Fortún Ochoiz
[2] 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.
Sometime later, probably between 1028 and 1054,[9] Fortún Ochoiz and his neighbour across the border in Castile, Nuño Álvarez de Carazo, re-confirmed the division and the frontier.
[11] De divisione regno inter Pampilona et Castella, sicut ordinaverunt Sancio comite et Sancio regis Pampilonensem, sicut illis visum fuit una concordia et convenientia.Id est de summa cuculla ad rivo Valle Venarie, ad Gramneto, ibi est molione sito et acollato Monnio, et a Biciercas et a Penna Nigra; deinde ad flumen Razon ubi nascit; deinde per medium monte de Calcanio, per summo lumbo et media Galaza, et ibi molione est sito, et usque ad flumen Tera, ibi est Garrahe antiqua civitate deserta, et ad flumen Duero.Duenno Nunno Alvaro de Castella et sennor Furtun Oggoiz de Pampilona teste et confirmantes.
[14][15] In his early appearances in the surviving documents, Fortún's position is one of lesser importance, but he had risen in rank by the end of the reign of Sancho III (1004–35).
In 1049 García Sánchez III conceded to Fortún certain heritable properties,[19] some "already in your power" (hodie sunt in tua potestate), in Nalda, Leza, and Jubera, "because of your good service which you have given me" (propter tuum bonum servitium quod michi fecisti).
Fortún's disappearance from the record in 1050 may represent a retirement of sorts in light of the straining of the relationship between the bellicose kings of Castile and Navarre.
Nuño Álvarez disappears from court in 1047, around the same time, perhaps both returned to their delimited frontier zones, for Fortún was still ruling Viguera after 1047.
[23] It has sometimes been assumed that the various lords (seniores) named Fortúnez (Fortunionis) who appear in the lower Rioja during the mid-eleventh century were children of Fortún Ochoiz and his wife Mencía.
[25] It has been speculated, on the basis of onomastics and geography, that Fortún was a relative of the Banu Qasi, a muwallad clan that was once the third power in Spain, and that his position in the Rioja may have derived from this connexion.
The Islamic historian al-Udri records that the Banu Qasi became extinct in the 920s, with the loss of the upper Rioja to Navarre.
[26] The original power base of Banu Qasi may have been the triangle formed by Ejea, Olite, and Tudela north of the Ebro.
[29] It appears then that the land controlled by the Banu Qasi in the ninth century, the kingdom of Viguera in the tenth, and Fortún Ochoiz in the eleventh had the same extension.
The señorío of the Cameros in the twelfth century may be a fourth historical appearance of this semi-independent network of regional fiefs.
The spelling of Fortún's patronymic is also given, as is his relative position in the list of witnesses and/or confirmants which would appear at the end of the document.
