Last modified: 2019-10-06 by ivan sache
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The municipality of Castillo de Garcimuñoz (139 inhabitants in 2018; 8,221 ha) is located 70 km south of Cuenca.
Castillo de Garcimuñoz is named for the castle (castillo) and García Muñoz, the knight who seized the castle from the Moors a few years after the conquest of Cuenca by Alfonso VIII (1177). The castle is built on a height known in the Roman times as Segar. Renamed to Al-Borch during the Muslim rule, the place was seized in 1172 by the Alomhads from Seville in an expedition ordered by Sultan Yusuf. The region known of La Mancha de Montearagón was subsequently defended by a network of fortifications.
Alfonso X appointed his brother, Infante Manuel, Adelante Mayor of the
former Mancha de Montearagón, which included the provinces of Alicante, Murcia and La Mancha, subsequently renamed to the domain of Villena.
Manuel's cousin, Sancho IV, increased the territory; his son, Infante
Juan Manuel, lord of Villena in 1298, spent most of his life in the
castle of Garcimuñoz, where he wrote most of his works and which was the
birth place of his children. His daughter, Constanza Manuel, was married
to Alfonso IX, who subsequently repudiated her to marry Infante María of
Portugal; as a retaliation, Juan Manuel declared war to Alfonso IX, from the four main towns of the Marquisate of Villena: Alarcón, Chinchilla,
Villena, and Garcimuñoz. The king broke the Infante's alliance with
Aragón and attacked his domain from Cuenca and Murcia. The Infante reconciled with the king but promised his daughter to Prince Peter of
Portugal, Alfonso IX's enemy. After a military defeat, Juan Manuel
exiled to Aragón while Constanza eventually went to Portugal, where she
would be the mother of the future King Ferdinand I.
Juan Manuel married his second daughter, Juana, to Henry of Trastámara,
Alfonso XI's son, subsequently King of Castile Henry II. Juana was the
mother of John I of Castile.
Juan Manuel was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand, who died a few years
later; his daughter Blanca, who had inherited the domain under the
tutorship of Iñigo López de Orozco, died in 1360.
The castle was transferred in 1436 to Navarre, the Marquisate of Villena being included in of the dowry of Infante Blanca, who married the crown
prince of Castile, subsequently King Henry IV. Castillo de Garcimuñoz
and other towns recognized the Navarrese sovereignty; Rodrigo de
Villadrando, Count of Ribadeo, was appointed lord of Castillo de
Garcimuñoz but could not take possession of his domain. In 1444, Juan
Pacheco was erected Marquess of Villena by Infante Henry; in 1449, John
II offered him the castles of Chinchilla and Castillo de Garcimuñoz to
compensate the loss of Medellín, which was a strategic gain for the
marquess. Pacheco rebuilt the fortress of Castillo de Garcimuñoz, where
he established the "Little Court", soon the genuine center of the
cultural, economical and political life in Castile. A main opponent to
Isabel the Catholic, Pacheco withdrew to the fortress; Jorge Manrique,
Pedro Ruiz de Alarcón and Pedro Fajardo eventually seized the castle,
but Manrique was killed during the assault. When the conflict ended in
1480, Castillo de Garcimuñoz was transferred from Diego López Pacheco to
Menca Pacheco, a niece of Constable Pedro Fernández de Velasco.
[Asociación Infante Don Juan Manuel]
Ivan Sache, 22 June 2019
The flag of Castillo de Garcimuñoz is prescribed by an Order issued on
23 August 2004 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on
2 September 2004 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 161,
pp. 14,141-14,142 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular panel in proportions 2:3, a vertical yellow stripe at hoist, the rest of the flag, garnet. In the center on the garnet panel, a yellow castle.
Ivan Sache, 22 June 2019
