Crónica of Pedro de Valencia

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The Crónica of Pedro de Valencia is a Spanish chronicle about the Kingdom of Navarre, covering roughly 994 to 1560. It was written in stages at the monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera, with the early parts focused on the foundation of the monastery by King García Sánchez III (1035–1054). The work was brought to its final form between 1564 and 1576 by Pedro de Valencia, a monk from Nájera, who updated the history up to his own time.

The chronicle is in Spanish and has 46 chapters, though the chapters start numbering at 12. It can be divided into three sections: chapters 12–38, 41–50, and 51–57. The first section makes up about 83% of the work and concentrates on García Sánchez III, including the monastery’s foundation and endowment. In total, the Crónica contains 27 chapters about the reigns of various Navarrese kings, 18 chapters about García Sánchez III, and a final chapter on Blanche of Navarre, wife of Sancho III of Castile.

Scholars view the Crónica as a weak historical source. It mixes legends with inaccuracies in dates and family lines, and even confuses García Sánchez II with García Sánchez I. It contains misplaced claims about the order of Navarrese kings and overemphasizes heraldry over chronology. The work appears to be the product of three authors writing at different times.

- The anonymous author of chapters 12–38 covers the reigns from García Sánchez II to García Ramírez. He occasionally writes in the first person.
- A second author continues the story for Sancho VI through Charles III, writing around 1412–1413. This author seems to have been a monk from Santa María la Real of Nájera and has a more annalistic style without the legends of the first author.
- A third author and final redactor was active between 1564 and 1576, during Maximilian II’s rule in Hungary, and finished the chronicle up to Charles V. He may be the Pedro de Valencia who was prior of Nájera in the 1530s.

All surviving copies name the author as F. Pedro Valencia, monge en Nájera, around the year 1400, which combines the final redaction with the earlier one. Pedro de Valencia is credited with shaping the final form by incorporating later sources.

The Crónica cites only a few sources directly—Charles, Prince of Viana; Sigebert of Gembloux; García de Eugui; Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada; and Lucas de Tuy—and other material comes from Garci López de Roncesvalles, the Chronica Naierensis, and the Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña in Latin and Aragonese. Some parts may be based on oral tradition. There are four surviving manuscripts, all late copies, known by letters (sigla) assigned by the modern editor Agustín Ubieto Arteta.