Abstract

When Alfonso I, king of Aragon and Navarre, died without issue on 8 September 1134, he left a will bequeathing his realms to the Orders of the Temple, St. John of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher. The Aragonese, however, acclaimed as king Alfonso's younger brother, Ramiro II, a monk and bishop-elect; and, forgoing the benefit of a papal dispensation, they arranged his marriage to Agnes, the duke of Aquitaine's sister, clearly hoping to secure the continuity of the royal line as soon as possible. The Navarrese, perhaps for long irked by the union of Aragon and Navarre, at all events unwilling to accept Ramiro II, and basing themselves on the elective rights implicit in the voluntary acceptance of Alfonso I's father as king of Navarre in 1076, turned to García Ramírez, a Navarrese noble of royal but illegitimate descent, and acknowledged him to be their king