The úñHouse of Zúñiga is a Spanish noble lineage who took their name from their domain. Various members of the family were distinguished in the service of the Spanish crown in Europe and the Americas as viceroys, governors, military, diplomats, writers and members of religious orders. Charles I of Spain in 1530 named two members of the family, the Duke of Béjar and Plasencia and the Count of Miranda del Castañar, among his Immemorial Grandees, while eight members of the family were inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Roots and Origin
Sancho Iñiguez (1040-1110) was alférez mayor (a hereditary court office held by high nobility of the king's banner bearer and high military commander) of Alfonso the Battler, King of Aragón and Navarre, and lord of the estate and valley of Stunica (today Zúñiga / Estuniga), located in the district of Estella in Navarre. He was the first of the lineage who called himself Sancho Iñiguez de Stunica at the beginning of the 12th century. Members of his house would later be variously known as Estunega, Estuniga, Astunica, Stunica, Estúñiga or Stúñiga.
Alvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán, 1st Duke of Bejar and Plasencia, head of the House of Stunica/Estúñiga, castilianized the surname to Zúñiga after the pact of reconciliation with the queen of Castile and León, Isabella I (known as Isabel la Católica), signed on 10 April 1476.
Coat of arms of the House of Zúñiga
The original coat of arms of the House of Zúñiga was a shield ground in gules (red) with a band in or (gold/yellow).
Sancho VII of Navarre changed his coat of arms to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on 16 July 1212, where he and his knights defeated the Black Guard of the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nasir, known as Miramamolin. He changed his coat of arms from an eagle in sable (black) to a shield ground in gules (red), a chain of or (gold/yellow) with eight links, and one green emerald in its center. The chain represented the stockade composed of the Black Guard and the emerald symbolized the caliph who was known by his nickname the Green.
The king's cousin Iñigo Ortiz de Stunica, 2nd Count of Marañón, Lord of Stunica, Mendavía and other towns, who participated with his son Diego in the defeat of the Black Guard at Las Navas de Tolosa, also changed his coat of arms adding a chain of or (gold/yellow) with eight links as border. Other knights of Navarre who participated in the defeat of the Black Guard stockade also added the chain to their coats of arms including Ramón de Peralta, Rodrigo Navarro, Ortun Diaz Urbina, Pedro Maza and Iñigo de Mendoza.
In 1270, Iñigo Ortiz de Stunica's son Diego López de Stunica changed the coat of arms of his house to mourn the deaths of Louis IX of France and Theobald II of Navarre who both died during the Eighth Crusade called by Pope Clement IV. The coat of arms of the House of Zúñiga from 1270 onward has been a shield ground in argent (silver/white), a band of sable (black) and a chain in or (gold/yellow) with eight links as a border.
Branches of the lineage
Civil war broke out in Navarre, beginning 1274, due to the quarrel over the tutelage during the minority of queen Joan I of Navarre and her matrimony with dauphin Philip IV of France the Fair, arranged by the queen mother Blanche de Artois (niece of Saint Louis IX of France). This was de facto an annexation of the Kingdom of Navarra by the crown of France. Iñigo Ortiz de Stunica (1255-1315), lord of Stunica, alférez mayor of Navarre, refused to support the queen mother and left Navarra in the end of 1274 with his whole family. They took refuge in La Rioja (Castile). The Stunica estates were seized in 1276 by the crown of Navarre. The king Alfonso X of Castile and León the Wise recognized Iñigo as rico-hombre (belonging to ancient nobility) of Castile and gave him the domains of Las Cuevas, Bañares and another villages in La Rioja. Iñigo was the progenitor of the following branches of the lineage of the House of Zuñiga: