García Ordóñez

García Ordóñez (died 29 May 1108), called de Nájera or de Cabra and Crispus or el Crespo de Grañón in the epic literature, was a Castilian magnate who ruled the Rioja, with his seat at Nájera, from 1080 until his death. He is famous in literature as the rival of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid, whose high position at court he took over after the Cid's exile in 1080. He was one of the most important military leaders and territorial governors under Alfonso VI, and was entrusted with military tutorship of the king's heir, Sancho Alfónsez, with whom he died on the field of battle at Uclés.

Family and marriages García was the son of a count Ordoño Ordóñez whose identity is disputed. Traditionally he was identified with a supposed son of infante Ordoño Ramírez and his wife infanta Cristina Bermúdez and hence grandson of two kings, Ramiro III and Bermudo II of León. However, that family's geographical base was in León, whereas García's was in Castile. Further, there is debate as to whether the infantes had such a son, his name being absent from the earliest documentation of their family. It has been suggested that instead the Castilian count Ordoño Ordóñez, García's father, was son of count Ordoño Fafílaz of the Banu Gómez clan. García's father can be shown from surviving documents to have served as alférez to Ferdinand I of León and Castile between 19 April 1042 and 1 July 1047. García's mother was named Enderquina, but her origins are unknown. He was also related, somehow, to Álvaro Díaz de Oca.

Before 1081, García married the infanta Urraca Garcés, a daughter of García Sánchez III of Navarre and sister of Sancho Garcés IV. The earliest reference to the marriage dates from 18 April that year, when the couple witnessed a donation of her brother Ramiro Garcés. Urraca gave García three children, two daughters (Elvira and Mayor) and a son Fernando, speculated to be identical to Fernando García de Hita, progenitor of the House of Castro. A charter issued by Mayor in 1145 traces her royal ancestry. or of Hugh II, Count of Empúries and his wife Sancha de Urgell. Eva had one son by García: García Garcés de Aza, ancestor of the House of Aza, whose christening took place in 1106 according to the cartulary of the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. After García's death, Eva remarried to count Pedro González de Lara. García also had an illegitimate son named Fernando Pellica. During this time he was associated with Pancorvo in the northeast of the Bureba, along the Way of Saint James leading from Miranda del Ebro.

In 1072, Sancho II was assassinated, and his brother Alfonso VI succeeded him. On 8 December, Alfonso granted a charter to the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña in Castile. Among the confirmants is García Ordóñez, who was thus among the first to reconcile himself to the new king. In 1074 García was appointed the king's alférez by 20 February, a post he continued in down to 24 June at least. Thereafter he disappears from court records until 1080.

Outside of royal service (1074–80) There is a false document dated 1075 by which Alfonso VI purportedly made a grant of privileges to Burgos, which lists García as a confirmant.

In 1079, García was dispatched to Granada to collect the parias (tribute) owed by that taifa to León–Castile. While there he led an army on behalf of Granada against the taifa of Seville. Among the other leaders on this campaign were two Navarrese magnates, Fortún Sánchez and Lope Sánchez, who had formerly been leading men in Navarre and in Castile under Sancho II. With this expedition Alfonso VI may have been intending to produce discord between the taifa kingdoms, furthering his hegemony in the south of the peninsula. Whatever the case, at the time of the attack, the Cid was leading a Castilian embassy to the court of al-Mutamid, ruler of Seville, and he repulsed the Christian and Grenadine attackers at the Battle of Cabra, in the (probably mistaken) belief that he was defending the king's tributary. García and the other Castilian leaders were taken captive and held for three days before being released. Bernard Reilly has read the circumstances as implying that García was then an exile who had taken refuge in the south of the peninsula.

By 1080, the positions of García and his rival the Cid in the eyes of Alfonso had been reversed. By May (or at least by 6 December 1081 The charter, redacted weeks after the last known reference to García as alférez, records Rodrigo González as alférez, although he is only known to have held that post between January 1078 and June 1081. There is a royal charter dated 1077 that refers to "García, count of Nájera" (Garsias comes de Nazara), but he is not known to have received the lordship of Nájera until 1081. At about this time, however, Raymond of Burgundy, a newcomer to the kingdom, was married to the king's eldest daughter, Urraca, and he quickly surpassed García in power, although the latter still confirmed fifteen of twenty-seven royal diplomas of the period 1092–99, more than any other magnate.

In 1096, Peter I of Aragon and Navarre besieged Huesca, a city of the taifa of Zaragoza. In the late fall of 1096, the ruler of Zaragoza, al-Musta'in II, received assistance from his nominal overlord, Alfonso VI, in the persons of García Ordóñez de Nájera and Gonzalo Núñez de Lara. Alongside the Zaragozans, the Castilian counts led their personal retinues against the besiegers, but were defeated on 18 November in the Battle of Alcoraz. García also took part in the Battle of Consuegra on 15 August 1097. This campaign had begun as planned harassment of Aragon, perhaps a concerted action with Zaragoza to re-take Huesca, but it was diverted by the arrival of an Almoravid army in the south centre of the peninsula. The result was a Castilian–Leonese defeat. García's participation in court politics appears to have continued to decline after this. Of twenty-three royal charters issued between 1100 and 1107, a year before his death, he confirmed eleven, still a sizable portion, but now less than half.

On 1 February 1095 García and Urraca granted a fuero to the town of Fresnillo de las Dueñas. The Chronicon mundi states that "Sancho, the king's son, and Count García Fernández and Count Don Martín and many others died" at Uclés. "García Fernández" is probably an error for Ordóñez, if the thirteenth-century Chronicon can be trusted, and Martín is probably Martín Laíñez. The last reference to García as living occurs in a private document of the monastery of Valvanera in the Rioja dated that year. His death left a power vacuum in the Rioja, which for much of the twelfth century fell outside Castilian control.