The Kingdom of Viguera was a short-lived pocket kingdom around the 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...

se town of Viguera

Viguera

Viguera is a municipality in La Rioja, Spain. It includes the villages Castañares de las Cuevas, El Puente, and Panzares.-History:The earliest documentary evidence is in the Berber historian Ajbar Machmua, who told that Abd ar-Rahman I recovered La Rioja in 759, after it having been conquered by...

 from 970 to 1005. It is said to have been created by the testament of García Sánchez I of Pamplona for his second son, Ramiro Garcés

Ramiro Garcés of Viguera

Ramiro Garcés was the King of Viguera from 970 to his death. He was the son of García Sánchez I of Pamplona by his second wife, Theresa of León...

, and comprised the region today called La Rioja. There is even some debate that it was a kingdom at all, rather than simply being the holdings of royal infantes, who were referred to as "king" at the time.

In 918 Ordoño II of León

Ordoño II of León

Ordoño II was king of Galicia from 910, and king of Galicia and León from 914 until his death. He was the second son of King Alfonso III the Great and his wife, Jimena of Pamplona....

 and Sancho I of Pamplona

Sancho I of Pamplona

Sancho I Garcés was king of Pamplona from 905 to 925. He was a son of García Jiménez, who was king of "another part of the kingdom" of Pamplona and Dadildis de Pallars, his second wife...

 invaded Viguera to clear out the Banu Qasi

Banu Qasi

The Banu Qasi, Banu Kasi, Beni Casi or Banu Musa were a Basque Muladi dynasty that ruled the upper Ebro valley in the 9th century, before being displaced in the first quarter of the 10th century.-Dynastic beginnings:...

. By 923, the area had been subdued and fortified. From 924 until 972 the dominant person in the region was Fortún Galíndez

Fortún Galíndez

Fortún Galíndez was a powerful nobleman in the Kingdom of Navarre in the tenth century. He is the only recorded Navarrese of that time to bear the title dux . He was entrusted by Sancho I with the newly conquered territory of the Rioja Alta around Nájera...

, who bore the titles prefect and duke and according to some private charters "reigned" sub (under) Sancho I and García.

King García had, at the insistence of his second wife, Theresa of León, willed Viguera to her son Ramiro. On García's death, his eldest son Sancho II inherited Navarre and immediately recognised his brother Ramiro in Viguera in accordance with their father's wishes. Ramiro was succeeded by his son Sancho Ramírez

Sancho Ramírez of Viguera

Sancho Ramírez was the second King of Viguera from 991 or earlier until his death. He was the son and successor of Ramiro Garcés. Following the death of his father, he appears in documents with his uncle Sancho II Garcés and his brother García Ramírez...

, by 991, and Sancho was succeeded in turn by his brother García Ramírez

García Ramírez of Viguera

García Ramírez was the third and final King of Viguera. From 991 he appears in royal charters of his uncle Sancho II, along with his brother Sancho Ramírez...

, who perhaps acted as a co-king prior to his brother's death in 1002 or shortly thereafter. García left only daughters and simply disappears from the historical record between 1005 and 1030, and Viguera once again became part of Navarre.

The region of Viguera was known as La Rioja as early as 1099.

Sources

• Cañada Juste, Alberto. "Un milenario navarro: Ramiro Garcés, rey de Viguera", Princípe de Viana 42 (1982), pp. 21-37.
• Ubieto Arteta, Antonio. "Monarcas navarros olvidados: los reyes de Viguera", Hispania X (1950), pp. 8-25.