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Sancho VII Sánchez (17 April 1154 – 7 April 1234), called the Strong (el Fuerte in Spanish, Antso Azkarra in Basque) or the Prudent, was the King of Navarre from 1194 to his death. His retirement at the end of his life has given rise to the alternate nickname el Encerrado or "the Retired."
His leadership was decisive in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in the year 1212. In that engagement, the Christian forces of Sancho, Alfonso, Afonso II of Portugal, and Peter II of Aragón allied to defeat the forces of the Almohad Caliph Muhammad an-Nasir. Sancho's troops cut the chains guarding the tent and Slavic guards ring of the Miramamolín, supreme commander of the Al-Andalusian Forces. For this, it is believed the chains became the symbol of Navarre and replaced the sable eagle on a golden field with a golden chain on a gules field in the Navarrese coat-of-arms. But others suspect they represented the Basques' star-like Sun of Death seen on their Hilarri (Basques' Stelae) or houses traditionally for protection, and perhaps painted on their shields too with the same religious purpose, meaning of Life or Death, or the new Imagery used for Jesus or Christianity as for others were the Christi Anagram or plain Cross on the shield.
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