Fortún Garcés Cajal

Who is Fortún Garcés Cajal?

Fortún Garcés Cajal was an Navarro-Aragonese nobleman and statesman, perhaps "the greatest noble of Alfonso the Battler's reign". In 1113 Fortún replaced Diego López I de Haro in the large and important tenancy of Nájera. He held it until 1134.

Fortún received from Alfonso grants of both property and lordship over Daroca and Tudela. In 1127 Fortún and his wife Tota bough various properties around Tudela from some Muslims. In 1130/1 the couple purchased property at a place called Uli in interior Navarre. They perhaps "needed the written word, because, as Bishko has pointed out, their holdings were scattered throughout the Ebro River Valley and also located in the interior of Navarre." The couple also disposed of their property through wills and made grants through charters.

A royal charter of Alfonso the Battler enacted at Briviesca on 10 October 1129, names Fortún as holding that tenancy. Another charter, this time a private one from the abbey of San Salvador de Oña, dating to November of that same year, recognises the lordship of Rodrigo Gómez, a partisan of Alfonso VII of León, who was extending his influence into the Bureba. These two charters indicate the contested nature of this frontier district. At a local level the king of León's man was recognised and active as tenant, but when the king of Aragon was present, his choice of tenant, in this case his most powerful magnate, was enforced.