Navarre
On 15 September 1054, Ferdinand defeated his elder brother García at the Battle of Atapuerca and reduced Navarre to a vassal state under his late brother's young son, Sancho García IV. Although Navarre at that time included the traditionally Castilian lands of Álava and La Rioja, Ferdinand demanded the cession only of Bureba. Over the next decade, he gradually extended his control over more of the western territory of Navarre at the expense of Sancho IV, although this was accomplished peacefully and is only detectable in the documentary record.Reilly 1988, 9–10.
Relations with al-Andalus
War with Zaragoza In 1060, according to the Historia silense, Ferdinand invaded the taifa of Zaragoza through the upland valley of the eastern Duero in the highlands around Soria. He captured the fortresses of San Esteban de Gormaz, Berlanga and Vadorrey, and afterwards proceeded through Santiuste, Huermeces and Santamara as far as the Roman road that lay between Toledo and Zaragoza.Reilly 1988, 10–11. The success of the campaign was made possible by the preoccupation of the Zaragozan emir, Ahmad al-Muqtadir, with attacking the neighboring taifa of Tortosa and defending his northeastern frontier from Ramiro I of Aragon and Raymond Berengar I of Barcelona. The emir, up until then paying tribute to Sancho IV of Navarre, submitted to Ferdinand and agreed to pay parias. Although probably originally meant to be temporary, Ferdinand managed to enforce the tribute until his death.
War with Toledo With al-Muqtadir sidelined as a threat, Ferdinand turned his attention to Yahya ibn Ismail al-Mamun, emir of Toledo. It is probable that Ferdinand already maintained close relations with the Toledan court, and was perhaps protector of the Mozarabic Christian community in Toledo. In 1058, the last known Mozarabic bishop of Toledo, Pascual, was consecrated in León. In 1062, Ferdinand invaded the east of al-Mamun's taifa, taking Talamanca and besieging Alcalá de Henares. After seeing his country plundered, al-Mamun agreed to pay parias and Ferdinand left.Reilly 1988, 11–12.
Great raid on Badajoz and Seville In 1063, using the new income from his parias, Ferdinand organised a "great raid, or razzia" into the taifas of Seville and Badajoz. Seville, and probably Badajoz also, paid a ransom for his withdrawal. This attack was probably also designed to remove Badajoz as a threat during his siege of Coimbra the next year.
Reconquests in Portugal Although the sources are unclear, it is possible that as early as 1055 Ferdinand attacked the taifa of Badajoz. His first serious campaign of Reconquista was an invasion of the lower basin of the Duero between the coast, which had long been held by León, and the mountains. On 29 November 1057 his army conquered Lamego and its valleys. Having secured the Duero, Ferdinand began to bring the valley of the Mondego under his control, first taking Viseu in its middle stretch on 25 July 1058 and then moving down towards the sea. It was "a long and grueling battle" before Coimbra, at the mouth of the Mondego, was taken on 25 July 1064 after a six-month siege.
War with Valencia