Stephanie, Queen of Navarre

Stephanie or Estefania (died after 1066) was the wife of García Sánchez III of Navarre, making her Queen consort of Navarre. Early chroniclers are in conflict over her parentage.

Stephanie was born at an unknown date, and is first recorded as wife of García in a document dated 1038|40. Norman chronicler Clarius de Sens would make Stephanie wife first of Roger I of Tosny, then of García, and sister of Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona and hence daughter of daughter of Berenguer Ramon I, Count of Barcelona. This would call for prohibitively tight chronology, and does not fit with Roger's known widow, Godehildis, marrying a Norman lord. Adémar de Chabannes has Roger marrying an unnamed daughter of Ermesinde of Carcassonne, widow of Ramon Borrell, count of Barcelona and mother of Berenguer Ramon I, but he makes no mention of Roger's wife then marrying García. It is uncertain if Clarius misplaced Stephanie by a generation or was mistaken in identifying Roger's wife with the later queen of Navarre. French historians of Languedoc tend to see García's wife as daughter of Ermesinde's brother Bernard-Roger, Count of Bigorre and his wife Garsenda, and thus sister of Gerberge, wife of Ramiro I of Aragón.

There are other hints, besides the dubious account of Clarius of Sens, to an earlier marriage by Stephanie. Histoire Générale de Languedoc, giving no quote or source reference, reports the existence of a 1036 marriage contract attributed to Stephanie. An episode related in the Chronica Naierensis tells that a daughter of queen Stephanie by a prior husband was promised as wife to Sancho II of Castile, but she was abducted and married by an illegitimate son of García. Jaime de Salazar y Acha suggests that this represents the authentic account of the marriage of Sancho to his wife Constanza, though traditional accounts give her different parentage. He recognizes the problem with identifying the father with Roger I de Toeny and follows an alternative reconstruction that would make the Iberian crusader a distinct Roger de Toeny, nephew of Roger I.

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