Overview
Gonzalo Sánchez ( 1020 – 26 June 1043) was the king of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza, two small Pyrenean counties, from 1035 until his death. He was the son of King Sancho III of Navarre and his wife, Muniadona of Castile. Before his death in 1035, Sancho divided his kingdom between his sons, leaving Sobrarbe and Ribagorza to Gonzalo. He governed them as vassal of his elder brother, García Sánchez III, who had inherited Navarre. Gonzalo is thought to have been ineffectual and unpopular, with vassals defecting to his half-brother, Ramiro I of Aragon, during his own lifetime. Within a decade of his death, his reign was being ignored and he was left out of a list of rulers of Ribagorza.
Reign
On 14 April 1035, according to a document preserved in the monastery of San Juan de la Peña, Sancho III granted Aragon to his eldest but illegitimate son Ramiro. In the same act the castle of Loarre and monastery of San Emeterio with their dependent villages were detached from Aragon and given to Gonzalo as part of his inheritance. There is no indication that the brothers were on poor terms. Gonzalo subsequently confirmed many charters alongside his brother and they often appear together in dating clauses.
Gonzalo was present with all his brothers and his brother-in-law, King Vermudo III of León, when Ramiro granted arras (a nuptial gift) to his future wife, Ermesinda of Bigorre on 22 August 1036. In Ramiro's charter recording the gift, Gonzalo is given the title of king. In 1037 Gonzalo joined his brothers García and Ramiro to confirm a donation of Jimeno Garcés, Ramiro's godfather, to the monastery of Leire. In this document García uses the title princeps (prince, from Latin for "foremost") to indicate his suzerainty over his brothers, while Ramiro and Gonzalo use the title regulus (petty king). This meeting probably took place either in Leire or else in García's capital, Pamplona. Neither the day nor the month is preserved in the record. The use of a royal title, even one as low as regulus, in the presence of his suzerain, García, is strong evidence that Gonzalo did not usurp a royal title, but that Sancho III intended to create kingdoms for Gonzalo and Ramiro.
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