House of Zúñiga


The House 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 was alférez mayor of Alfonso the Battler, king of Aragón and Navarre, and lord of the estate and valley of Stunica, 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, signed on April 10, 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 with a band in or.
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Sancho VII of Navarre changed his coat of arms to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on July 16, 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 to a shield ground in gules, a chain of or 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 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, a band of sable and a chain in or 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. This was de facto an annexation of the Kingdom of Navarra by the crown of France.
Iñigo Ortiz de Stunica, 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. 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 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:
The firstborn branch of the dukes of Béjar and Plasencia received from the kings of Spain the hereditary title of First Knight of the Kingdom and the hereditary court offices of justicia mayor y alguacil mayor of Castile.

Immemorial Grandee

In the realms of the Crown of Castile and León in the early 15th century there were only fifteen powerful families known as ricohombres of Castile and León. The House of Diego López de Estúñiga was one of them. In 1520, the year of his coronation at Aachen as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, king Carlos I of Spain reorganized the title of his Kingdom of Castile and created 25 grandees, known as Inmemorial Grandees. The House of Zúñiga received two grandees, one for the duke of Béjar and another for the count of Miranda del Castañar, subrogated later on to the duke of Peñaranda de Duero.

Military Orders of Chivalry

Members of the lineage proved their nobility at diverse times serving in orders of knights like the Order of Santiago, Order of Alcántara, Order of Calatrava and Order of San Juan de Jerusalén, and as well in the Order of Carlos III of Spain.

Distinguished members of the lineage of The House of Zuniga

Members invested in the Order of the Golden Fleece

The king Charles I of Spain, duke of Burgundy, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, the Sovereign Head of the Order of the Golden Fleece, invested with habit and collar of the order the following members of the House of Zuniga:
By the successive kings of Spain, Sovereign Heads of the Order of the Golden Fleece, were invested with habit and collar of the order the following members of the House of Zuniga:
The members of The House of Zúñiga built and rebuilt many castles and palaces in Spain, which over the time were abandoned, turned into ruins and used as building material by neighbors. Today there are only a few remnants and ruins of others, in the list below are market with. Also they built magnificent palaces, as patron who were among the artists of his time and are in good conditions, some of them declared national historical monuments.