Fortún Ochoiz

Fortún Ochoiz or Fortún Ochoa (floruit 1013–1050) was a Navarrese nobleman, diplomat, and statesman. Throughout his known career he held the tenencia of La Rioja, an important marcher lordship, the rump of the Kingdom of Viguera, and the foundation for the Lordship of Los Cameros. Fortún helped fix the border between southwestern Navarre and the Kingdom of Castile, and he married into the royal family and fought alongside his father-in-law, García Sánchez III in the Reconquista. His ancestors may have belonged to the Banu Qasi, themselves descended from Visigothic nobility, and his descendants continued to rule their patrimony until the twelfth century.

"Ochoiz" is a patronymic derived from the Basque name Ochoa or Oggoa, which meant "wolf" (modern Basque otso) and was probably used interchangeably with the Castilian name Lope (also "wolf", modern Spanish lobo), the patronymic of which is López.

The earliest reference to Fortún is from a list of witnesses to a document of 1013, at which time he was already ruling Viguera. From at least 1015 to around 1024 Fortún was the ruler (dominator) of Meltria (a region today known as Valdemetria). His lordship extended on both sides of the Ebro. The territory comprising Fortún's march was described in the carta de arras of king García (1040) as "[the fortress of] Viguera, both Cameros, Valle de Arnedo and all the villages of Cantabria." "Cantabria" probably refers more specifically to the Cerro de Cantabria, a region north of the Ebro by the mouth of the , where the city of Logroño is today. Fortún held this region at least from 1032 until 1044. The two Cameros were Viejo Camero and Nuevo Camero and included the valleys of the Iregua and the . The "Valle de Arnedo" was the valley of the Cidacos.

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