Salutati made Florence the capital of this major
movement in European cultural and intellectual life
through his prestige as chancellor; the fame of his
public letters; his eagerness to relate classical studies
to moral and religious problems of his day; his effort
to encompass within a continuous tradition the ancient
Latin authors, the church fathers, and the medieval
rhetoricians; and his successful introduction of Hellenic
studies into the Latin west. That Florence was the center
of humanistic studies down to the mid-fi fteenth century
testifi es enduring intellectual legacy.
See also Petrarca, Francesco
Further Reading
Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati, ed. Francesco Novati. Fonti per
la Storia d’Italia, 15–18. Rome. 1891–1916.
Ullman, Berthold L. The Humanisum of Coluccio Salutati. Me-
dioevo e Umanesimo, 4 Padua: Antenore, 1983.
Witt, Ronald G. Hercules at the Crossroads: The Life, Works, and
Thought of Coluccio Salutati. Durham, N.C.: Duke University
Press, 1983.
Ronald G. Witt
SANCHO III, KING OF NAVARRE
(r. 1000–1035)
The reign of Sancho III Garcés, known as “el Mayor”
(1000–1035) was a pivotal one, not only for Navarre but
for all of Christian Spain. Possessed with prodigious po-
litical talents, he brought his small kingdom of Navarre
to its apogee in the Middle Ages. Because the decline of
Muslim infl uence in the region left him relatively free
to focus his attentions elsewhere, he made no serious
efforts to continue the Reconquest. Instead, he set about
unifying all the Christian states except Castile under his
rule. His cultural and political infl uences were French,
and by his outlook and his actions he helped draw Spain
out of its isolation and incorporate it into the rest of
Western Christendom.
His inheritance was small—little more than a string
of tiny counties in the foothills of the Pyrenees—but
by skillful manipulation of marriage alliances, Sancho
was able to widen his domains by acquiring adjacent
territories. An important factor in his success was the
marriage of his sister Urraca to King Alfonso V of
León. Through Urraca, Sancho III continued to be a real
power in that kingdom even after Alfonso’s death. While
Urraca served as regent for her son, Vermudo, Sancho
gained control of Aragón and the old Marches counties
of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza to the east of Aragón.
From his base in León, Sancho extended his infl uence
to Castillian affairs through his brother-in-law García
Sanchez, the count of Castile. When García Sanchez was
murdered in 1029, Sancho took possession of Castile in
his sister’s name and designated his own son, Fernando,
as heir. The Navarrese dynasty was fi rmly established in
Castile in 1032 when Fernando married his fi rst cousin
Sancha, sister of Vermudo III, whose dowry brought
to Navarre the disputed lands between the Cea and
Pisguerga rivers.
Not all of Sancho’s attempts to bring the Pyrenean
states under Navarrese hegemony were so fruitful. By
holding out the prospect of a military alliance against
the Muslims in the central Ebro basin, he forced the
count of Barcelona, Ramón Berenguer I (1018–1035), to
become his vassal, although neither party would benefi t
much from this coalition. He tried to press his rights to
succession in the duchy of Gascony, but his attempt to
link the two Basque-speaking regions under one banner
ultimately failed.
His political strength remained in Spain, however,
and the high point of his career took place in 1034 when
he occupied of the city of León, unseating his nephew
Vermudo. Finally, possessing a political authority that
encompassed Navarre, León, Aragón, and Castile, he
styled himself Emperor of Hispania (“rex Dei gratia
Hispaniarum”) and coined money in affi rmation of his
new imperial dignity, thereby laying claim to a penin-
sular supremacy that had previously been attributed to
the king of León.
His imperial career was short-lived, however. He died
suddenly the next year, and Vermudo III regained León,
ruling it until 1037. Although he governed a unifi ed
kingdom, Sancho’s adherence to the patrimonial concept
of kingship, as was the custom in France, which declared
royal domains heritable and divisible among his heirs,
made any permanent union of these states impossible.
In his will Sancho stipulated that his several realms be
divided among his sons, all of whom eventually bore the
title of king: Navarre was granted to García III Sánchez
(1035–1054); Castile, to Fernando I (1035–1065); and
Aragon, to Ramiro I (1035–1063). As a result, the new
frontier kingdoms of Castile and Aragón attained the
status of kingdoms, and ultimately would overshadow
Navarre and León.
His permanent infl uence on medieval Spanish culture
extended far beyond territorial expansion and royal in-
heritances, however. During his reign, feudal concepts
of law and landholding current in France penetrated
into the peninsula. Under his aegis, Romanesque artistic
styles, especially in architecture, became well estab-
lished in Spain. He encouraged the pilgrimage to San-
tiago de Compostela, a principle vehicle for transmission
of French ideas. For the convenience of the pilgrims, he
modifi ed and improved the diffi cult route through Álava
and the Cantabrian Mountains. And during his reign
Cluniac reform was introduced into the monasteries of
Oña, Lerie, and San Juan de la Peña.SANCHO III, KING OF NAVARRE