Sancho IV of Navarre

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Sancho IV Garcés (c.1039 - 4 June 1076), called of Peñalén or the Noble (Spanish: El de Peñalén), was King of Navarre from 1054 to 1076. He was the eldest son and heir of García V and Estefanía de Foix.

He was only fourteen years of age when he was proclaimed king in the camp after his father's death in the field at the battle of Atapuerca. He was under his mother's regency until he was eighteen and she was dead (1058). Faithful to her husband's wishes, she continued the support of the monastery he founded at Nájera, where Navarrese monarchs are interred.

With his uncle, King Ramiro of Aragón, he forced al-Muqtadir, king of Zaragoza, to submission and exacted a tribute.

He was in constant and various conflicts with Castile culminating in the so-called War of the Three Sanchos (1067-1068). Sancho II, "the Strong", of Castile was looking to retake Bureba and Alta Rioja from Sancho IV, whose father had managed to retain them from Ferdinand I of Castile when Ferdinand tried to regain all former Castilian territories. Sancho (of Navarre) asked for aid from his cousin, Sancho of Aragón, and together they attacked. Defeated by Sancho the Strong and his trusted alférez (supreme commander of Castilian forces) El Cid, Sancho lost Bureba, Alta Rioja, and Álava to his cousin Sancho (of Castile).

He was assassinated in Peñalén, hence his nickname, by a conspiracy headed by his brother Ramón (el Fratricida, the Fratricide).

Upon his assassination, both his cousins Alfonso VI of Castile and Sancho of Aragón invaded Navarre. Alfonso occupied La Rioja and Sancho was proclaimed king.