García II of Galicia

Political situation in the Northern Iberian Peninsula around 1065:

  Garcia II´s domains (Galicia)

  Badajoz, owing tribute to Garcia

  Seville, owing tribute to Garcia

  Alfonso VI´s domains (León)

  Toledo, owing tribute to Alfonso

  Sancho II´s domains (Castile)

  Zaragoza, owing tribute to Sancho

García II (c. 1042 – 22 March 1090), King of Galicia and Portugal,^[1] was the youngest of the three sons and heirs of Ferdinand I, King of Castile and León, and Sancha of León, whose Leonese inheritance included the lands García would be given.

In the 1065 division of his father's estates, García was given the Galicia, including the County of Portugal, as well as the right to parias from the Taifas of Badajoz and Seville. Calling himself 'King of Galicia and Portugal', he thus became the first to use the title King of Portugal. His power in the south of his polity was somewhat limited until 1071, when he defeated rebel Portuguese Count Nuno Mendes in the Battle of Pedroso. However, shortly after this victory, his brothers united against him and forced García to flee to Seville, partitioned his kingdom between them.

Sancho then annexed the remainder of what had been García's kingdom along with the rest of Alfonso's Kingdom of León but was assassinated in 1072. The reunited kingdom of their father passed to Alfonso, and García then returned from his exile. It is unclear if he hoped to reestablish himself in his kingdom or had been misled by promises of safety from Alfonso, but García was immediately imprisoned in a monastery where he remained until his death sometime around 1090.

Ancestry

Notes