Gonzalo Sánchez of Aragon

Gonzalo Sánchez (died 997?) was a younger son of King Sancho II of Pamplona and Queen Urraca Fernández. His elder brother was King García II and he had another brother, Ramiro (died 992), and a sister, Urraca. In 996–97, he was ruling the county of Aragon alongside his mother.[1]

Only two documents from the years 996 and 997 make mention of Gonzalo's rule in Aragon. Both were issued by King García II and include a clause specifying that at that time "my mother Queen Urraca and my brother Gonzalo [were] ruling in Aragon."[2] Gonzalo was also present and confirmed the above charters.[3] Nothing else about the rule (or reign) of Gonzalo and Urraca is known,[1] but the historian Gonzalo Martínez Díez supposed him to have been a regulus (sub-king) ruling Aragon under the ultimate authority of his brother in Pamplona and with the assistance of his experienced mother. This situation would match that which obtained between 947 and 958 when Sancho II ruled Aragon as king under his father, García I, with the help of his guardian, Count Fortún Jiménez.[4]

Gonzalo's sister, Urraca, married al-Mansur, the hajib of the Caliphate of Córdoba, and had by him a son named Abd al-Rahman, but nicknamed Sanchuelo ("little Sancho") after his grandfather. In or about 997, the Pamplonans led an expedition against Calatayud and the governor's brother was killed. In response the hajib ordered the execution of 50 prisoners previously captured in expeditions against the cities of Pamplona and Uncastillo. According to Ibn Darraj, he had the young Abd al-Rahman personally behead one of his own uncles. It is possible that that uncle was Gonzalo, who is not recorded after 997.[5] He was certainly dead by the start of the reign of his nephew, Sancho III, in 1004.[6]