Sancho VI William of Gascony

Sancho VI William (Basque: Antso Gilen, French: Sanche Guillaume, Gascon: Sans Guilhem, Spanish: Sancho Guillén) (died 4 October 1032) was the Duke of Gascony from 1009 to his death. His reign is most notable for the renewal of Gascons ties with Spain.

Sancho VI William
Duke of Gascony Count of Bordeaux
Reign	25 December 1009–4 October 1032
Predecessor	Bernard I William
Successor	Eudes
Born	c.975
Died	4 October 1032 (aged 56–57) (approximately) Saint-Sever
Burial	Lescar
Consort	Urraca of Castile
Issue	Alasia
Dynasty	Gascon dynasty
Father	William II Sánchez of Gascony
Mother	Urraca Garcés of Pamplona

Sancho was a son of William II Sánchez and Urraca of Navarre and relative of Sancho III of Navarre and he spent a portion of his life at the court of that king in Pamplona. He also took part in the Reconquista. It is possible he even submitted Gascony to the suzerainty of Navarre. In 1010, he appeared together with Sancho, Robert II of France, and William V of Aquitaine at Saint-Jean d'Angély. He certainly never paid homage to the king of France.

In 1027, he met William V at Blaye and they jointly selected Geoffrey, a Frank, as Archbishop of Bordeaux, which had become the Gascon capital during Sancho's reign. He had given his sister Brisca in marriage to the widower duke William and when he died without successors in 1032, the Aquitainian duke's children by this second marriage inherited Gascony.

Sources

• Higounet, Charles. Bordeaux pendant le haut moyen age. Bordeaux, 1963.
• Lewis, Archibald R. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.
• Zurita, Gerónimo. Anales de la Corona de Aragón I. Edited by Antonio Ubieto Arteta and Desamparados Pérez Soler. Valencia: 1967.