Urraca of Portugal, Queen of León

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urraca_of_Portugal

She was was an Infanta of Portugal, daughter of Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, and his wife, Queen Maud of Savoy. She was queen consort of León as the wife of King Ferdinand II and the mother of Alfonso IX.

In May or June of 1165, she married Ferdinand II, becoming the first infanta of Portugal to have married a Leonese monarch. The only son of this marriage, Alfonso IX, was born in Zamora on 15 August 1171. This marriage failed to prevent her father Afonso I from declaring war on Ferdinand after he became his son-in-law. This short war culminated in disaster when Afonso was captured in Badajoz.

The marriage of Ferdinand II and Urraca was annulled in 1171 or 1172 by Pope Alexander III the two being second cousins, great-grandchildren of Alfonso VI of León and Castile. Urraca then became a nun joining the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem and retired to live in the estates that her former husband had given her in the Carta de Arras (wedding tokens) in Zamora. Later, she retired in the Monastery of Santa María de Wamba which belonged to the aforementioned order.

On 25 May 1176, Queen Urraca donated land and villas to the Order of Saint John, probably coinciding with her joining the order. These properties included Castroverde de Campos and Mansilla in León and Salas and San Andrés in Asturias.

She was present in 1188 at the coronation of her son Alfonso IX who inherited the throne after his father's death on 22 January 1188 and, in that same year, on 4 May, both confirmed the privileges granted by the former king to the Order of Santiago. Her presence is registered for the last time in medieval charters in 1211 when she donated the village of Castrotorafe that she had received from her husband the king in 1165 as a wedding gift to the Cathedral of Zamora.

Queen Urraca was buried at the Monastery of Santa María de Wamba in what is now the province of Valladolid, that belonged to the Order of Saint John. In the interior of the Church of Santa María, the only part remaining of the ancient monastery, is the Chapel of the Queen where a plaque that was placed there subsequently mentions that Queen Urraca of Portugal had been interred in this church.

Urraca married Ferdinand II of León. Ferdinand (son of Alfonso VII Raimúndez of León, King of Galicia, King of León and Castille and Berenguela (Berengaria) of Barcelona, Queen of Castille, León and Galicia) was born ca 1137, Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain; died 22 Jan 1188, Benavente, Zamora, Spain; was buried , Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela Provincia da La Coruña Galicia, Spain. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_IX_of_Le%C3%B3n

He was was king of León and Galicia from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188. According to According to Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), an Arab Muslin scholar, he is said to have been called the Baboso or Slobberer because he was subject to fits of rage during which he foamed at the mouth.

He took steps towards modernizing and democratizing his dominion and founded the University of Salamanca in 1212. In 1188 he summoned the first parliament reflecting full representation of the citizenry ever seen in Western Europe, the Cortes of León.

He took a part in the work of the Reconquest, conquering the area of Extremadura (including the cities of Cáceres and Badajoz).

Alfonso was born in Zamora. He was the only son of King Ferdinand II of León and Urraca of Portugal. His father was the younger son of Alfonso VII of León and Castile, who divided his kingdoms between his sons, which set the stage for conflict in the family until the kingdoms were re-united by Alfonso IX's son, Ferdinand III of Castile.

The convening of the Cortes de León in the cloisters of the Basilica of San Isidoro would be one of the most important events of Alfonso's reign. The difficult economic situation at the beginning of his reign compelled Alfonso to raise taxes on the underprivileged classes, leading to protests and a few towns revolts. In response the king summoned the Cortes, an assembly of nobles, clergy and representatives of cities, and subsequently faced demands for compensatory spending and greater external control and oversight of royal expenditures. The Cortes' 1188 session predates the first session of the Parliament of England, which occurred in the thirteenth century.

In spite of the democratic precedent represented by the Cortes and the founding of the University of Salamanca, Alfonso is often chiefly remembered for the difficulties his successive marriages caused between him with Pope Celestine III. He was first married in 1191 to his first cousin, Theresa of Portugal, who bore him two daughters, and a son who died young. The marriage was declared null by the papal legate Cardinal Gregory for consanguinity.

After Alfonso VIII of Castile was defeated at the Battle of Alarcos, Alfonso IX invaded Castile with the aid of Muslim troops. He was summarily excommunicated by Pope Celestine III. In 1197, Alfonso IX married his first cousin once removed, Berengaria of Castile, to cement peace between León and Castile. For this second act of consanguinity, the king and the kingdom were placed under interdict by representatives of the Pope. In 1198, Pope Innocent III declared Alfonso and Berengaria's marriage invalid, but they stayed together until 1204. The annulment of this marriage by the pope drove the younger Alfonso to again attack his cousin in 1204, but treaties made in 1205, 1207, and 1209 each forced him to concede further territories and rights. The treaty in 1207 is the first existing public document in the Castilian dialect.

In 1191, he married Theresa of Portugal, daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal and Queen Dulce of Aragon. Between 1191 and 1196, the year in which their marriage was annulled, three children were born:

1. Sancha (1191-before 1243) unmarried and without children. She and her sister Dulce became nuns or retired at the Monastery of San Guillermo Villabuena (León) where she died before 1243.

2. Ferdinand(1192/1193-1214), unmarried and without children.

3. Dulce (1193/1194-1248).

On 17 November 1197 he married Infanta Berengaria of Castile, daughter of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonor of England. Five children were born of this marriage:

4. Eleanor (1198/1199-11 November 1202).

5. Constance (1 May 1200-7 September 1242), became a nun at the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, Burgos, where she died.

6. Ferdinand III of Castile (1201-1252). King of Castile in 1217 after the death of Henry I of Castile and of León in 1230 after the death of his father.

7. Alfonso (1202-1272), Lord of Molina due to his first marriage to Mafalda González de Lara.

8. Berengaria of León (1204-1237), in 1224 married John of Brienne.

Alfonso also fathered many illegitimate children. After the annulment of his first marriage and before wedding Berengaria, he had a relationship which lasted about two years with Inés Íñiguez de Mendoza, daughter of Iñigo López de Mendoza and María García, with whom he had a daughter born around 1197:

9. Urraca Alfonso, the wife of Lope Díaz II de Haro, Lord of Biscay.

He had another relationship afterwards with a noblewoman from Galicia, Estefanía Pérez de Faiam. In 1211, King Alfonso gave her lands in Orense where her family, as can be inferred from her last will dated 1250, owned many estates, as well as in the north of Portugal. She was the daughter of Pedro Menéndez Faiam, who confirmed several royal charters of King Alfonso IX, and granddaughter of Menendo Faiam, who also confirmed several diplomas issued in Galicia as of 1155 by King Ferdinand II of León. After the relationship ended, Estefanía married Rodrigo Suárez with whom she had children. In her will, she asked to be buried in the Monastery of Fiães in northern Portugal.

Alfonso IX and Estefanía were the parents of:

10. Ferdinand Alfonso of León (born in 1211),[18] died young.

According to Spanish historian, Julio González, after his relationship with Estefanía, the king had a lover from Salamanca, of unknown origin, whose name was Maura and with whom he had:

11. Fernando Alfonso de León (ca. 1214/1218-Salamanca, 10 January 1278), archdeacon of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, who had issue with Aldara de Ulloa.

Of his relationship with the noblewoman from Portugal, Aldonza Martínez de Silva, daughter of Martim Gomes da Silva and his wife Urraca Rodrigues, which lasted from 1214 to 1218, three children were born:

12. Rodrigo (ca. 1214-ca. 1268), lord of Aliger and Castro del Río, and Adelantado of the March of Andalusia, he married Inés Rodríguez, daughter of Rodrigo Fernández de Valduerna, Lord of Cabrera and alférez of King Alfonso IX.

13. Aldonza (died after 1267). Married count Pedro Ponce de Cabrera, and had children. They are the ancestors of the Ponce de León family.

14. Teresa Alfonso of León.

King Alfonso's most long-lasting relationship, which began in 1218 and lasted until his death in 1230, was with Teresa Gil de Soverosa.[27] A member of the Portuguese nobility, Teresa was the daughter of Gil Vasques de Soverosa and his first wife María Aires de Fornelos. They had four children, all of them born between 1218 and 1239:

15. Sancha (d. 1270). Married Simon Ruiz, Lord of Los Cameros. She later became a nun at the convent of Santa Eufemia de Cozuelos which she had founded.

16. María (died after July 1275). Her first marriage was with Álvaro Fernández de Lara. She was then the concubine of her nephew King Alfonso X of Castile and, according to the Count of Barcelos, her second husband was Suero Arias de Valladares.

17. Martín (died 1268/1272), married to Maria Mendes de Sousa, founders of the Monastery of Sancti-Spíritus, Salamanca. There was no children from this marriage.

18. Urraca (d. after 1252). First married García Romeu, and then Pedro Núñez de Guzmán.

Alfonso IX of León died on 24 September 1230. His death was particularly significant in that his son, Ferdinand III of Castile, who was already the King of Castile also inherited the throne of León from his father. This was thanks to the negotiations of his mother, Berengaria, who convinced her stepdaughters to renounce their claim on the throne. In an effort to quickly consolidate his power over León, Ferdinand III abandoned a military campaign to capture the city of Jaén immediately upon hearing news of his father's death and traveled to León to be crowned king. This coronation united the Kingdoms of León and Castile which would go on to dominate the Iberian Peninsula.

Buried:
Grave location, historical portrait, and photo of cathedral:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=2366170&GRid=101385377&

Alfonso married Berengaria of Castile, Queen of Castile and Queen of Léon. Berengaria (daughter of Alfonso VIII (El De Las Navas) of Castile, King of Castille and King of Toledo and Eleanor Plantagenet, Queen of Castille) was born ca 1179, Burgos, Provincia de Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain; died 08 Nov 1246, Las Huelgas, Provincia de Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain; was buried , Monasterio de Santa María la Real de las Huelgas, Burgos, Provincia de Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31143832

He was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Ferdinand III was one of the most successful kings of Castile, securing not only the permanent union of the crowns of Castile and León, but also masterminding the most expansive campaign of the Reconquest of Spain from the Moors.

By military and diplomatic efforts, Ferdinand greatly expanded the dominions of Castile into southern Spain, annexing many of the great old cities of al-Andalus, including the old Andalusian capitals of Córdoba and Seville, and establishing the boundaries of the Castilian state for the next two centuries.

Ferdinand was canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X and, in Spanish, he is known as Fernando el Santo, San Fernando or San Fernando Rey. Places such as San Fernando, Pampanga, and the San Fernando de Dilao Church in Paco, Manila in the Philippines, and in California, San Fernando City and the San Fernando Valley, were named for him.

The exact date of Ferdinand's birth is unclear. It has been proposed to have been as early as 1199 or even 1198, although more recent researchers commonly date Ferdinand's birth in the Summer of 1201. Ferdinand was born at the Monastery of Valparaíso (Peleas de Arriba, in what is now the Province of Zamora).

The marriage of Ferdinand's parents was annulled by order of Pope Innocent III in 1204, due to consanguinity. Berengaria then took their children, including Ferdinand, to the court of her father, King Alfonso VIII of Castile. In 1217, her younger brother, Henry I, died and she succeeded him to the Castilian throne and Ferdinand as her heir, but she quickly surrendered it to her son.

When Ferdinand's father, Alfonso IX of León, died in 1230, his will delivered the kingdom to his older daughters Sancha and Dulce, from his first marriage to Teresa of Portugal. But Ferdinand contested the will, and claimed the inheritance for himself.

There was a crisis in the Almohad Caliphate and the leaders decided to abandon Spain, and left with the last remnant of the Almohad forces for Morocco. Andalusia was left fragmented in the hands of local strongmen. The Christian armies romped through the south virtually unopposed in the field. Individual Andalusian cities were left to resist or negotiate their capitulation by themselves, with little or no prospect of rescue from Morocco or anywhere else. On 22 December 1248, Ferdinand III entered as a conqueror in Seville, the greatest of Andalusian cities. At the end of this twenty-year onslaught, only a small part Andalusian state, the Emirate of Granada, remained unconquered.

On the domestic front, Ferdinand strengthened the University of Salamanca and erected the current Cathedral of Burgos. He was a patron of the newest movement in the Church, that of the mendicant [begging] Orders. Whereas the Benedictine monks, and then the Cistercians and Cluniacs, had taken a major part in the Reconquest up until then, Ferdinand founded houses for friars of the Dominican, Franciscan, Trinitarian, and Mercedarian Orders throughout Andalusia, thus determining the future religious character of that region. Ferdinand has also been credited with sustaining the convivencia in Andalusia. He himself joined the Third Order of St. Francis, and is honored in that Order.

Ferdinand III had started out as a contested king of Castile. By the time of his death in 1252, Ferdinand III had delivered to his son and heir, Alfonso X, a massively expanded kingdom. The boundaries of the new Castilian state established by Ferdinand III would remain nearly unchanged until the late 15th century.

Ferdinand was buried in the Cathedral of Seville by his son, Alfonso X. His tomb is inscribed in four languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and an early version of Castilian. He rests enclosed in a gold and crystal casket worthy of the king. His golden crown still encircles his head as he reclines beneath the statue of the Virgin of the Kings.

He married 2 times, first to Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen (1203?1235), daughter of the German king Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina. Elisabeth was called Beatriz in Spain, the mother of his heir, Alonzo X.

His second wife was Joan, Countess of Ponthieu, and they had four sons and one daughter:

1. Ferdinand (1239-1260), Count of Aumale

2. Eleanor (c.1241-1290), married Edward I of England. They had sixteen children including the future Edward II of England and every English monarch after Edward I is a descendant of Ferdinand III.

3. Louis (1243-1269)

4. Simon (1244), died young and buried in a monastery in Toledo

5. John (1245), died young and buried at the cathedral in Córdoba


Buried:
Grave location, biography, portrait, and tomb photo:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31143832

Ferdinand married Jeanne (Joan) of Dammartin, Countess of Ponthieu. Jeanne (daughter of Simon Demmartin, Count of Ponthieu and Marie of Ponthieu, Countess of Ponthieu) was born ca 1220, Abbeville, Picardie, France; died 16 Mar 1279, Abbeville, Picardie, France; was buried , Abbey of Valloires, Picardie, France. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Castile

She was the first queen consort of Edward I of England, whom she married as part of a political deal to affirm English sovereignty over Gascony.

The marriage was known to be particularly close, and Eleanor traveled extensively with her husband. She was with him on the Eighth Crusade, when he was wounded at Acre, but the popular story of her saving his life by sucking out the poison has long been discredited. When she died, near Lincoln, her husband famously ordered a stone cross to be erected at each stopping-place on the journey to London, ending at Charing Cross.

Eleanor was better-educated than most medieval queens, and exerted a strong cultural influence on the nation. She was a keen patron of literature, and encouraged the use of tapestries, carpets and tableware in the Spanish style, as well as innovative garden designs. She was also a successful businesswoman, endowed with her own fortune as Countess of Ponthieu.

Eleanor was born in Burgos, daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu. Her Castilian name, Leonor, became Alienor or Alianor in England, and Eleanor in modern English. She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Eleanor of England.

Edward and Eleanor were second cousins once removed, as Edward's grandfather King John of England and Eleanor's great-grandmother Eleanor of England were the son and daughter of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Following the marriage they spent nearly a year in Gascony, with Edward ruling as lord of Aquitaine. During this time Eleanor, aged thirteen and a half, almost certainly gave birth to her first child, a short lived daughter.

There is little record of Eleanor's life in England until the 1260s, when the Second Barons' War, between Henry III and his barons, divided the kingdom. During this time Eleanor actively supported Edward's interests, importing archers from her mother's county of Ponthieu in France.
She held Windsor Castle and baronial prisoners for Edward. Rumors that she was seeking fresh troops from Castile led the baronial leader, Simon de Montfort, to order her removal from Windsor Castle in June 1264 after the royalist army had been defeated at the Battle of Lewes. Edward was captured at Lewes and imprisoned, and Eleanor was honorably confined at Westminster Palace.

After Edward and Henry's army defeated the baronial army at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, Edward took a major role in reforming the government and Eleanor rose to prominence at his side. Her position was greatly improved in July 1266 when, after she had borne three short-lived daughters, she gave birth to a son, John, to be followed by a second boy, Henry, in the spring of 1268, and in June 1269 by a healthy daughter, Eleanor.

By 1270, the kingdom was pacified and Edward and Eleanor left to join his uncle Louis IX of France on the Eighth Crusade. Louis died at Carthage before they arrived, however, and after they spent the winter in Sicily, the couple went on to Acre in Palestine, where they arrived in May 1271. Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, known as "Joan of Acre" for her birthplace.

They left Palestine in September 1272 and in Sicily that December they learned of Henry III's death (on 16 November 1272). Following a trip to Gascony, where their next child, Alphonso (named for Eleanor's half brother Alfonso X), was born, Edward and Eleanor returned to England and were crowned together on 19 August 1274.

Arranged royal marriages in the Middle Ages were not always happy, but available evidence indicates that Eleanor and Edward were devoted to each other. Edward is among the few medieval English kings not known to have conducted extramarital affairs or fathered children out of wedlock. The couple were rarely apart; she accompanied him on military campaigns in Wales, famously giving birth to their son Edward on 25 April 1284 at Caernarfon Castle.

Their household records witness incidents that imply a comfortable, even humorous, relationship. Each year on Easter Monday, Edward let Eleanor's ladies trap him in his bed and paid them a token ransom so he could go to her bedroom on the first day after Lent; so important was this custom to him that in 1291, on the first Easter Monday after Eleanor's death, he gave her ladies the money he would have given them had she been alive.

In her memory, Edward ordered the construction of twelve elaborate stone crosses (of which three survive, though none of them is intact) between 1291 and 1294, marking the route of her funeral procession between Lincoln and London.

Eleanor is warmly remembered by history as the queen who inspired the Eleanor crosses, but she was not so loved in her own time. Her reputation was primarily as a keen businesswoman.

Eleanor of Castile's queenship is significant in English history for the evolution of a stable financial system for the king's wife, and for the honing this process gave the queen-consort's prerogatives. The estates Eleanor assembled became the nucleus for dower assignments made to later queens of England into the 15th century, and her involvement in this process solidly established a queen-consort's freedom to engage in such transactions. Few later queens exerted themselves in economic activity to the extent Eleanor did, but their ability to do so rested on the precedents settled in her lifetime. Her career can now be examined as the achievement of an intelligent and determined woman who was able to meet the challenges of an exceptionally demanding life.

Children:

1. Daughter, stillborn in May 1255 in Bordeaux, France. Buried in Dominican Priory Church, Bordeaux, France.

2. Katherine (c 1261-5 September 1264) and buried in Westminster Abbey.

3. Joanna (January 1265-before 7 September 1265), buried in Westminster Abbey.

4. John (13 July 1266-3 August 1271), died at Wallingford, in the custody of his granduncle, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Buried in Westminster Abbey.

5. Henry (before 6 May 1268-16 October 1274), buried in Westminster Abbey.

6. Eleanor (18 June 1269-29 August 1298). She was long betrothed to Alfonso III of Aragon, who died in 1291 before the marriage could take place, and in 1293 she married Count Henry III of Bar, by whom she had one son and one daughter.

7. Daughter (1271 Palestine ). Some sources call her Juliana, but there is no contemporary evidence for her name.

8. Joan (April 1272-7 April 1307). She married (1) in 1290 Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, who died in 1295, and (2) in 1297 Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer. She had four children by each marriage.

9. Alphonso (24 November 1273-19 August 1284), Earl of Chester.

10. Margaret (15 March 1275-after 1333). In 1290 she married John II of Brabant, who died in 1318. They had one son.

11. Berengaria (1 May 1276-before 27 June 1278), buried in Westminster Abbey.

12. Daughter (December 1277/January 1278-January 1278), buried in Westminster Abbey. There is no contemporary evidence for her name.

13. Mary (11 March 1279-29 May 1332), a Benedictine nun in Amesbury.

14. Son, born in 1280 or 1281 who died very shortly after birth. There is no contemporary evidence for his name.

15. Elizabeth (7 August 1282-5 May 1316). She married (1) in 1297 John I, Count of Holland, (2) in 1302 Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford & 3rd Earl of Essex. The first marriage was childless; by Bohun, Elizabeth had ten children.

16. Edward II of England, also known as Edward of Caernarvon (25 April 1284-21 September 1327). In 1308 he married Isabella of France. They had two sons and two daughters.

Eleanor's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1290. Her body was placed in a grave near the high altar that had originally contained the coffin of Edward the Confessor and, more recently, that of King Henry III until his remains were removed to his new tomb in 1290. Eleanor's body remained in this grave until the completion of her own tomb. She had probably ordered that tomb before her death. It consists of a marble chest with carved mouldings and shields (originally painted) of the arms of England, Castile, and Ponthieu. The chest is surmounted by William Torel's superb gilt-bronze effigy, showing Eleanor in the same pose as the image on her great seal.

Buried:
Grave location, biography and effigy photo:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8327744

Eleanor married Edward I (Longshanks) Plantagenet, King of England. Edward was born 16 Jun 1239, Palace of Westminister, London, England; died 07 Jul 1307, Burgh by Sands, Cumberland, England; was buried , Westminster Abbey, London, England. [Group Sheet]