Ramiro Garcés, Rey de Viguera

Ramiro Garcés (dead by 991) 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. While Theresa pushed for the disinheritance of García's eldest son Sancho II of Pamplona in favour of Ramiro, García compromised and willed the region of Viguera to Ramiro with the title of king.

[source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramiro_Garcés_of_Viguera]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ramiro Garcés (dead by 991) 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. While Theresa pushed for the disinheritance of García's eldest son Sancho II of Pamplona in favour of Ramiro, García compromised and willed the region of Viguera to Ramiro with the title of king.

Ramiro was a subregulus and vassal of his brother. The precise date of his death is not recorded. A surviving document dated 981, but apparently misdated by a decade and actually from 991, reports that he had already died. He had two known children, sons Sancho and García, who succeeded him in turn.

History

In Roman times the territory of La Rioja was inhabited by the tribes of the Berones (central country), Autrigones (upper country, extending also north and west of it) and the Vascones (lower country, extending also north and east of it). It was part of the province of Hispania Tarraconensis.

In Medieval times La Rioja was often a disputed territory. The Visigoths created the Duchy of Cantabria that probably included most of La Rioja, as border march against the Vascones. After the Muslim invasion of 711, La Rioja fell into the Muslim domains of Al Andalus.

In the early 10th century, Sancho I of Pamplona conquered most of the territory, being the lower region around Arnedo under control of his allies the Banu Qasi of Tudela. La Rioja formed the independent Kingdom of Viguera from 970 to about 1005, at which point it became a part of the Kingdom of Pamplona. Nájera, in the Rioja, often served as capital of the kingdom.

After the independence of Castile in 1035, this new kingdom fiercely fought against Pamplona for the possession of Bureba, La Rioja and other territories. In 1076, after the murder of Sancho VI, Navarre was divided and Castile obtained La Rioja and many other Navarrese lands.

Nevertheless, since 1134, García Ramírez the Restorer and his son Sancho VI the Wise fought bitterly with Castile for the recovery of the former Pamplonese domains. Only in 1179 would they reach a peace agreement by which La Rioja went definitively to Castile.

The territory remained divided between the provinces of Burgos and Soria until the administrative reform of Riego in 1822 that created the province of Logroño.

In 1980 it changed its name to province of La Rioja and in 1982 it was constituted as uni-provincial autonomous community with that name.