García Íñiguez of Pamplona

Who was García Íñiguez of Pamplona?

García Íñiguez, sometimes García I, II, or III, was king of Pamplona from 851/2 until his death.

He was educated in Córdoba, as a guest at the court of the Emir of Córdoba. He was the son of Íñigo Arista, the first king of a Basque dynasty ruling in Pamplona up to the late 9th century. When his father was stricken by paralysis in 842, he became regent of the kingdom. He and his kinsman Mūsā ibn Mūsā ibn Fortún of the Banu Qasi rebelled against the Cordoban emir in 843. This rebellion was put down by Emir Abd ar-Rahman II, who attacked the Kingdom of Pamplona, defeating García badly and killing Fortún. At his father's death in 851/2, he succeeded to the crown.

Following the death of Íñigo Arista, the Banu Qasi leader Mūsā ibn Mūsā pursued a policy of closer allegiance with Muhammad I of Córdoba, leaving García to look to Christian Asturias for an ally. In 859, Mūsā ibn Mūsā allowed a contingent of Vikings to pass through his lands and attack Navarre, resulting in the capture of García, who was forced to pay at least 70,000 gold dinars in ransom. Later the same year, Mūsā ibn Mūsā attacked the Pamplonese city of Albelda. García and his new friend Ordoño I of Asturias together dealt Mūsā a crushing blow, killing, it is said, 10,000 of his magnates in the Battle of Albelda. This, in turn, provoked a Muslim[who?] response and the next year, 860, saw García's son and heir Fortún captured and imprisoned by the Moors.[who?] He languished in Córdoba for the next 20 years. In 870, García formed an alliance with the Muslim rebel Amrūs ibn Umar ibn Amrūs, who had killed Garcia's nephew Mūsā ibn Galindo of Huesca, and the next year was apparently in a new alliance with the sons of Mūsā ibn Mūsā, now in rebellion against Córdoba.