Chapter 6: Growing Pains (919-929)
King Gontzal I (905- )
King of Navarra (919- )
The coronation of King Gontzal I
The death of King Gartzia II had broken the will of the Basque to continue the fight despite commands from their commanders. With their king dead, their numbers cut in half, and the morale of the army broken there was little Duke Antso IV or his commanders could do but flee North to Ipuzkoa, where the King's heir had been residing along with the Queen Dowager Ximena. All Vascon and Navarran nobles of importance had also gathered there in anticipation of the reconquest of Pamplona, as King Gartzia had announced a large feast in celebration of his upcoming victory over the Zaragozans. The King had expected to dine in Pamplona that night, not meet his end at the tip of a Moorish sword.
Upon his return to Ipuzkoa, Duke Antso IV convened the King's council immediately. Over his long reign King Gartzia had acquired a diverse and skilled set of courtiers and councilors from all across his realm. His privy council included natives of Vasconia such as Archbishop Galindo, the Count of Agen, and his nephew Duke Antso, but it also included his skilled Frankish Marshall Siegfried, the Mayor Oria who represented the
Saqaliba who the King had allowed to settle in Tartas years prior, and even Bretons who had settled within Bordeaux to further link it with Brittany.
King Gartzia and his privy council prior to his death
Their first matter to discuss was succession. While many Frankish customs had been adapted over the centuries by the Basque people, the matters of succession had still not been set in stone. It would not have been unprecedented for the crown to have passed to Duke Antso IV, who as the oldest and most military-able member of his dynasty he was the perfect candidate. Many of the kingdom's nobles in fact wanted this to happen, including Count Herramel and Mayor Oria, but the Duke politely refused as he was content to reign solely in Armagnac. Prince Gontzal the grandson of King Gartzia would be King.
The Marshall Sigfried asked for the Prince's coronation to be held at once, hoping the soldiers would be motivated by seeing their new King, but Archbishop Galindo denied the request, claiming that the ceremony should take place in the ancient capital of Pamplona as that would bolster King Gontzal's legitimacy, especially as neither the dethroned King Luis nor King Gartzia had received the crown there. While the Archbishop's proposal would certainly benefit Gontzal's reign, Pamplona would be impossible to retake with the men at hand, and thus Mayor Julian was asked to travel to Nantes seeking the help of King Riwallon II of Brittany.
Seeking to assist his son at once, King Riwallon rode South swiftly accompanied only by his knights and mounted soldiers, unwilling to wait for the infantry to gather as his son was in peril. He was received outside the gates of Ipuzkoa by a mob of armed peasants who sought to force the nobles and the council out of the citadel and march back unto Pamplona, to avenge the King, retake the city, and put an end to the war once and for all.
Believing this mob to be Muslims under orders of the Zaragozan Malik instead of Christian peasants wanting to fight for his son and dead father-in-law, King Riwallon had his cavalry charge unto the unorganized mob, crushing many under the weight of their horses, and putting spears on the backs of all who dared to run away. Those who survived the slaughter would soon begin to spread the word all across the kingdom inspiring others to take up arms. Although he did not know it at the time, King Riwallon had inadvertently set vast swathes of the peasantry against his own son's rule, setting the stage for what would later be known as "the Troubles."
With the mob dispersed, the men of Navarra gathered under the command of Duke Antso IV and joined the Breton knights, beginning their march back south toward Pamplona, where they would find the Zaragozans under new command as Prince Nasraddin had staged a revolt alongside his brother Ibrahim, and seized the throne from their nephew Isa. The newly crowned Nasraddin was a much better commander than his young nephew, but the revolt had costed both sides a great deal of men, men which were sorely needed to fight the Basque now that they had received reinforcements from Brittany.
Both armies met on the outskirts of the city, and despite his numerical inferiority, Malik Nasraddin ordered his men to advance on the Basque-Breton armies hoping his superior skill as commander would allow him to seize the victory. He came very close to his goal as his forces managed to break through the lines of the still demoralized Basque soldiers, where he slew the Duke of Armagnac in single combat, putting the men of Navarra to flight. Seeing the Basque flee, King Riwallon ordered his knights to follow.
Victory now laid within the grasp of Nasraddin, who in his zealous desire to put an end to the fight ordered his men to pursue them. Breaking file, his men began to charge toward the fleeing soldiers in an unorganized fashion, with many even dropping their shields and helmets as it would only slow their chase down. This would be The Zaragozans undoing, as King Riwallon had not attempted to flee the battlefield, but instead had laid a trap for them by feinting a retreat and baiting them into the flat grasslands behind them where his knights were easily able to ride the pursuers down.
The losses on both sides had been substantial. While all three commanders fled with their lives, the men of Zaragoza had all nearly died in the battlefield. The men of Navarra bore the brunt of the losses on their side, even losing Duke Antso IV, but in the end they had won the battle. King Riwallon II stood victorious and proud, having secured the kingdom and its capital for his son Gontzal. The following day he would be crowned King Gontzal I of Navarra.
Following the coronation ceremony, a large feast was held in the newly liberated city of Pamplona, where the men of both Kingdoms celebrated their victory over the Saracens. Even supporters of the old dynasty of Iñiga rejoiced in the hall of their King. Barrels upon barrels of wine were consumed that night, and while most of the fraternizing was amicable, not all who drank managed to keep their tempers high and devolved into fighting each other, while their surrounding peers cheered them on. In one such brawl the old Iñiga banner had been brought low as one of the participants had used it to subdue his opponent, tearing it to shreds. There was no reaction in the crowd, as already most had already began to forget the legacy of their rule. The House of Vasconia reigned supreme.
The nobility of Navarra had fully embraced the new ruling dynasty, but they remained confrontational and at times outright rebellious. Bringing them fully unto the fold would take decades of work for King Gontzal. His council was skilled and experienced, but it like his grandfather were of another time, and soon they would all begin to falter against the passing of time.
Before their time in this world was up however they did assist the King in forging a new law code that would reign over both Vasconia-Armagnac and the Kingdom of Navarra, much to the dismay of his Navarran vassals who had been freed from such control by their monarch, as the kingdom had been crumbling under the Iñigas for the past few decades.
King Gontzal instituted a kingdom-wide ban on carrying weaponry within city walls, that while rarely enforced North of the Pyrenees, helped him suppress revolts from the southern peasantry and nobility. The King also assigned his seneschal and a large contingent of administrators to enforce the law on the South, especially on the nobility who had been scarce with their tax payments to the crown.
The Hamdids of Andalusia were quick to cry out at the ban of weaponry, as despite being Christian, there was a sense of enmity between their Andalusian subjects and the Basque ones, with the latter ones often carrying out attacks on the innocent Andalusians. Without weapons to defend themselves and their subjects, how could they be expected to survive? Under the auspices of his council, King Gontzal looked to appease Countess Hamda by endorsing her claim over the lands of Tudela who were held as an independent county at the time. While he would not personally attack them to press the Hamdid claim, he would allow his vassal to carry out martial operations in foreign land independently of the crown.
The Galinda family of Aragon were far more problematic than their Hamdid neighbors however, as he often toed the line between conspiracy, sedition, and treason during his dealings with the King. The elder of the family, the Count Karlos of Huesca, had valiantly fought alongside King Gartzia and Duke Antso in the fated battle of Zaragoza, and for his service he argued he was owed certain rights and privileges over the crown. He would ultimately be dissuaded from any drastic actions this early in the King's reign, but he remained a troublesome sight in the Kingdom as his tax collection practices were often brutal, terrorizing his people in order to drain every last penny from them. His actions along with King Riwallon's slaughter of the Ipuzcoan peasants would be the two main factors behind the beginning of "The Troubles."
The Troubles would be a period comprising the decades of 920 and 930 and used to describe the period of turmoil following the ascension of King Gontzal to the throne of Navarra. These troubles would be characterized by a plethora of peasant revolts all across Navarra for all sorts of reasons. From stringent taxation practices in the South, ethnic unrest throughout the Andalusian/Basque borders and in Vasconia with the Breton and Saqaliba settlers, to even revolts fomented by the Franks through bribery.
While The Troubles comprises two decades, it's really the first decade when most of the bloodshed occurred, as the latter decade would only have three uprisings, as opposed to over ten revolts during the first decade, meaning more than one revolt per year. Untrained and poorly armed, most of the rabble would be easily cut down by the royal forces, but the frequency of them forced King Gontzal to hire mercenaries to better deal with the rebels. While efficient as their name suggest, The Slaughterers would themselves further incite rebellions as their unrestrained brutality upon the peasantry inspired more would-be rebels to take up arms against them.
The Mercenaries were often able to deal with the uprisings on their own, but they were frequently assisted by the local nobles who sought to end the insurgencies faster. In one such occasion during the revolt of Perigord the King's sole brother and heir would meet his end at the end of a pitchfork while defending his lands from the rebels. His untimely death would destroy the plans of King Riwallon II, as he had wished that upon his death Prince Vela would ascend to the throne of Brittany rather than his older brother Gontzal, as he already ruled a kingdom and it would be unpractical and quite difficult to rule two kingdoms at once.
Despite the constant revolts, the Kingdom of Navarra continued to thrive. The Malik of Zaragoza sought to purchase a truce after their previous one had expired, and the King agreed as to continue the peace within Navarra, as the frequent rebellions made it difficult to wage war abroad regardless.
The ports of Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Mimizan began to expand as the harbors bustled with trade, and their riches further attracted more riches. Soon this was taken notice by the Sephardi people across Iberia who began to flock the Kingdom and even established coastal communities, expanding both theirs and the Kingdom's wealth.
With his dynasty now ruling on both sides of the Pyrenees, King Gontzal could not afford to make the Franks in Aquitaine and Paris his sole focus, and he began fomenting alliances with his neighbors. He began his diplomatic endeavors in the South by purchasing a truce with the Kingdom of Asturias, that while not in a hostile disposition toward Navarra, could easily pounce on the kingdom in a moment of weakness. He followed this by marrying the daughter of the Asturian countess Suraya, ensuring the men of Valladolid would come to his aid if they were ever needed.
Following his union with Queen Caterina, King Gontzal began funding his vassal Count Armengol in his endeavors against the count of Tudela, ultimately ending on a Hamdid victory as Armengol successfully pressed his claim over the county, which allowed the King to expand indirectly without having raised a single banner. King Gontzal would then follow on this "victory" by raiding across the Garonne into Frankish lands. Unable to resist the Basque forces, King Carloman II was forced to cede the county of Saintogne to King Gontzal, getting him even closer to forming a land link to his father's Kingdom of Brittany.
Following this defeat, King Carloman travelled South to the lands of his father's former vassals in Languedoc-Toulouse-Barcelona, where the Gellonid Dynasty reigned supreme. Both parties were concerned over the rise and streak of victories by the Vascons and wished to contain them. Duke Berengeuer agreed to swear fealty to this new Aquitanian King, but their feudal contract had minimal obligations, and as he reigned over most of the Kingdom it was really Berenguer who was King in Aquitaine, using his ally and liege Carloman II as a puppet. Their newfound relation would deter King Gontzal's ambitions over either ruler's realm, and trouble in the North would soon force him to march in aid of his father, in a prelude of what would years down the line be the Breton Succession Crisis.
Here's a little map of the Kingdom of Navarra as it stands at the end of the decade, and the major houses within.
The Vasconian Dynasty rules the North undisputed. In Armagnac the cadet branch continues to rule over the Duchy and the county of Toulouse, while In Vasconia proper lays the demesne of the King. North of the Garonne river laid the lands of Prince Vela, but upon his death they passed unto the King and are now mostly ruled by local counts of no real renown.
In Ipuzkoa and Bizkaia the house of Iñiga still reigns, although no longer as Kings but as mere counts. Led by the dethroned Luis, their house and Luis himself would become great allies of the King in the following decade, as despite the previous enmity they worked together for the good of the kingdom.
In Najera and Tudela reign the Hamdids, an Andalusian dynasty of Converso and/or Muslim descent. While they are a fiercely independent bunch, they remain loyal to the crown so long as they're allowed to embark in their own little expeditions across the border. Satisfied with their pressed claim over Tudela, they may seek to further expand their domains in the future.
Across the Pyrenees from Armagnac lay the lands of House Galinda, vassals of dubious loyalty and of treacherous disposition. Their scion the count Karlos has proved his worth in battle alongside the forces of Vasconia, but his eccentricity and harsh use of force on the peasantry have left the Galinda in a precarious position, especially as they lack rule over the county of Sobrarbe which was their ancestral homeland. In the upcoming years they would pester the King unto pressing their claim over the county, forcing the Kingdom into a difficult war that would ultimately end inconclusively and lead to a second war years later, a war that would nearly break the Kingdom.
. However, the Vascons were instead slaughtered by the Zaragozan onslaught. Hopefully Navarra, and Vasconia can recover from such a debilitating defeat...
