Aznar Sánchez ' onMouseout='HidePop("2857")' href="/topics/Gascon_language">Gascon

Gascon language

Gascon is usually considered as a dialect of Occitan, even though some specialists regularly consider it a separate language. Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn in southwestern France and in the Aran Valley of Spain...

: Aznar Sans) (died 836) was the Duke of Gascony

Duke of Gascony

The Duchy of Vasconia , later known as Gascony, was a Merovingian creation: a frontier duchy on the Garonne, in the border with the rebel Basque tribes...

 from 820. He was the supposed son of Sancho I of Gascony

Sancho I of Gascony

Sancho I López or Lupus Sancho was a Duke of Gascony between the years 801 and 812....

, though he has been identified with Aznar Galíndez I, Count of Aragon.

In 820, Lupo III Centule

Lupo III Centule of Gascony

Lupo III Centule was the Duke of Gascony briefly from 818 until his deposition by Pepin I of Aquitaine in 819...

 rose in rebellion against Carolingian

Carolingian

The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...

 authority and Berengar of Toulouse and Guerin of Provence

Guerin of Provence

Guerin, Garin, Warin, or Werner was the Count of Auvergne, Chalon, Mâcon, Autun, Arles and Duke of Provence, Burgundy, and Toulouse. Guerin stabilised the region against the Saracens from a base of Marseille and fortified Chalon-sur-Saône...

 marched against him, defeated him, and installed Aznar, a count of local provenance, in his place. However, both Aragon

Aragon

Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

 and Navarre

Navarre

Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

 remained outside Carolingian control and western Gascony continued in revolt.

In 824, according to the Vita Hludowici, the counts Aznar and Aeblus

Aeblus

Aeblus, Ebalus, or Ebles was a Frankish count in Gascony early in the ninth century.With Aznar Sánchez, he led a large expedition across the Pyrenees to re-establish control over Navarre...

 (Eblus atque Asenarius committees) led an army against rebellious Pamplona

Pamplona

Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...

. According to the Annales regni Francorum of Einhard

Einhard

Einhard was a Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the Vita Karoli Magni, "one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages."-Public life:Einhard was from the eastern...

, they (Aeblus et Asinarius comites) brought a great deal of wealth with them. They were defeated in a "second Roncesvalles" and Pamplona gained its independence while the two counts were captured. Aznar, however, being a relative (consanguineus) of his captors, according to Astronomus, was released.

Aznar fell out with Berengar's successor in the March of Gothia

Septimania

Septimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. Under the Visigoths it was known as simply Gallia or Narbonensis. It corresponded roughly with the modern...

, Bernard of Septimania. In 828, Gascony revolted again. In 836, Aznar was killed (a horrible death) putting down a revolt in Gascony, which had been in tumult since his absence of 824, and was replaced by his brother Sancho, despite the objections of King Pepin

Pepin I of Aquitaine

Pepin I was King of Aquitaine.-Biography:He was the second son of Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye....

.

Sources

• Collins, Roger. The Basques. Blackwell Publishing: London, 1990.
• Higounet, Charles. Bordeaux pendant le haut moyen age. Bordeaux, 1963.
• Higounet, Charles. "Les Aznars, un tentatif groupement des comtés gascons et pyrénéens au IXe siècle." Annales du Midi, LXI (1949).
• Lewis, Archibald R. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.
• Codera y Zaidin, F. "Expedición a Pamplona de los condes francos Elbo y Aznar." Colección de estudios Árabes, VII, 185–198.
• Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Gascony.