García de Eugui

García de Eugui (died 1408) was a Navarrese clergyman, diplomat and historian. He was the confessor of two successive kings, Charles II and Charles III, from 1375 until 1407. In this capacity he was entrusted with many diplomatic missions. An adherent of the Avignon Papacy during the Great Schism, he served that cause as the bishop of Bayonne in exile from 1384.

He wrote a history of Spain entitled Crónica d'Espayña.

Life On 28 December 1359, García received from the infante Louis a scholarship to study in Castile. He was at that time already a member of the Order of Saint Augustine. He had completed his education by 1370, when he was prior and lecturer in theology of the Augustinian house in Pamplona.

In 1375, Eugui succeeded Pierre de Saint-Martin as the confessor of Charles II. He was the first native of Navarre to hold this position under the House of Évreux. He was with Charles in Normandy in 1378, when Charles dispatched him to Navarre with a message for the queen. Nevertheless, Eugui undertook several diplomatic missions to Castile between 1381 and 1385.

Works Eugui wrote a history of Spain entitled Crónica d'Espayña. It has twice been printed in modern times. Scholars are divided over whether Eugui wrote mainly in the 1360s or 1390s. Its language is Navarrese Romance with Castilian characteristics. The Crónica begins with Creation and ends with the death of Charles II in 1387, although the last years of his reign are not covered. It dates events by the Spanish era.

Eugui's main sources are Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada's De rebus Hispaniae and the Alfonsine Estoria de España. He supplements these for the earlier period with Isidore of Seville's Historia Gothorum and Orosius' History Against the Pagans. For the Roman period, he condenses his source material into a series of chapters on each reign, limiting himself to military, Christian and Spanish events. For later periods, he selectively highlights Navarrese material without turning the chronicle into a history of Navarre. The genealogy at the end recapitulates the reign of Sancho the Great and the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, the two outstanding moments in Navarrese history. It gives a genealogy from Íñigo Arista to Charles II.

The Crónica was used as a source by Charles, Prince of Viana, and by Pedro de Valencia.