250 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINPam pion a to Najera, and the kings thenceforth styled themselves by
reference to both places. However, the danger of Leonese hegemony
declined with the death of Ramiro II in 951, and the counts of Castille,
who developed a virtually proprietary interest in the monastery of San
Millan de la Cogolla near Najera, were increasingly drawn into the
Navarrese orbit and became linked with its royal dynasty when Sancho
Garces II married Urraca, the much-wedded daughter of Fermin
Gonzalez. It was their great grandson Fernando I, the first King of
Castille, who was to subjugate Leon (see Table II).The Frankish March in Catalonia
BECAUSE of the geography of the peninsula, the old Romano-Visigothic
provinces of Tarraconensis, comprising the Ebro valley and the Catalan
seaboard, and of Narbonnensis, to the north of the Pyrenees, were
less susceptible to direct control or military attack from the Cordoban
Amirate than the Asturias, Galicia and Leon. These north-eastern
regions had frequently resisted the authority of the Visigothic kings,
and in so doing had on occasion looked northward to their Frankish
neighbours for assistance. Such links were made concrete by the
annexation of some of this territory by the Carolingian monarchy in
the early ninth century. The period that precedes that, from 711 to
the end of the eighth century is, however, peculiarly dark. It is certain
that an independent kingdom existed briefly in the two provinces
after the defeat of Roderic. A King Achila struck coins at Zaragoza,
Narbonne, Gerona and Tarragona.^47 He also features in ninth-and
tenth-century regnal lists of the Visigothic kings, where he is given a
successor called Ardo, of whom no coins are known.^48
This realm survived for a short period as the new conquerors were
busy imposing their rule on the rest of the peninsula, but in 720 an
Arab expedition reached and captured Narbonne, probably ending
the life of this kingdom. The three-year reign of Achila II, who was
in all likelihood initially in rebellion against Roderic, of whom no
coins are known from this region, would thus fall into the years 710
to 713, and the seven years of Ardo into the period 713 to 720.
Although garrisons were established in the principal towns, no Arab
or Berber settlement is recorded as having been made north of the
Pyrenees, whereas the Ebro valley was so heavily colonised that no
significant inroads could be made upon it by the Christian powers
before the eleventh century.