The reign of King Fernando (1099 - 1042)
Its December of the year 1099, and Fernando saw his father fall from the horse, but didn’t believe he died until the surgeon approached.
Soon it was proclaimed by all the campment, “the king is dead long live the king!”
With the death of his father, he became King Fernando. With murcian troops close behind he had no choice but to retreat, hoping to meet with the mercenary company his father had hired.
He dispatches riders to meet with the mercenaries as soon as possible and order them to march quickly.
At night the army stops to rest and the King receive reports from a rider, reporting that he saw fires of the enemy encampment half a day ride from here. Without a moment to lose, he calls all his generals in order to discuss what to do. “The situation is dire your highness, we cannot hope to beat them with a frontal attack. We are outnumbered and demoralized because of the least battle. We need those mercs to arrive soon.”The king thought about it and said “We may have no choice, at the moment we are the only army between the Arabs and Christian lands, we must stop them. We must be prepared at all times. If the mercs don’t arrive by dusk, we will have no choice but to attack, the enemy is too close for us to outrun it. You are all dismissed”.
The King went to his tent, trying to get some sleep and hoping its riders contacted the mercs and that they are on their way.
At midday there was still no sign of the mercs, the situation was worse than before, riders report a second, smaller, army coming from the north.
“Somehow they went around us and will try to flank us! Soldiers to arms!” he screamed.
The new comers were moving fast, and, when they were closer the King noticed that they were using the kingdom`s banners. “We are saved” he thought. They were the mercs who finally arrived.
With both forces combined, the King prepared for battle.
Both armies clashed, the sound of steel and the screams or the wounded and dying was terrible, but after a few hours the battle was finished. The troops of Emir Bakhti I of Murcia were crushed, and the retreating soldiers reformed at Cordoba. Where they were annihilated by a combined force of Navarrese and fresh Scottish troops. There was little room for celebration for the King.
It was the month of March 1101 and after various campaigns, the king received a letter, his cousin count Antonino of Najera has rebelled!
The King crushed the letter and screamed “What treachery is this!” he then assembled his royal bodyguards, and 1000 to retake his cousnin`s territories.
A few days later he was besieging the gates of Najera, his cousin still inside.
This took a few months, and into. The Kings cousin was incarcerated and his lands confiscated.
The war against Murcia still raged on. A new army had to be assembled. The King ordered new levies raised and trained.
The King decided the war against Murcia needed to end. He decided to have one decisive battle. For this he chose the province of Almansa.
In 1103 both, navarrese and murcian armies clashed once more.
This time it was a massacre. One of the murcian flanks panicked and retreated, the army was enveloped. Only a dozen survived.
The war was far from over, still the castle of Almansa was standing. The siege lasted 2 years approximately.
The following years various small skirmishes took place, finally the war Navarrese Holy war for Murcia ended in a white peace in the year 1107.
The king didn’t even sit on his throne that he received news of several of his vassals taking arms against his rule. He dealt with them swiftly. In almost 1 year the realm was at last in peace.
Come the year 1108, and the kingdom was threatened yet again. The 2nd Sevillian Holy War for Valencia begins, declared by Emir Fath, the cruel.
The war was long and bloody, the castles at Valencia changed hand numerous times, but in may 1113 the navarrese armies achieved victory!
For the next few years the King focused on administrating its realm, rebuilding the towns after the wars. He sealed an alliance with the duke of Asturias by marrying his daughter Bianca to him in 1115. Then in 1116 his son and heir, Prince Antso, entered a bethrodal with a Byzantine princess and was granted the County of Valencia by the King.
By 1117 the King got a claim on the County of Denia. He decided to press for it, starting the Navarres-Algraves Ducal war over Denia. Through careful diplomacy he secured the help of the Kingdom of Leon in the war.
Victory came quickly, by 1119 the last of algravese forces surrendered and Denia became part of the Kingdom of Navarra.
On January 1120, the King had to bury his daughter. She died suddenly at age 27. The King grieved his daughter for various weeks, it was his oldes daughter.
Then by the month of June he bethroded his second daughter, Princess Ana, to the King of England.
An year later, in 1121, the King`s mother, Matilda of Tuscany dies, leaving her duchy to King Fernando. This events cause internal turmoil, the King has not even a chance to mourn his mother when he has to go into battle once more.
The County of Ferrara attempts to gain independence from the Duchy of Tuscany, initially they won battles, but when the Kings troops arrived things changed.
Meanwhile, the King`s brother, Prince Gomez, attempted to claim Tuscany for himself with the support of the Queen of Leon, and the counts of Castellon, Calatayud and Valencia. What hurt the king more, worse than his brother, was that his own son Antso had taken arms against him.
Ferrara fell quickly, but the forces of his brother matched the King`s. The war lasted for years all across the realm. Luckily his brother died of natural causes in july, 1125, ending the war.
The king had no other heir than the son that betrayed him, so he decided to grant his son the Duchy of Tuscany in hopes that it will prevent him from revolting again.
These wars were followed by 5 years of peace, but in 1130 war started again. Arabian troops attempted to invade the Kingdom`s land, but they were quickly expelled from Tarragona, Lleida and Urgell. A white peace ensued.
7 years of peace followed, until the Kabylian claim on Barcelona War begun in 1137. The realm levies were assembled once more, and Fernando sends an expedition into the enemy lands, crushing the armies there and beginning to siege the provinces to achieve peace. The war finally ended in 1139, with a victory for the Kingdom of Navarra.
In 1140 various events take place. Queen Consort Alice de Valois dies of old age. And Fernando marries Ana de Foix, daughter of the Countess of Foix, a young woman who will hopefully give him many children, and hopefully a new heir.
Meanwhile Navarrense troops were busy fighting in Africa against the Arabs. Suddenly the Denian war of Independence erupted, because most of the troops were fighting in Africa, the King had to use mercenaries to crush the rebels. Luckily, the realm coffers were full. A mercenary force was dispatched, and brought down the rebels in the middle of 1141.
The King lived the last year of his life in his castle, attending to the administration of the kingdom. He decided to go into battle one last time, commanding his armies. He did and was victorious, but got sickness while in the campaign. He recovered some days later, but on September 1142 King Fernando of Navarra died while sleeping at the age of 68.
