THE LADY OF CASTILE

Today is obviously St George’s Day celebrated pretty much everywhere (especially in places where St George is the patron saint). Little known fact outside of Spain though – April 23rd is also Castile and Leon Day (Día de Castilla y León) a holiday which commemorates the Battle of Villalar between Castilian rebels (known as Comuneros) and the royalist forces of Charles V Holy Roman Emperor (and King of Castile) which happened on April 23rd 1521. In the centuries since the day has come to have numerous meanings; from the late 18th century until the 1970’s it was associated with liberal politics in Spain (mainly because conservatives tend to be more pro-monarchy) however since the end of Franco’s regime in 1975, it’s become less associated with liberalism and more a celebration of Castilian nationalism. It was named an official holiday in the region in 1986. To commemorate this day, I thought I’d do a little post about some of my favourite women of the Kingdom of Castile; this includes women who become Queen of Castile through marriage and women who were born into the Castilian royal family even if they became Queen of elsewhere. One of the most interesting things about monarchy on the Iberian peninsula was that Castile, Leon, Aragon & Portugal etc followed Visigothic legal tradition which dictated that all children (aka daughters and sons) inherited equally; Miria Shadis explains this really well writing “this meant that daughters who were sole heirs at the highest levels of society, could rule. Thus occasionally Iberian queens came to the throne through inheritance as well as through marriage” (Miriam Shadis, “Unexceptional Women: Power, Authority and Queenship in Early Portugal”, in Medieval Elite Women: Exercise of Power 1100-1400, ed by Heather J Tanner, London, Palgrave McMillan, 2019, p. 248). Sons were obviously preferred but daughters were far more likely to inherit the throne than in countries like England and France that followed Salic law. Shadis also explains the importance of princesses writing ” Queens were also royal daughters. They were heirs who were not likely to rule (but could) and they were empowered as queens – they were not just Urraca’s, Berenguela’s or Isabella’s in waiting. Instead they served an important function at the royal court and in the operation of the monarchy”(Miriam Shadis, “Unexceptional Women: Power, Authority and Queenship in Early Portugal”, in Medieval Elite Women: Exercise of Power 1100-1400, ed by Heather J Tanner, London, Palgrave McMillan, 2019, p. 248-249). Whilst researching for this post I got very inspired and so have decided that this will be the first post in a series of three – the second post will be on Queens/Princesses of Aragon and the third post will be on my favourite Queens/Princesses since Castile & Aragon were unified. Keep your eyes peeled for those posts coming soon!

When most think of Queen Regnants of Castile, most peoples minds jump to Isabella I of Castile one half of the Catholic monarchs and one of the giant figures of Spanish history (it was under her and her husband that the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile were unified under one dynasty AND she was the first woman to carry the title Queen of Spain). As a side-note I haven’t included Isabella in this post because of two things 1) she’s really not one of my favourite historical figures – I think she’s interesting but I’m not really a fan of the whole Spanish Inquisition thing and 2) I think she’s a hugely well known historical figure without me writing about her. This may surprise some people but Isabella wasn’t the first Queen Regnant of Castile; there were a number of women who claimed Castile however only one other woman ruled Castile for an extended number of years and unfortunately for her she tends to be overlooked in favour of Isabella. Which is interesting because this is a woman who tried to do the whole unifying Spain thing four hundred years before Isabella thought it was cool. Meet Urraca. Born circa 1080 the daughter of Alfonso VI of Leon & Castile; her mother was Alfonso’s second wife Constance of Burgundy a relative of the French royal family and the niece of Hugh of Cluny an abbot who was one of the most influential monks of the period. Constance was also related to Agnes of Aquitaine who just happened to be Alfonso’s first wife meaning in order for Constance and Alfonso to marry, they needed the go-ahead from Pope Gregory VII. He however had a few conditions (OF COURSE), one of which was that Alfonso had to replace the traditional Mozarabic liturgy in Castile and Leon with the Roman Rite (the Mozarabic liturgy was the liturgical rite that the Christians living in Spain under the rule of Muslim leaders had used). At this point the Catholic Church was big on suppressing any sort of variations in Catholic traditions and forcing Alfonso to replace the liturgy with the regular run of the mill Roman Rite was part of a wider programme of liturgical standardisation within Europe. Evidently Alfonso agreed because he and Constance married in 1079 and Urraca was born a year later. Now she was not her father’s first child; Alfonso was a bit of a womaniser and had been engaged once, married once and had, had a long-term mistress with whom he had two daughters Elvira later Countess of Toulouse and Teresa later the Countess of Portugal (and mother of it’s first King). Awkwardly it’s believed Teresa was born around the time Alfonso and Constance married which is not ideal; no woman wants to marry a man whilst his ex-girlfriend is about to give birth to his child. Alfonso and Constance would go on to have six children however Urraca’s the only one of any note; the others all died when they were new-borns and we’re not 100% sure of their genders/birth-dates. Constance died in 1093. One legitimate daughter was clearly not enough for Alfonso who ended up having almost as many wives as Henry VIII (as well as a number of concubines); after Constance’s death he remarried – it’s possible he waited only a few frankly disrespectful months before marrying a woman named Berta of whom we know very little although it’s equally possible he waited the more respectful period of two years before marrying his new wife in 1105 (it’s believed Berta was maybe from the House of Savoy, probably the daughter of Amadeus II of Savoy and therefore the niece of Bertha of Savoy who was the the Holy Roman Empress as the wife of Henry IV). Berta died sometime between the 17th November 1099 when she’s recorded as confirming a royal edict and the 25th January 1100 when Alfonso made a donation to the monastery of Sahagún in the honour of “his recently deceased wife”. Alfonso and Berta had no children leaving him to remarry a woman named Isabel in the Spring of 1100. This man clearly did not understand the concept of grieving. Now Isabel’s identity is open to interpretation; she MAY have been Alfonso’s Muslim-born concubine Zaida (with Isabel being the Christian name she took on after converting to Catholicism) or she may have been a French Princess likely Burgundian. Zaida was the daughter in law of Al-Mu-tamid ibn Abbad the ruler of the Taifa of Seville and wife of his son Abu Nasr Al-Fath al-Ma’mun who ruled the Taifa of Cordoba. In March 1091 the Almoravid army had besieged the city of Cordoba; during the siege Zaida’s husband had died and after a period of time in the Almodovar del Rio, she sought Alfonso’s protection. Evidently she became his lover and later converted to Christianity with her taking on the name Isabel. She bore him a son Sancho Alfonsez born in 1094 (he was likely conceived after Constance’s death but before Alfonso married Berta). Whether or not Zaida was merely a concubine or a lawful wife isn’t known; Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada the Archbishop of Toledo recorded her as a legal wife whilst other chronicles of the period only count her as a concubine. Allegedly they married in 1100 and thus their son became legitimate and the heir of Leon and Castile taking Urraca’s place, a fact I’m sure she was thrilled about. Some historians and chroniclers are fairly certain the Isabel he married in 1100 and Zaida are the same person with Salazar y Acha, pointing to the two important facts 1) Alfonso married Isabel within 0.5 seconds of Berta dying – if Isabel was a French princess there would likely have been months of diplomatic negotiations and a quickie wedding would just not have been possible, unlike Zaida who could have married him immediately and 2) Zaida and Alfonso’s son Sancho makes his first official appearance in a royal decree shortly after the wedding – if Isabel and Zaida were different women than it’s highly unlikely the new queen would have accepted Sancho’s new found importance especially because that might have been problematic for any sons she might potentially have. Salazar y Acha also points out that in a 1107 document Alfonso and Queen Isabel refer to Sancho as “our son” however it’s important to note that in most documents during their marriage, Alfonso and Isabel pointedly refer to Sancho as his son, not theirs. In his works Bishop Pelagius of Oviedo says Zaida and Isabel are two different women; a number of significant historians tend to agree with this. Honestly it’s near impossible to know for certain. Regardless of her exact identity Isabel did, unlike Berta bear Alfonso 2 children, both however were girls – Sancha later the Countess of Liébana and Elvira later the Queen of Sicily. Urraca later on in life evidently thought well of Isabel (whoever she was) because in 1115 she donated properties to Toledo Cathedral in which she references her father’s late wife Queen Isabel – some historians have taken this as evidence that Isabel was not Zaida but a French Princess like Urraca’s mother hence Urraca’s affinity with her. Isabel died between 1106 and 1107, likely the latter and still evidently desperate for a son Alfonso once again remarried this time in the early months of 1108 to Beatrice another French princess – the marriage took place before the 28th May 1108 when they made their first public appearance together at the Astorga Cathedral. It’s been suggested that she was the daughter of William VIII Duke of Aquitaine and his third wife Hildegarde of Burgundy (and therefore the aunt of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s grandfather William X) however Alfonso’s first wife Agnes of Aquitaine had also been William’s daughter (albeit with his second wife Matoeda) and the marriage had been annulled (either due to Alfonso and Agnes being too closely related or due to a lack of babies). Either way it would be surprising for Alfonso to two marry half sisters especially if he annulled his marriage to the first because they were too closely related. Logically that doesn’t make a ton of sense. No children were born from this marriage, meaning that by 1108 he had one living daughter Urraca whose legitimacy was unimpeachable and three living children (two daughters and a son) whose legitimacy was perhaps debatable. What Urraca thought about all these marital shenanigans is unknown, however they would have been of some interest to her – if her father had no legitimate son she was in a prime position to be Queen. Now the documentation of Urraca’s childhood is awful; we know very little other than a) the name of two of her tutors Presbyter Pedro and Domingo Falcóniz with whom she was evidently fond (as Queen she mentioned both of them in various royal charters), b) she spent some of her childhood in the household of the powerful aristocrat Pedro Ansúrez and his wife Elo Alfonsez and c) she was extremely close with her father’s sister Elvira who it appears was somewhat of a mother figure to Urraca, so much so than when Urraca gave birth to her daughter Sancha she named Elvira the baby girl’s guardian. In 1086 when Urraca was 6 years old her father suffered a bitter defeat at the Battle of Sagrajas at the hands of the Almoravid’s; in order to build cross-Pyrenees alliances Alfonso decided to marry Urraca to Raymond of Burgundy who was the son of William I Count of Burgundy (a first cousin of William the Conqueror). Raymond was about a decade older than Urraca – the exact date of their marriage isn’t clear. Although they’re not referenced in royal edicts as husband and wife until 1090 when they are presented as rulers of the “Land of St James (aka Galicia), manuscripts still in existence refer to them as husband and wife before 1088 meaning they likely married quietly between 1086 and 1088. They went on to have two children a daughter Sancha born around 1095 and a son Alfonso born in 1105 (Sancha was definitely her first pregnancy – it’s possible there were other unrecorded pregnancies in that decade-long gap between children that never went to full term although its impossible to tell. It’s also possible there was another child born between 1095 and 1102 as a document from 1102 refers to Urraca and Raymond’s children not child however this may have been a mistake – I’d be surprised if another child wasn’t mentioned elsewhere). By marrying Urraca aka her father’s only legitimate child, Raymond thought he was marrying a future Queen so you can imagine how unhappy he was at the birth of her half-brother Sancho (son of Alfonzo & Zaida) in 1094. He was even unhappier when that same year Alfonso granted the territory of Portugal to his illegitimate daughter Teresa and her husband Henry instead of Urraca and Raymond. Urraca’s feelings on her half brother and the succession are not clear; there are however suggestions that she did not consider her brother the rightful heir (which further suggests Zaida was only a concubine and not a wife); between 1095 and 1105 she refers to herself as “Queen Urraca” in official documents, something only the heir to the throne would do. This is despite the fact that from 1100 onwards her father regularly mentioned her half brother (and not her), a clear sign that Alfonso regarded Sancho as his heir. In March 1107 Alfonso had Sancho elected king; Raymond and Urraca’s brother in law Henry did not take kindly to this and decided to form an alliance, agreeing that when Alfonso died they would take control of Leon and Castile and divide it between them – in documents exchanged betwen them Sancho isn’t even mentioned. It’s likely Urraca and Teresa agreed to this, although I can’t imagine either woman agreeing to play second fiddle to their spouses. Things however did not quite go to plan because in 1107 Raymond died of a random unexpected illness aged just 37. Urraca doesn’t appear to have been too overwhelmed by her grief and immediately took on full responsibility of the administration of Galicia.  There’s a bit of confusion as to who inherited Galicia after her husband’s death; most clerics and aristocrats regarded her son Alfonso Raimundez as the rightful ruler of Galicia (as Raymond’s son) with Urraca in a kind of regent-like role, something her father evidently agreed with – he acknowledged his grandson as Raymond’s heir and stated that the baby boy would remain the ruler of Galicia even if Urraca remarried. Urraca however referred to herself as the “Empress of whole Galicia” suggesting she saw herself less as a regent and more as a Queen in her own right. The fact she had a son (and had thus proven she was capable of bearing an heir) gave her one up over Sancho who was in 1107 just 13 years old and thus had no spouse or heir (also if he was indeed illegitimate, finding a wife was a bit more complicated). In the aftermath of her husband’s death Urraca appears to have started an initially secret relationship with Gomez Gonzalez, a Castillian noble with whom she may have had a son Domingo (Domingo was definitely Gomez’ child although we’re less sure about who his mother was – his birth coincided with his father’s relationship with Urraca however that doesn’t mean she was the only woman he was being intimate with). In May 1108 any dreams Urraca may have had of becoming her father’s successor became 1000x more likely to be realised when her half brother Sancho died unexpectedly. In the dispute over who had been Alfonso’s rightful heir, Sancho had had gender on his side whilst Urraca had, had legitimacy. With Sancho’s death, there left only Urraca’s half sisters – two of whom were younger and thus below her in the line of succession and two that were older but illegitimate. Urraca was thus her father’s undisputed heir although it doesn’t appear he ever acknowledged her as such – he didn’t really have much time because he died not long after his son, some suggested due to a broken heart. She thus became the first reigning queen in European history with her first royal decree (literally written the day after her fathers funeral) referring to her as “queen of whole Spain”. Something I think is super interesting is that some of the most prominent Leonese, Castilian and Galician aristocrats, a ton of clergymen and twelve of the kingdom’s highest ranked bishops witnessed the document, demonstrating that they acknowledged her as their lawful monarch. Despite their pledges of allegiance, they clearly weren’t sure a woman was up to the job and they soon suggested to Urraca she consider taking Alfonso I King of Aragon (known as Alfonso the Battler) as a husband. The Almoravids were a major problem for Castile and they were concerned that she wouldn’t be able to defend the kingdom. They came to the conclusion that Alfonso a known warrior (not to mention a lil bit of a tyrant) would be able to do the job splendidly. I don’t agree with the assessment that Urraca was forced to marry Alfonso; she may have been aggressively encouraged into doing so but I don’t think they could have forced her against her will. It’s also been suggested that her father had considered the idea of a marriage between the two prior to his untimely death and that of his son (he was apparently unhappy at the rumour that Urraca wanted to elope with her lover Gomez Gonzalez and was determined to put a stop to their relationship). They married in either October or November of 1109. Within about 10 minutes of their wedding taking place, the backlash that Urraca probably should have foreseen, hit in full force (in Urraca’s defence she was kind of screwed either way – a portion of her nobles would have objected regardless of who she remarried and if she had remained unmarried there would have been a backlash because they feared a woman alone wasn’t up to the job. In other words she was screwed from day 1). The Galician aristocrats love of independence (which Urraca and her late husband Raymond had handled pretty well) roared back to life and they started kicking up a fuss, claiming that they wanted to defend her son’s right to rule Galicia and voicing their fears that he would be replaced as heir by any son born of Urraca and Alfonso. They did all this ignoring the fact that upon their marriage Urraca literally wrote a document confirming the right of her son to inherit Leon. There was however the fact that if you remember correctly her father had written an edict after the death of her husband, in which he acknowledged his grandson as Raymond’s heir and stated that the baby boy would remain the ruler of Galicia even if Urraca remarried. By remarrying the Galician’s claimed that she had lost her right to rule their kingdom and promptly proclaimed her son literally a 4 year old King. Pedro Fróilaz de Traba was the leader of the Galician’s against her whilst Pedro Arias and Pedro Gudesteiz were the leaders of a brotherhood of Galician nobles who remained loyal to her – they offered the leadership of Galicia to Diego Gelmirez the Bishop of Compostella however he wisely decided to remain neutral. Fearing full blown rebellion Urraca and Alfonso marched into Galicia and seized various important castles; the conduct of Alfonso’s troops was by all accounts pretty damn awful and incredibly cruel and the high clergy of Castile, Leon and Galicia were not pleased which led to Alfonso feuding with pretty much all of them especially the Archbishop of Toledo, the Bishop of Burgos and the Bishop of Leon who all promptly fled to avoid suffering the fate of the Bishop of Palencia who Alfonso imprisoned. This ladies and gentlemen is where things go from bad to worse because Urraca was evidently not thrilled with her new husband’s conduct nor that of his troops and was not shy about letting him it. Alfonso didn’t take it very well and that was the beginning of what was potentially one of the worst marriages of 1100’s Europe which is saying something. The pair were just not a good match and they clashed BIG TIME; within a few months of their marriage, their relationship had descended into really ugly domestic violence with records of kicking and slapping, not to mention public arguments and insults. She loathed how superstitious he was, he hated her son, she bitterly resented the fact he was not quite as willing to share authority as her first husband had been and he was livid at the fact she kept Gomez Gonzalez around. One incident which caused considerable tension was when a rebel surrendered to Urraca and begged her mercy which she being an evidently decent human being was inclined to give; Alfonso however decided to behead the guy then and there. By 1110 she was clearly looking for a way out and in a document of June that year she specifically referred to herself as the “queen of whole Spain and daughter of Emperor Alfonso” leaving out any and all mentions of her husband; she also found herself opposed on multiple fronts – firstly from her half sister Teresa and brother in law Henry – you recall they had previously come to an arrangement with Urraca and her first husband Raymond in which they prevented their late half brother Sancho from becoming King and split the kingdoms between them. With Raymond out the picture and Urraca now in a very unpopular marriage, they decided it was as good a time as any to try and take the entirety of the kingdoms. Secondly she was opposed by a faction headed by Archbishop Diego Gelmirez of Santiago de Compostela who wanted her to son to succeed Urraca in Castile, Leon and Galicia, thirdly she was opposed by another faction led by her son’s tutor Count Pedro Froilaz de Traba who wanted her son to rule as King of an independent Galicia and fourthly she found herself opposed by yet another faction this one led by her former lover Count Gomez Gonzalez. This fourth faction were concerned about Alfonso trying to appoint Aragonese and Navarrese nobles loyal to him to important positions in the place of Castilian, Leonese and Galician nobles. This tension between her Castilian nobles and his Aragonese nobles escalated from mild simmering hostilities into full blown warfare which coincided with Alfonso and Urraca’s decision to separate. The exact reason for their separation isn’t exactly clear – some chroniclers suggested she left him whilst others suggested he repudiated her due to her infidelity. I’m inclined to think she was the one pushing for a separation; it benefitted her far more than it benefitted him and frankly I can’t imagine anyone as ambitious as Alfonso willing giving up 3 kingdoms. In 1111 all of Urraca’s problems decided to become friends and an alliance between her estranged husband and her brother in law Henry culminated in the Battle of Candespina in which Urraca’s lover and chief supporter Gomez Gonzalez was killed. Fortunately for Urraca there apparently wasn’t a shortage of Castillian nobles a) wanting to date her and b) willing to die for her, and she soon began a relationship with Count Pedro Gonzalez de Lara (a cousin of Gomez’s) who became commander of her armies. Negotiations between Alfonso and Urraca were ongoing throughout 1112 and eventually towards the end of that year a truce was brokered between them in which they agreed to end their marriage. This didn’t however stop Alfonso from being a massive pain in the behind; he continued trying to assert political influence and refused to give up the decent portion of Castile he occupied however she did manage to recover her other territories – Asturias, Leon and Galicia. By the end of her reign she’d recovered pretty much all of it AND had managed to expand into Muslim lands. She also eventually managed to deal with her sister who being an almighty annoyance, repeatedly tried to dethrone Urraca and make Urraca’s son Alfonso Raimundez King. It’s funny how almost every plot to make Alfonso King was never actually planned by Alfonso but by everyone else. Eventually Urraca would prove to be the smarter of the two sisters and offered Teresa a territory in Leon in exchange for agreeing two things a) that she was Urraca’s vassal and b) she wouldn’t try to dethrone her anymore. Urraca’s reign as Queen is so interesting because the problems she faced are split into three sections – the first section are the problems caused by her father i.e the legitimisation of her half brother which a) sidelined her for years and b) allowed her illegitimate half sister to claim the right to inherit. The second section are the problems caused by her gender (i.e the belief that as a woman she couldn’t successfully deal with the Almoravids and the fact that whatever a woman owned aka a country become that of her husbands. The fact she also had a male heir also complicated factors as it meant there was always an alternative her opponents could try to promote) and the third section is the contrasting political machinations of her nobles (they all wanted different things and there was next to no way she was going appease everyone) which led to the factions being more than willing to rebel when they didn’t get what they wanted. Most of Urraca’s problems were actually not of her doing and the fact she managed to retain power until her death in 1126 and leave her kingdoms arguably in better political fortunes than they were before her accession is so unbelievably impressive and speaks to her abilities. In the History Compostelana she’s described as being prudent, modest and with good sense with the majority of her failings being blamed on her gender. She appears to have been pretty pragmatic in finding solutions to her various problems although weirdly she was given the epithet Urraca the Reckless after her death, probably in an attempt to blacken her reputation. In the History Compostelana she is also referred to as a jezebel for her relationships with Gomez Gonzalez and Pedro Gonzalez de Lara, the latter of whom she lived with from 1112 until her death in 1126; she bore two illegitimate children a son and daughter during that relationship however she was careful not to promote either and there was never any suggestion her son with Lara would inherit instead of her son from her first marriage. In her later years she had everything pretty much under control with Reilly writing “there is no question that the queen is in control, perhaps all too much in control, of events.” If the success of a monarch is measured in their ability to overcome various obstacles and then bequeath the kingdoms inherited from their father intact to their son, then Urraca did a A+ job. Her reign would have longer term implications as it ultimately forged a precedent for other women to inherit their father’s territories; I mean think of some of the other women of 1100’s Europe that were able to use her precedent to their advantage; women like Melisdende of Jerusalem and Eleanor of Aquitaine were in part able to succeed their father’s because Urraca had paved the way.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about nepo-babies and the benefits/disadvantages of having wealthy/powerful/famous parents who are forces to be reckoned with in their respective fields; whilst nepo babies are hugely privileged and have access to opportunities most mere mortals can only dream of, it must be, in some cases fairly difficult to grow up in the shadow of parents especially if those parents are particularly infamous. For a historical reference look no further than the children of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. I mean their father was busy conquering Western Europe and their mother was the most iconic woman of the century. Big shoes to fill. And the thing about Henry and Eleanor’s kids is that none of them, and I mean none of them were anywhere near as impressive as their parents. This girl right here however came somewhat close. Meet Eleanor of England, the second daughter & sixth child overall of Henry and Eleanor (although if you’re including the elder Eleanor’s children from her first marriage, then the little Eleanor was her mother’s fourth daughter and eighth child overall). Born at Domfront Castle in Normandy circa 1161, we don’t know all that much about little Eleanor’s childhood although we can make various deductions. For starters it’s likely Eleanor received a pretty thorough education; her mother was VERY well educated and was one of the arbiters of high medieval culture. One thing I’ve seen quite a lot is people making the assumption that the older Eleanor wasn’t a particularly involved mother and certainly she was far more politically active than most queens (as a ruling duchess in her own right) and so maybe didn’t have as much time to dedicate to her children as other royal mothers, however we have records from the period which show that the older Eleanor took her children pretty much everywhere with her. Medieval queens weren’t necessarily expected to take their children with them when they travelled but accounts from the period clearly show that the older Eleanor always had at least one of her kids with her, disputing the narrative that she wasn’t an involved mama. Out of all her siblings the younger Eleanor was closest in age to her older brother Geoffrey later the Duke of Brittany who was around three years her senior and her sister Joan later the Queen of Sicily and Countess of Toulouse who was around 3-4 years than her. In the late 1160’s her parents began plans to negotiate a marriage for her preferably an Iberian one that could help secure the southern borders of her mother’s duchy. In 1170 at the ludicrously young age of 9, she was sent accompanied by a large retinue to Burgos in the Kingdom of Castile to marry its young King Alfonso VIII. Not only did the marriage benefit her parents but it also benefitted Alfonso as he was having a lil bit of trouble with Sancho VI of Navarre and needed Henry and Eleanor to offer some assistance. Alfonso and Eleanor’s marriage was obviously not consummated at the time because of their ages (she was 9, whereas he was 15) however it evidently was later on because the two went on to have a TON of children including seven daughters and five sons. Out of those 12 children, 6-7 of them lived to adulthood. Now Alfonso and Eleanor’s marriage seems to have been in a stark contrast to her parents infamously volatile & passionate relationship, and was considered a fairly straightforward and respectful one, with the two evidently building a strong, happy marriage. Alfonso clearly adored her and was never unfaithful; she was one of his key advisor’s and he allowed her quite significant political influence, in fact out of all of Henry and Eleanor’s daughters, lil Eleanor was the only one who was allowed by her husband, to wield the kind of influence her mother had exercised. She was a far more traditional Queen Consort than perhaps her mother was though; throughout her tenure she was known for her support of religious institutions including the Abbey of Santa Maria la Real de Las Huelgas which served as the final resting place for generations of her family; she also financed it’s affiliated hospital. Both of her parents were highly cultured and having grown up in their courts (particularly her mother’s in Aquitaine) it’s unsurprising that Eleanor brought some of that to Castile and the vast numbers of troubadours, sages and musicians at Alfonso’s court was believed to have been Eleanor’s influence. She also had considerable influence over the marriages of her children – it’s likely Eleanor was the one that convinced her husband to marry their daughter Berengaria to Alfonso IX of Leon; in the marriage treaty, Alfonso granted Eleanor direct control of lands, towns and castles throughout the kingdom (it should be noted that he had done the same thing when they had married meaning she was running quite a significant part of the kingdom). In 1200 things got a teeny bit testy between her husband Alfonso and her brother John the newly crowned King of England; you see Alfonso began making the claim the duchy of Gascony was part of Eleanor’s dowry. First things first there’s no documented foundation for this (and clearly John didn’t now what the hell Alfonso was talking about), secondly Gascony belonged to her mother – it’s very clear throughout her life Eleanor of Aquitaine was determined to retain control of her lands, I find it highly unlikely she was willing to hand a decent portion of it to Castile and thirdly Henry and Eleanor’s dream of an Angevin Empire spreading from Hadrian’s Wall to the Pyrenees had become a reality. There’s no chance they were willing to lose any of it. At a stretch it’s possible Gascony may have been pledged as security for the full payment of little Eleanor’s dowry but once again there is no evidence of this. Her mother (who was still alive at this point) and John were unwilling to yield to Alfonso who in their eyes was a little bit too big for his boots. In 1205 her husband literally tried to invade Gascony in her name. This culminated in John granting Eleanor safe passage to visit him in 1206 in order to negotiate peacefully. John I should say does appear to have been quite fond of her (and this is a guy who doesn’t appear to have been fond of many people). Eventually in 1208 Alfonso gave up the claim (although decades later their great-grandson raised the issue again). In 1204 her husband specified in his will, that Eleanor was to rule alongside their son in the event of his death, including taking responsibility for paying his debts and executing his will, demonstrating how highly Alfonso clearly thought of his wife. The people of Castile evidently agreed and Eleanor it appears was very popular in Castile with her grandson Alfonso X later referring to her as “noble and much loved”. Alfonso died in 1214 after a 44 year marriage; Eleanor was allegedly so distraught that she was unable to preside over the burial leaving her eldest daughter Berengaria to perform the honours. Alfonso’s death left their 10-year-old son as the new King – per Alfonso’s will Eleanor was named regent however she was said to be too devastated to handle affairs of state leaving her daughter Berengaria to deal with everything. Not long after Alfonso’s death, Eleanor fell incredibly sick – it’s likely her health wasn’t 100% before his death and her grief over losing him only exacerbated any existing health problems. She ended up dying just twenty six days after him and they were interred together at the Abbey of Santa Maria la Real de Las Huelgas.

Something you’ll notice when studying medieval Europe especially in the 1200’s is that pretty much every incident or war or royal court has a grandchild of Eleanor of Aquitaine involved. They’re literally everywhere. She was not the first woman to be given the nickname “Grandmother of Europe” for nothing you know. One of the places where Eleanor’s grandchildren were most visible was on the Iberian peninsula in part due to the marriage of Eleanor’s daughter (and namesake) to Alfonso VIII of Castile (see above). The first of Eleanor and Alfonso’s dozen children was this woman Berengaria later known by her people as Berengaria the Great. Born in either 1179 or 1180 and named after her great-grandmother Berengaria of Barcelona, she was her parents first-born – her mother was probably around 18-19 when she was born. In the years after her birth her parents had multiple sons including Sancho (born in 1181), Henry (born in 1184), Ferdinand (born in 1189) and another Henry (born in 1204) however the first two died as babies whilst Ferdinand survived infancy but died at the age of 22 from a fever. The youngest Henry succeeded their father at the age of 10 but ended up dying three years later. This is all meant that from her birth in 1179-1180 until the birth of her brother Ferdinand in 1189 Berengaria was effectively the heir to the throne of Castile. Looking after her was thus a pretty big deal and those that did were generously rewarded for it with records showing that when two of her nurse Estefania’s and Elvira retired Berengaria’s parents granted them both a number of lands. Due to her status as a Infanta of Castile, heiress to the kingdom and a granddaughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine to boot, Berengaria was to put it mildly popular on the European marriage market and was noted to be one of the most desired brides on the continent. Her first engagement was neogiatied in 1187 when her father betrothed her to Conrad the fifth child of Frederick I Barbarossa the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1188 the marriage contract was signed and Conrad travelled to Castile where an impressive wedding banquet took place and Conrad was knighted by his soon-to-be father in law. The marriage however wasn’t consummated due to the fact that Berengaria was a literal child. The marriage contract was fairly strict in regards to the possibility of Berengaria inheriting the throne and it specified that she would inherit the kingdom after her father if her parents had no living sons. It also stipulated that if her parents did have a son but that he died without any children, Berengaria and any future children of hers were next in line. One of the biggest stipulations of the marriage treaty was that a) Conrad would only be allowed to co-rule as her spouse and b) Castile was not under any circumstances to become part of Conrad’s father’s Empire. Conrad was also barred from claiming the throne for himself and the contract stated that if Berengaria was not present in the event of Alfonso’s death, Conrad was obliged to defend and protect the kingdom until she arrived, not claim it for himself. Once the contract was signed and the wedding celebrated, Conrad returned to his father with the expectation that he’d return when Berengaria was old enough for it to be consummated. Berengaria’s grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine was really not enthused by the marriage. She’d spent the last few decades dealing with the pesky French King (aka her ex-husband and then his son) as her annoying neighbours, the last thing she needed was the bloody Holy Roman Emperor in her back garden too. In 1191 Alfonso and Berengaria sent a request to the Pope asking that he annul the marriage; evidently grandma Eleanor and her son (aka Berengaria’s uncle) Richard the Lionheart had spent the last four years complaining about the marriage. There were concerns afterwards that Conrad might try to push a claim to Castile as Berengaria’s legal husband however that concern was dealt with in 1196 when the apparently less than popular Conrad was assassinated. In 1197 Berengaria was married to her cousin Alfonso IX of Leon as a means of securing peace between Castile and Leon – in other words she was basically brought in to act as the mediator. As part of their marriage contract she was given direct control of a number of lands and castles along the borders of the two kingdoms, acting as the overlord to the nobles who due to their proximity to the border often could seek justice from either king. The honeymoon phase of Alfonso and Berengaria’s marriage didn’t last long because just a year later in 1198 the Pope Innocent III started raising complaints stating that the two were too closely related. There does appear to have been some affection on Berengaria and Alfonso’s part because they did genuinely seem desperate to stay together with them requesting a dispensation from the Pope multiple times. They also tried the good old fashioned method of bribery, offering the Pope phenomenal sums of money. He however refused to budge and at one point even threatened to excommunicate the couple; what her grandma Eleanor of Aquitaine, a woman with more threats of excommunication under her belt than husbands, thought of the Pope’s threat we don’t know. Berengaria and Alfonso remained together until 1204 when it became politically unfeasible; despite only being married for 7 years they had managed to have five children Eleanor (1198-1202), Constance (b. 1200), Ferdinand (b.1201), Alfonso (b. 1203) and Berengaria (b. 1204). In 1204 they agreed to separate on the condition that their children remained legitimate. The Pope agreed and the marriage was dissolved shortly afterwards. Neither remarried although Alfonso did go on to have a number of mistresses and illegitimate children. Berengaria returned to Castile and evidently took their children with her. The sole purpose of her and Alfonso’s marriage had been peace between Castile and Leon; with their marriage null and void, war once again began with her ex-husband fighting against her father. Despite no longer being Queen of Leon, Alfonso allowed her to retain authority over the lands she’d been granted when they married and some of the nobles who had served her as queen of Leon ended up following her back to Castile. Throughout the early 1200’s there were several treaties and attempts at peace signed between Castile and Leon; the ones in 1205, 1207 and 1209 all expanded Berengaria’s land and granted her and her son significant properties. In 1214 Berengaria’s father died with the Castilian crown passing to his only son aka Berengaria’s ten year older brother Henry. Berengaria’s mother Queen Eleanor was allegedly so distraught at the death of her husband of 44-years that she was unable to preside over the burial leaving Berengaria to perform the honours. Per his will Queen Eleanor was named regent however she was said to be too devastated to handle affairs of state leaving Berengaria to deal with everything. Not long after Alfonso’s death, Eleanor fell incredibly sick – it’s likely her health wasn’t 100% before his death and her grief over losing him only exacerbated any existing health problems. She ended up dying just twenty six days after him leaving Berengaria her brother’s guardian, closest relative and heir, all in one. She was immediately declared regent but because sexism was alive and well in the 1200’s, some of the nobles balked at her having control primarily the eternally-annoying House of Lara. She was thus forced to cede the regency and guardianship of her brother to Count Alvaro Núñez de Lara. However what they didn’t bank on was the spirit of the deceased Eleanor of Aquitaine being very much alive in Berengaria – supported by powerful Castilian magnates including Lope Díaz II de Haro, Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón, Álvaro Díaz de Cameros and Alfonso Téllez de Meneses, she made an attempt to win back the regency. The political situation in Castile thus got a bit precarious culminating in Berengaria taking refuge in the castle of Autillo de Campos held by Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón – one of her main allies. To be extra careful she sent her children to stay with their father in Leon. On the 15th August 1216 there was an assembly of all the magnates in Castile in an attempt to reach some sort of agreement that would prevent civil war; the assembly started well until it devolved into utter chaos with the Girón, Téllez de Meneses and Haro families breaking with the House of Lara for good. Around the same time de Lara arranged for the young King to marry Mafalda the daughter of Sancho I King of Portugal although the betrothal was later annulled allegedly at the behest of Berengaria whose close allies the Bishops of Burgos and Palencia lobbied the Pope on the matter. He then tried to arrange a marriage between Henry and Sancha the eldest daughter of Berengaria’s ex husband Alfonso (Sancha was born of his first marriage) on the basis that Henry and Sancha would inherit Castile and Leon instead of Berengaria’s son Ferdinand. Towards the end of 1216 de Lara demanded that Berengaria hand over a ton of her properties and lands; feeling pretty miffed about the situation Berengaria wrote to her brother Henry demanding to know what the hell was going on (the edict that ordered her to return her properties was allegedly written by Henry). Poor Henry evidently had absolutely no idea what she was on about and denied ordering such a request. This incident led to a pretty significant distance growing between Henry and de Lara with the young king apparently feeling quite alarmed at what his regent was doing in his name. It’s believed Henry requested to meet Berengaria but was refused by de Lara leading to the young king attempting to meet her secretly. When de Lara learned of this, he ordered the killing of the messenger Berengaria had sent to court. This incident proved to be a bit of a turning point as everyone became a tad concerned at how far de Lara was willing to go in his very dedicated vendetta against Berengaria and over the following months Castile crept closer and closer to civil war until the 6th June 1217 when Berengaria’s brother the 13-year-old king received a wound from a tile which came loose while he was playing with other children at the palace of the Bishop of Palencia. His guardian, Count Álvaro Núñez de Lara, attempted to hide this from Berengaria, even going as far as to take the king’s body to the Castle of Tariego however Berengaria clearly had more friends than he realised because she was pretty quickly tipped off. As her brother had no children of her own she was now the Queen of Castile. She knew she would have to deal with de Lara at some point – her greater concern however was her ex-husband; not only was he her ex-husband but if you remember he was also her cousin meaning he was her and her brother’s closest agnatic relative. Berengaria and her advisors evidently came to the conclusion that Alfonso had the potential to be a problem. de Lara hiding the death of her brother therefore actually ended up being somewhat of a blessing; Berengaria promptly wrote to Alfonso asking that he send their children including her heir Ferdinand to visit her. In her letter there was no mention of her brother’s death or her accession. When Ferdinand arrived on the 31st August, she promptly abdicated in his favour. Whilst I think it’s shitty that abdication was the best political path, I see why she did it. I mean a) she evidently felt that her ex-husband was unlikely to object to their son being King whilst he could have made all sorts of problems if she had remained Queen, b) some of the nobles had objected to Berengaria merely acting as regent, the likelihood of them objecting to her being Queen was high and c) Castile at this point was in need of a military leader at the helm and Berengaria recognised that her son was better suited to fulfilling that particular aspect of king-hood. de Lara did not take Berengaria’s political manoeuvring well and claimed that her sister Blanche who was by that point the Queen Consort of France  should become Queen instead (which suggests his issue wasn’t necessarily about a woman inheriting the throne, it was more about this particular woman). He sent a letter basically offering her the throne (a letter he had no right to send) with the offer including a decent amount of castles and lands; Blanche was by all accounts appalled and rejected the offer immediately. She then demanded that he give all those castles and lands to Berengaria instead. When that didn’t work he offered the throne to her ex-husband instead; Berengaria’s belief that he was less likely to pursue the throne if their son sat on it proved to be false (rule number 1 of history; do not have faith in a man, it rarely ends well). Alfonso then invaded the Tierra de Campos and occupied several of it’s main towns; negotiations between the two sides then began with Alfonso IX putting forth the wild proposal that he and Berengaria secure a papal dispensation, remarry and rule Castile and Leon together with their son Ferdinand inheriting both kingdoms upon their death. Berengaria and Ferdinand unsurprisingly were not fond of the idea and refused leading to a year of clashes between Alfonso’s troops and Ferdinand’s. Eventually in November 1217 a truce was agreed.

Although she was Queen for roughly 10 minutes, she retained quite a significant authority over affairs of state, although did so in a discreet manner that didn’t cause any tension with the nobles. Even chroniclers at the time noted that she was one of her son’s closest advisors and that she wielded quite a lot of influence over him. She also like her mother was a strong patron of religious institutions including the Order of Santiago, the Basilica of San Isidoro and the Abbey of Santa Maria la Real de Las Huelgas where her parents were buried. She re-established the tradition of Leónese royal women supporting the Monastery of San Pedro de Eslonza which had long been a family tradition (although had somehow been forgotten – the last woman to fulfil this tradition before Berengaria was her great-grand aunt Sancha Raimundez). She also followed in her mother and illustrious grandmother’s footsteps as a patron of the arts; she was a lover of literature and history and commissioned Lucas de Tuy to write a grand chronicle on the history of the Kings of Castile and Leon as a guide to future rulers. She was even mentioned in works she herself was not the patron of; both Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada and Juan of Osma mentioned her (although to be fair both men knew her personally – de Rada was sponsored by her son whilst Osma was at one point her son’s chancellor). Other chroniclers of the time attested to the fact that she was considered a wise and virtuous woman well loved and respected by the people. In 1218 de Lara continued his scheming this time trying to convince her ex-husband Alfonso IX King of Leon to break the truce that had been agreed between Leon and Castile by invading Castile to seize his son’s throne; Alfonso it seems was still a tad unhappy at his former wife tricking him with the whole abdication thing and her subsequent refusal to remarry him so actually seemed enthusiastic about potentially dethroning his own son and sent part of his army into Castile. Berengaria and Ferdinand however were a pretty formidable duo and proved to be a bit too much for Alfonso handle; the capture of de Lara put a dampener on Alfonso’s ambitions. Berengaria intervened and managed to convince her ex-husband and son to sign the Pact of Toro on 26 August 1218, which finally put an end to confrontations between Castile and León. de Lara was spared (Berengaria’s far more merciful than me) and was allowed to retire to a monastery where he died of illness not that long after. A year later Berengaria arranged for her son to marry Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen (the daughter of Philip of Swabia, the niece of her former husband Conrad of Swabia and the granddaughter of two emperors Frederick I Barbarossa Holy Roman Emperor and Isaac II Angelos the Byzantine Emperor).  Berengaria proved to be a master manipulator when it came to marriages; despite the death of Álvaro de Lara, the de Lara family continued to be a problem and so in 1222 she arranged the marriage of Mafalda de Lara the daughter and heiress of Gonzalo Pérez de Lara, to her youngest son Alfonso. She then in 1224 arranged the marriage of her youngest daughter Berengaria to John of Brienne, a frankly genius move. You see Berengaria had received information that her ex-husband was planning on marrying his eldest daughter Sancha to John so the two could inherit Léon instead of Berengaria’s son Ferdinand; she put a stop to that by preventing the marriage and gaining a valuable ally. In 1230 her ex-husband finally died and he proved to be a disappointment to the very end by designating his daughters Sancha and Dulce (from his first marriage to Theresa of Portugal) as heirs instead of Ferdinand claiming that due to his and Berengaria’s annulment, Fernando was technically illegitimate. This was completely ignoring the fact that Berengaria and Alfonso had only agreed to the annulment on the basis that the Pope granted Ferdinand legitimacy. Berengaria was not best thrilled at her ex-husband’s behaviour and promptly met with Sancha and Dulce’s mother Theresa who had been living in a convent for the last 3-4 decades. The private negotiations between the two women apparently went rather well and culminated in the Treaty of Las Tercerias in which Theresa’s daughters renounced their claim to the throne in favour of Ferdinand. Berengaria managed this with some good old fashioned bribery; Sancha and Dulce were granted a substantial sum of money. This meant that Castile and Leon were united for the first time in almost a century. Berengaria’s political involvement did not wane as she got older; after the death of her daughter in law Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen in 1235 she began searching for a new wife for her son, apparently not wanting him to fall into the kingly habit of having a mistresses and illicit relationships that offended the nobles and clergy. Ferdinand didn’t technically need a new wife; he and Elisabeth had managed to have a decent number of heirs but Berengaria was insistent and Ferdinand clearly didn’t argue with his mama on the matter. She roped her sister Blanche Queen Regent of France into her search for a new daughter-in-law; Blanche suggested Joan of Dammartin a French noblewoman, a suggestion that Berengaria was delighted with. Ferdinand ended up being pretty happy with the marriage too and they had five more children; their eldest daughter Eleanor ended up following in the footsteps of Berengaria’s grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine by becoming Queen of England. Towards the end of her life she once again took up the mantle of regent when her son was away in the south on his long campaigns as part of the Reconquista. She was an effective and skilled regent and her son remained deeply grateful for her support. Ferdinand III is now considered one of the most successful kings of Castile, in no small part due to the interventions and strategic brilliance of his mother. He was so exemplary a monarch that he ended up becoming a literal saint; Pope Clement X canonised him in 1671. Berengaria spent the last few years of her life living in Toledo separate from her son although they remained in close contact. She died in 1246 and was buried in Las Huelgas near Burgos. She was remembered extremely fondly in Castile and Leon where was given the epithet Berengaria the Great.

The first time Blanche of Castile pops up in the historical record as a person of importance was in the late 1190’s when the Castilian court received a visit from the living legend that was Eleanor of Aquitaine. Now why you may ask was Eleanor visiting the Castilian court when she had a whole hosts of shenanigans in France and England to deal with? Well her daughter (& namesake) Eleanor was the Queen of Castile as the wife of Alfonso VIII (and therefore Blanche’s mama) so she decided to pay her daughter and grandchildren a lil visit. Except in true Eleanor of Aquitaine fashion, her visit was not completely devoid of politics. You see her son John King of England was on the cusp of signing a peace treaty with Philip Augustus King of France (son of Eleanor’s ex-husband & half-brother of two of her daughters); one of the stipulations of the peace treaty was that Philip’s son Louis would marry one of John’s nieces. Philip and John, trusting that Eleanor knew best, asked Eleanor to decide which of John’s Castilian nieces was the best choice. Thus Eleanor travelled to Castile to decide the next Queen of France. In the run up to this visit, everyone had settled on the very beautiful Urraca as the obvious choice and she was basically being prepared for queenship; upon her arrival however Eleanor declared that although Urraca was the most beautiful of the Castilian princesses , the younger princess Blanche had the better personality and possessed the temperament to be Queen. Because a) everyone collectively knew disobeying Eleanor was a questionable decision and b) no-one knew better than Eleanor what being Queen of France entailed (remember she’d been queen of France in her youth when she’d been married to Philip Augustus’ father Louis), everyone wisely listened to her. Thus the Treaty of Le Goulet was signed with Blanche and Prince Louis’ becoming engaged. In the spring of 1200, Eleanor took it upon herself to cross the Pyrenees Mountains (despite being nearly 80) with her 12-year-old granddaughter, presenting their next queen to the French. On 22 May 1200, the marriage treaty was finally signed and the next day at Port-Mort on the right bank of the Seine a lavish wedding took place with Eleanor at the helm (the wedding had to take place in Blanche’s uncle John’s lands rather than the lands of her new father in law because Philip Augustus was under interdict after a quarrel with the Catholic Church). Blanche was twelve years of age, and Louis only 13, so the marriage was not consummated until a few years later (this is where I emphasise that 12-year-olds marrying and immediately consummating their marriage was NOT NORMAL, and I beg the people that say that in the Medieval/Tudor era it was a regular thing, to find examples beyond Margaret Beaufort. Margaret’s case was highly unusual, it was not the norm and even Margaret’s contemporaries were shocked that she’d survived childbirth, so much so that, Bishop Fisher commented on it, in her eulogy decades later. If they knew it was messed up and questionable in the 1400’s, then they definitely did in the late 1190’s-early 1200’s). Now upon consummating the marriage Blanche got pregnant quickly, like speedy-gonzalez quickly and she gave birth to her first child a daughter also named Blanche in 1205. The first few years of her political career was based heavily around child-bearing; three children followed the birth of their daughter Blanche; a son Philip in 1209 (he died a decade later) and twins John and Alphonse who were born in 1213 and died within hours of their birth. Their first child to survive to adulthood was their son Louis (REMEMBER HIM) who was born in 1214. Seven sons (Robert, Philip, John, Alphonse, Philip-Dagobert, Etienne & Charles) followed as did another daughter Isabelle. Altogether she would end up giving birth to thirteen children between 1205 and 1227. In 1215-1216 her uncle John ran into a spot of bother with his barons who decided to offer Louis the English throne; the basis for their offer was that Blanche as the granddaughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine possessed English blood. Louis and Blanche genuinely considered the offer, however it was rescinded in October 1216 when the ever-problematic John died and the notoriously fickle barons transferred their allegiance to John’s nine-year-old son Henry (who became Henry III). Louis did not like that and decided to continue claiming the English throne in the name of his wife. The French however were like “absolutely not, terrible idea” and Philip Augustus, not exactly England’s biggest fan refused to help his son. Blanche however proved that she had learnt something from her grandmother and decided to back her husband to the hilt; she raised money from her father in law by threatening to put her children as hostages. After French forces were defeated at Lincoln in May 1217, she used that money to fund reinforcements including two fleets that sailed to join Louis in England. Louis and Blanche were unsuccessful and the English fleet completely destroyed the French fleet. What they did accomplish, was that now everyone knew that Blanche was that girl. Her father in law died in July 1223, leaving Louis (now Louis VIII) and Blanche as King and Queen of France. The thing is Louis didn’t actually last that long. He died just three years later in 1226, leaving their 12-year-old son as King. Louis’ death was super bad timing; his southern barons were still causing a ruckus and the situation was pretty critical. Per Louis’ will, Blanche, by then 38, was declared regent and guardian of their children. She was thus now fully in control of France; her first port of call was to have their son crowned at Reims – forcing the somewhat reluctant barons to swear allegiance in the process. She then released a couple of her father in law and husband’s old prisoners including Ferdinand Count of Flanders – she also ceded land and castles to Philip I Count of Boulogne. Some very important barons refused to recognise the new king and at one point tried to abduct Blanche and Louis; she appealed to the people of Paris who lined the roads and protected them. She then forged a somewhat unexpected alliance with Theobald IV of Champagne; he had engaged in quite the conflict with her late husband and Blanche had actually barred him from her son’s coronation, leading to him initially leading a conspiracy with Hugh X Luisgnan and Peter I of Brittany against the crown. After meeting Blanche however he seemed to change his mind and the two formed a close partnership with him helping her to raise an army which she would use on a number of occasions to defend her son’s interests. I’d like to point out that he and Blanche were technically cousins; she was Eleanor of Aquitaine’s granddaughter whilst Theobald was Eleanor’s great-grandson. Rumours then began (surprising, surprise) that Theobald and Blanche were having an affair; Theobald did not help matters by composing poetry for her. The rumoured affair was commented on by both Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris; one story that emerged was that Theobald had murdered Blanche’s husband and then began a relationship with her incurring the wrath of her son who as a young man allegedly challenged Theobald to a duel to avenge his father’s death. Blanche according to the stories stopped the duel. Is it possible they had an affair? I suppose so. There however is no evidence to back it up, and the truth is, a lot of the barons were pissed at Blanche being in charge and resentful of Theobald’s powerful position at court (the Count of Champagne had emerged from the Succession War with a lot of influence) so spreading fabricated rumours of an illicit affair was a pretty good way of damaging both Theobald and Blanche’s reputations. She would serve as regent from 1226 to 1234 and again when her son went on crusade between 1248 and 1252 (what is it with 12th and 13th century men and their obsession with crusade?); she was a superb regent and became known by her enemies as “Dame Hersent” (the wolf in the Roman de Renart). She spent her regency dealing with the annoying barons; in January 1229 she led her forces against Mauclerc and forced him to recognize the king whilst that same year she was responsible for the Treaty of Toulouse in which Raymond VII Count of Toulouse (another grandchild of Eleanor) submitted to her son. This brought an end to the Albigensian Crusade. The barons were not her only concern; she also had to deal with Henry III of England (another grandchild of Eleanor); in the later 1220’s she blocked his every attempt to marry a French bride – he first asked for the hand of Yolande of Brittany then Joan Countess of Ponthieu. She blocked both matches by a) arranging for Yolande to marry her son John and b) convincing the pope to deny Henry a dispensation on the grounds of consanguinity. Henry understandably felt a little miffed about the situation and in 1230 tried to invade France. Blanche managed to stop Henry’s mother Isabella the Countess of Angouleme and her husband Hugh X of Luisngnan from supporting the English (although she had to give up some of the crown’s influence in Poitou) however was less successful with Mauclerc and the Duke of Brittany who did support Henry. To top off Blanche’s very terrible day, her troops became insubordinate and refused to serve beyond the 40 day feudal contract; the Count of Boulogne left the royal forces and decided to tear through Champagne. Henry it turned out was not the greatest of military leaders and squandered the odds which let’s be honest were very much in his favour. Some of the lords in Poitou remained loyal to Louis and Blanche and Henry was not willing to commit to a large military offensive, instead deciding to return to Brittany. Seeing off an invasion did wonders for Blanche and Louis’ reputaton and their rule was seen as pretty stable. Louis realised that he basically owned his crown and realm to his mama and remained pretty much under her influence for most of her life. Louis began to become more involved in politics in the early 1230’s and the regency came to an end in 1234; despite this Blanche remained super powerful and it was well known that her son did not withhold anything from her. There was also a pretty big rule at court which was that no-one was allowed to speak against the queen mother. It was Blanche that arranged the marriage between her son and Margaret of Provence the eldest of the four daughters of Ramon Count of Provence and Beatrice of Savoy. That backfired on her slightly – Margaret and Blanche did not have a good relationship, in part due to the fact that they both wanted to be numero uno in Louis’ life and Margaret somewhat understandably resented the influence her mother in law had on her son – especially as Blanche was a bit of a nightmare mother in law (it’s believed she tried to limit the amount of time Louis and Margaret spent together). There was also the fact that the two women were constantly compared to one another – Blanche had always been considered the beauty of the court despite her age. That changed with the arrival of Margaret who quickly became the centre of court. One of the ongoing issues of 1200’s Europe, particularly in France, was the massive anti-semitism that was prevalent throughout society; Louis insisted on the burning of the Talmud and other Jewish literature however Blanche intervened and promised Yechiel of Paris (basically the spokesman for the French Jewish community) that he was under her protection. She then insisted on a fair hearing for them; she herself presided over the formal disputation of court. In 1248 her son decided to go on crusade (of course), a course of action she was strongly opposed to. He decided to go anyway, and left her once again as regent. In his absence she managed to maintain peace whilst also draining the country of men and money to aid her son’s ludicrous shenanigans in the East. In November 1252 she suddenly fell ill and died within a few days; she was buried at the Maubuisson Abbey which she had founded herself. Because 13th century international post was not exactly stellar, Louis did not hear of her death until the following spring and was HEARTBROKEN; he allegedly didn’t speak to anyone for two days afterwards. Blanche is now considered to be one of the most influential women in French history. I love her. She’s so fascinating and it’s always surprising to me that’s she’s not as well known as other French consorts including her grandma and Catherine de Medici; I mean her son literally went on to become a Saint.

There has to be something pretty special about a girl for Blanche of Castile Queen Regent of France and Berengaria of Castile Queen Consort of Leon, Queen Mother of Castile and Leon, regent of Castile and briefly Queen Regnant of Castile aka the co-heiresses of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s formidable legacy, to personally handpick her to marry one of their sons. Joan of Dammartin was born circa 1220 the eldest daughter of Simon of Dammartin the Count of Ponthieu and Marie of Ponthieu the Countess of Montreuil; now Joan did posses some royal blood – her maternal grandmother was Alys Countess of the Vexin, daughter of Louis VII and his second wife Constance of Castile (Louis was the first husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine meaning that Alys was the daughter of Eleanor’s first husband, the fiancée of two of her sons, the half-sister of two of her daughters and possibly even the mistress of her second husband. Insanity). When Joan was around 12-14 negotiations began for her to marry Henry III of England (aka the son of her grandmother’s one time possible husband); these negotiations were top secret due to the eternal tension between France and England and the fact that this marriage was likely to infuriate the French – Joan was not only heiress to her mother’s county of Ponthieu but also the county of Aumale on her father’s side – Ponthieu bordered on the duchy of Normandy whilst Aumale was actually within Normandy. Philip Augustus II the King of France had seized Normandy from Henry’s father King John in 1205 and the possibility of the English having a foothold in the duchy could have potentially lead to them re-establishing control. This was a terrifying and frankly unacceptable thought to the French. Now Joan’s father Simon was not the most loyal of vassals and had previously ended up in hot water for joining a brotherhood of northern French noblemen that opposed Philip Augustus II. When their conspiracy had been discovered, Philip’s son Louis VIII mercifully pardoned Simon on the condition that he would not marry any of his daughters (he had no sons so his daughters were thus his heirs) without the express approval of the King of France. When in 1234 Louis’ widow Blanche caught wind of the fact that Simon was planning to do the exact opposite and marry his daughter to the King of England thus creating all sorts of political headaches for the Kingdom of France she jumped into action and invoked the promise Joan’s father had once made. Blanche as regent for her son, had the authority to threaten Simon with a number of unpleasantries including imprisonment and the seizure of all his lands. To make her unhappiness crystal clear, she also petitioned the Pope to forbid the marriage on account of consanguinity. Henry clearly didn’t think the marriage was worth all the fuss and so married Eleanor of Provence in 1236 instead. This left Joan without a potential spouse; to make sure the girl couldn’t be used against France again, Blanche suggested her to her sister Berengaria as a possible wife for Berengaria’s son Ferdinand III the King of Castile and Leon. This benefitted the French immensely – not only did it prevent an English match but Ferdinand (who was around 2 decades Joan’s senior) had seven sons from his first marriage to Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen meaning there was little chance of Castile taking over Ponthieu. They married in October 1237; Joan was about 17 whilst Ferdinand was around 36-38. Despite the age gap the two appear to have had a pretty solid marriage and Joan bore him five children; four sons Ferdinand, Louis, Simon and John and a daughter Eleanor. Joan and Ferdinand seem to have spent a pretty significant amount of time together unlike other couples of medieval royalty, some of whom spent significant time apart and we know for a fact that in 1248 when he besieged Seville, Joan accompanied him to Andalucia, and even stayed with him in the army camp. Her mother died in 1251 leaving her Countess of Ponthieu in her own right. A year later her husband died; this is where things got a tad tricky. You see it’s clear that Joan didn’t have the best relationship with her step-son Alfonso X of Castile and he was apparently not enthusiastic about handing over the lands and income his father had promised Joan and that were hers by law as the dowager Queen. Tensions between them deteriorated so signifjcantly that in 1253, she allied herself with Alfonso’s brother Henry who had a similar grudge against his brother (Alfonso was evidently a tight wad who seemingly did everything he could, not to pay people what he owed them – Henry claimed that Alfonso had not given him the entirety of the wealth their father had left him). In a decision that probably wasn’t her best she began meeting Henry and his advisors secretly. When allies of Alfonso’s found out they started spreading rumours that Joan and Henry were lovers which did not go down well with the Castilian people nor was Alfonso particularly thrilled and things got majorly tense. In 1254 her daughter Eleanor became engaged to Edward I of England; she wisely took this opportunity to leave Castile and return to her native Ponthieu with her son and heir Ferdinand. The first few years of being back in Ponthieu seem to have been relatively uneventful; this was until sometime between May 1260 and February 1261 when Joan married Jean de Nesle Seigeneur de Falvy et de La Hérelle, a marriage which appears to have been a love match. It was previously thought that the marriage produced a daughter Beatrice however it’s likely that the Beatrice recorded as Jean de Nesle’s daughter was actually from his first marriage. In 1263 her childless cousin died making Joan the Countess of Aumale. Tragedy struck four years later when in 1265 her son and heir Ferdinand died unexpectedly. Inheritance customs in Picardy where Ponthieu was, are slightly different to the succession laws of England or the Kingdom of France; in England Joan’s heir would have been her grandson John (Ferdinand’s son) however because of the laws in Picardy her second son Louis became her heir. He however died in 1275 which meant her daughter Eleanor by now the Queen of England, automatically became her heir. Remember when Joan was a teenager and the then Queen of France did everything in her power to prevent Ponthieu from coming under the power of the English? Well the French found themselves having to deal with that particular problem yet again. Joan seems to have been quite happy for her daughter to inherit; they were close and during Edward I and Eleanor’s travels, their children sometimes stayed with Joan. Their daughter and her namesake Joan of Acre was said to be her favourite grandchild; the girl lived with her between 1274 and 1278 and the elder Joan appears to have spoiled the little princess so ridiculously that when she returned to England, Eleanor and Edward found their daughter had grown into a bit of a spoiled brat. You see Joan was not particularly great with money; in fact she appears to have been quite the spender and when she died in March 1279 it became clear to her poor daughter and son in law that she had accrued phenomenal debts. Concerned that the King of France would use the debts as a way of involving himself in the county’s affairs, Eleanor and Edward quickly paid the debts. They then began wrangling with Eleanor’s nephew John of Ponthieu aka Joan’s grandson who she had left a large amount of land in Ponthieu to as well as various legal rights connected to those estates. Once again the inheritance customs of Picardy reared its head; Edward and Eleanor retained Ponthieu however due to the inheritance customs of Normandy, John of Ponthieu was recognized as Joan’s successor in Aumale. In order to keep the French at bay, Edward and Eleanor then had to use English wealth to restored financial stability to the administration and the finances of Ponthieu, which had taken a bit of a hit due to Joan’s evidently exorbitant shopping habits.

Everyone knows the novella-esque story of Henry VIII and his Six Wives. Elizabeth I is remembered as Gloriana, a ruler so great she gave her name to the Elizabethan Age. Eleanor of Aquitaine’s shenanigans over the course of her eighty-odd years of being centre stage in European politics are iconic. The strength and scheming of women like Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort and Margaret of Anjou during the War of the Roses is legendary. These Queens of England are remembered. Books and tv shows and documentaries are released about them frequently and consistently. Their stories have been told 100 times over. There are however other Queens whose legacies are less remembered, centuries after their death. Eleanor of Castille is one of those women. Born in 1241 in Burgos, Castile the eldest daughter of Ferdinand III King of Castile (known as Ferdinand the Great) and his second wife Joan of Dammartin Countess of Ponthieu. She was given the name Eleanor after her great-grandmother Eleanor of England and great-great-grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine. One of my favourite things about medieval Europe is that there was almost no Eleanor’s, then Eleanor of Aquitaine was born and became a living legend, resulting in Eleanor suddenly becoming one of the most used names for European princesses. We know that this Eleanor was born in 1241 although we don’t know an exact date; it’s almost certain she was a winter baby – her parents were reunited in February 1241 having spent thirteen months apart whilst her father was on a military campaign in Andalusia. For her to have been born in 1241 she must have been conceived almost immediately after his return. She was known to be a particular favourite of her father’s and she was by his side when he died in Seville in 1251. Now Eleanor’s father insisted that all his children regardless of gender be given an extensive education and after he died, her half brother Alfonso X of Castile evidently shared this view, making sure that Eleanor’s education continued. She was arguably one of the most educated princesses in Europe, raised in a highly cultured court that was famous for its literary atmosphere. This no doubt contributed to her developing a passion for literature which was evident throughout her life. When time came to arrange her marriage there were a number of potential candidates; the Kings of Castile had a long held if slightly tenuous claim to the Kingdom of Navarre and so Eleanor’s half brother Alfonso X at one point negotiated for her to potentially marry Theobald II of Navarre; this marriage would have been hugely beneficial to Alfonso for two main reasons – firstly Navarre served as a link between Castile and Gascony, the latter of which the Kings of Castile claimed through Alfonso and Eleanor’s great-grandmother Eleanor of England and secondly Theobald II was of a similar age to Eleanor (i.e underage) and so to Alfonso there was the prospect of potentially annexing Navarre into Castile. Theobald’s mother Margaret of Bourbon however caught wind of Alfonso’s scheming and to avoid Castilian supremacy allied her son with James I of Aragon instead. James insisted as part of the treaty binding Aragon and Navarre together, that Margaret solemnly swear never to allow a marriage between Eleanor and Theobald. In 1352 Alfonso decided to pursue his claim to the duchy of Gascony, which he claimed had formed part of the dowry of his great-grandmother Eleanor of England. As I discussed earlier on in this post, there’s no evidence Gascony was ever actually part of the dowry and the Castilian’s were clearly just winging it. Henry III of England was absolutely not having Alfonso and his shenanigans and immediately countered Alfonso’s claims with both diplomatic and military moves. Early in 1253, the two kings began to negotiate; the negotiations ended up being more complex than they should have been – it appears there was some disagreement over the financial aspects of the agreement. Eventually Henry and Alfonso agreed that Eleanor would marry Henry’s son Edward (by now the titular duke of Gascony), and Alfonso would transfer his Gascon claims to Edward. Henry was evidently quite stressed and very desperate not to lose the last of England’s French possessions, so much so that he abandoned plans for an overly dramatic and elaborate celebration in which he planned to knight his son and instead sent Edward to Castile to marry Eleanor immediately. Alfonso agreed that he would instead knight the teenage prince. Eleanor and Edward’s marriage took place on the 1st November 1254 – she was probably 13 although was likely approaching her 14th birthday whilst Edward was 15. Because this is a tale of European monarchy and everyone was related to everyone, Edward and Eleanor were second cousins once removed (Edward’s grandfather King John of England and Eleanor’s great-grandmother Eleanor of England Queen of Castile were siblings as the children of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine). The marriage was evidently consummated quite quickly after their wedding, because within a year of their marriage Eleanor had given birth to a stillborn daughter. Honestly still-births are absolutely tragic, the fact that Eleanor was forced to endure such a tragedy at the age of 14-15 is just horrendous. The first year of their marriage was spent away from both her brother and his father’s courts with them living in Aquitaine where Edward ruled as Lord. By the time she travelled to the English court for the first time in mid 1255, she and Edward already seemed pretty devoted to one another. Their devotion would remain strong and seemingly unbreakable until her death almost forty years later. Although her father in law was thrilled to have dealt with the Gascony problem so quickly, he maybe hadn’t considered the possibility that the marriage would be unpopular with the English public which it was. Henry was known to be stupidly generous and there were concerns that Eleanor would bring a huge retinue including vast numbers of family members and countrymen, that would benefit from Henry’s generosity whilst costing the public. Admittedly some of her relative did come to England with her however she was too young to stop them and she couldn’t very well tell Henry III to stop supporting them. Unfortunately for Eleanor she lived in the 13th century and was a woman, so she was blamed anyway. By the time she stepped foot on English soil, the English people had already decided they were not her biggest fans.

The nature of Eleanor’s political involvement in the first decade of marriage is pretty unknown; she obviously wasn’t a Queen yet so she didn’t play a major role in affairs of state. Any influence she did have was solely dependant on her relationship with her husband; they were close so it’s possible he sought her advice. It wasn’t until the outbreak of the Second Barons War in 1264 that her political star began to rise. Contrary to contemporary rumours that Edward sent her to her mother’s lands in Ponthieu for safety, there’s evidence that proves she remained in England and contributed to Edward’s campaign against his father’s unruly barons; she bought archers from Ponthieu to fight on her husband’s side, held Windsor Castle in the absence of her husband and father in law and was  given authority over the barons that Edward arrested and imrpisoned (some were held at Windsor). After her husband was defeated and captured during the Battle of Lewes, the leader of the barons Simon de Montfort heard rumours that she had written to her brother Alfonso X requesting he send troops from Castile leading to Montfort ordering her removal from Windsor Castle in June 1364. She was put under house arrest at Westminster Palace, however he ordered she be treated with the upmost respect and honour. To be fair to Montfort that was probably a wise choice, I cannot even begin to imagine Edward’s reaction if she’d been treated with anything less (remember this is a man who later on in life allegedly scared a man to death). Edward managed to escape and along with his father defeated the barons at the Battle of Evesham 1265. In the aftermath it became clear that major government reform was needed and despite not yet being king, Edward took a decisive role in said reforms; owing to their incredibly close bond and her actions during the war, Eleanor found herself with far more political prominence than before. Her position at his side was guaranteed in 1266 when she gave birth to their son John; she had already given birth to three daughters at this point however the first had been stillborn and the other two Katharine and Joanna had died as babies. John’s birth was followed by that of a second son Henry in 1268 and a daughter Eleanor in 1269 meaning by 1270 she was the wife of the heir to the throne and the mother of the second and third in line to the throne. The pair would go on to three more sons Alponso (born in 1273), another son born in 1280 who died almost immediately after birth and whose name is unknown and Edward (born in 1284) as well as seven more daughters Joan (born in 1272), Margaret (born in 1275), Berengaria (born in 1276), a unnamed daughter who died immediately post birth in 1278, Mary (born in 1279) and Elizabeth (born in 1282). Another daughter was born in 1271 whilst they were on Crusade however we have absolutely no idea of the baby girl’s name (possibly Juliana although we’re not 100% sure) nor do we know what happened to her. She had died by the time they returned from Crusade. Now chroniclers at the time suggested that Eleanor was not a particularly good mother and that her and Edward were more devoted to each other than to their progeny. Historians have unfortunately bought into this and usually point to two incidents in particular where Eleanor exhibited a lack of maternal instincts; the first is when their son Henry was dying in Guildford in 1274 and neither she nor Edward made the journey to be there when he died, leaving Edward’s mother Eleanor of Provence to comfort the boy, and the second incident is the fact they sent their daughter Joan to live with Eleanor’s mother in Ponthieu between 1274 and 1278. The thing is, both of these incidents are easily explainable and don’t in any way suggest she was a bad mother. For starters Eleanor was pregnant at the time of Henry’s death in 1274; although medical knowledge and understanding of infectious diseases was somewhat limited in the 13th century, there were probably concerns about exposing a pregnant woman to whatever disease was killing the prince. In regards to Edward and Eleanor sending their daughter to live with her grandmother; the practice of fostering noble children in other households of similar rank was a popular one and Eleanor’s mother was not only their daughter’s grandmother but she was also a Countess in her own right and the Dowager Queen of Castile meaning she absolutely would have been able to provide a household appropriate for a princess. Then there’s the nature of medieval monarchy; Edward and Eleanor travelled frequently and when the children were very young, it was pretty unfair to force them to endure the rigors of constant travel. We have evidence that shows whenever Edward and Eleanor were away from their children, they corresponded with members of the children’s household constantly and Eleanor was known to send gifts to them frequently. We even have a letter from Edward where he berates a member of staff for not keeping him informed of their health. As they grew from small children into young adults, they began spending most of their time with Edward and Eleanor. Between 1270 and 1272 they went on Crusade spending time in Sicily and Acre; during that time they had two daughetrs one who evidently died whilst on Crusade and another Joan who survived and in adulthood went on to cause a scandal or two.

Whilst they were in Acre, Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari better known as Baybars the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria, was apparently so concerned about Edward’s presence on Crusade that he ordered Edward’s assassination. Luckily the assignation was unsuccessful although he was wounded in the arm by a dagger that was thought to be poisoned which lead to the wound becoming seriously inflamed and a surgeon was summoned to cut away the poisoned flesh. Contrary to popular belief Eleanor did not suck the poison from the wound, thereby saving Edward’s life. She was however present and initially refused to leave his bedside however the surgeon insisted leading to her being led away by all accounts sobbing. In December whilst in Sicily they learned that Edward’s father Henry III had died a month previously and they were now King and Queen of England. Following a brief pit stop in Gascony, they returned to England and were crowned in August 1374. For most of the past 700 years it was thought that Eleanor as Queen had little political involvement beyond minor acts of diplomacy. One reason for this view was that when her brother was facing political upheaval and was in desperate need of soldiers, Edward refused to send English knights (although he did send a small amount of knights from Gascony).  Recent scholarship and the discovery of contemporary evidence however has suggested she actually played a larger role than traditionally thought albeit a very discreet one. Some of Edward’s legislation including the Statue of Jewry, the Welsh resettlements and some of his military strategies were said to be influenced by Eleanor and were based on the approaches of her ancestors in Castile. Clearly she had some political influence although it was never overt. One reason for this is that Eleanor was pretty unpopular and so they may have felt it wise to to keep her influence behind closed doors. Why was she so unpopular you ask? Well as I previously mentioned, Eleanor was unpopular before she even arrived on English soil and nothing she did afterwards particularly helped her cause. She was known primarily in her lifetime as a bit of a ruthless businesswoman, one who acquired a phenomenal number of lands and manors. Her acquisition of lands was unusual for a Queen and the level of her activity was insane: between 1274 and 1290 she acquired estates worth above £2500 yearly. What we know now (although it probably wasn’t public knowledge at the the time) was that Edward was the driving force behind her business activities as he wanted her to hold lands sufficient for her financial needs without drawing on funds needed for government. She had close business ties to Jewish money-lenders who in the words of John Peckham Archbishop of Canterbury “extorted with usury from Christians under the protection of the royal court”, which further diminished her public standing as did the actions of some of her officials who were at times a little aggressive in their demands upon her tenants. It appears that Eleanor was unaware of the extent of their ruthlessness  until too late; it’s believed that on her deathbed she asked Edward to name justices to examine her officials’ actions and make reparations. 

As I previously mentioned Eleanor was raised in a richly cultured court as the daughter of a King famed for his artistic patronage and Eleanor herself became an active patroness of literature. She was known to commission dozens of works in her lifetime including the production of the Douce Apocalypse, a translation of De Re Militari by Vegetius (which she had translated for her husband), the Alphonso Psalter (which you can now see in the British Library), an Arthurian romance with a Northumbrian theme, on occasion of the marriage of the Northumbrian lord John de Vescy, who married a close friend and relation of hers and a theological work written by Archbishop Peckham. She also frequently exchanged books with her brother Alfonso and the likes of the Bishop of Cerne and masters at Oxford. The books she read were usually in Castilian or French; we don’t believe she was fluent in English although she probably spoke some (this wasn’t a major problem as French was spoken pretty heavilyt at the English Court and the last four queens had all been native French speakers (Eleanor of Provence, Isabella of Angouleme, Berengaria of Navarre and Eleanor of Aquitaine). Eleanor was throughout her lifetime a devoted patron of the Dominican Order – she supported their work at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and founded a number of priories throughout the country. She was also a big influence on design in England; not only did she popularise the use of tapestries and carpets in interior design but she also clearly had a love of intricate gardens; extensive spending on her gardens is evidenced at all of the royal palaces she lived in and many included water features (a typically Castilian design feature). Eleanor was for most of her life extremely healthy however it appears her health began to deteriorate after the birth of her last child although the exact cause is unknown. After her return from Gascony in 1288 there were signs that she wasn’t likely to last long; the marriages of her two daughters Margaret and Joan were speedily arranged and in the summer of 1290 when she embarked on a tour of her properties in Northern England, the tour was far slower than her previous ones. Her progress was so slow that Edward convened Parliament in Clipstone rather than London not wanting to leave her side. Towards the end of November 1290 she evidently became so ill that the journey was abandoned not far from Lincoln. She died on the 28th November with Edward by her side; he was so heartbroken that government basically came screaming to a halt until he could compose himself (this allegedly took days). When her body was returned to London in a grand procession, Edward accompanied her. Afterwards he gave orders that memorial crosses be erected at the site of each overnight stop between Lincoln and Westminster; these became known as the Eleanor Crosses. Edward was by all accounts a wreck after her death and refused to marry for years afterwards despite the expectation he would do so. His advisors also encouraged him to find a new bride; he took years to heed their advice eventually remarrying in 1299 to Margaret of France. Despite this Eleanor remained the great love of his life and he he ordered an annual celebration on the anniversary of her death, in which 49 candlebearers were paid to walk in a public procession to commemorate each year of her life. He also named his daughter with Margaret after her (awkward much?) and when he died his body was buried beside hers in Westminster Abbey. Edward was as I mentioned a lil bit of a tyrant and I always think him and Eleanor as giving off a bit of a “he’s mean to everyone except me vibe”. 

Every once in a while, amongst all the tales of miserable marriages that fill the history books, there’s a rare royal marriage borne not out of political expediency or scheming but rather of love. Now I’m no romantic but I do find it fascinating when a prince or King chooses his heart over his head. These love stories aren’t necessarily a regular occurrence but they had occasionally happen, and here is exhibit A.  Born circa 1265 Maria de Molina was born the daughter of Alfonso of León Lord of Molina and his third wife Mayor Alfonso de Meneses; her father was the son of the aforementioned Alfonso IX of Leon and Berengaria of Castile meaning she was the great-granddaughter of Ferdinand II of Leon, Urraca of Portugal, Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England. Very little is known about her childhood. In 1282 when she was around 16-17 she was married to her first cousin once removed Sancho IV of Castile who was around 7 years her senior; the marriage it’s believed was actually surprise, surprise a love match. A love match which happened to cause a phenomenal amount of controversy because as I mentioned the two were related within the third degree meaning in order to marry, they needed a dispensation. Did they get one, you ask? Well no in fact they didn’t even ask and seemed to marry in a bit of a spur of the moment decision that came with a ton of consequences; Sancho I’d like to point out was actually engaged to a very rich Catalan heiress named Guillerma Moncada, when he decided that the woman he had been waiting for was actually the younger cousin he’d known all his life. Frankly they must have been in love because I can think of no other reason they’d be so reckless; not only did their marriage annoy their parents and the Pope but there was the possibility that any children born of the union would be considered illegitimate and that had the potential to cause all sorts of dynastic issues. Rome put phenomenal amounts of pressure on them to separate however Sancho refused to repudiate her. I’ve seen some suggestion that they were actually excommunicated for their marriage although I’ve yet to see any hard evidence. At the bare minimum they were heavily criticised by the Church for their marriage. Maria got pregnant within a few months of marrying and the two went on to have two daughters Isabella (born in 1283) later the Queen of Aragon and Duchess of Brittany and Beatrice (born in 1293) later the Queen of Portugal as well as five sons Ferdinand (born in 1285) later Ferdinand IV, Alfonso (born in 1286), Henry (born in 1288), Peter (born in 1290) and Philip (born in 1292). Now marrying Maria turned out to be one of Sancho’s best decisions – you see Sancho was at the centre of some good old fashioned family drama. His older brother Ferdinand had died in 1275 at the Battle of Écija leaving two baby sons behind. Alfonso in a European-monarchical tradition of parental favouritism, was devastated at the death of his favourite son and wished to see either of his infant grandsons inherit the throne after him rather than he less-favoured second son Sancho. Sancho’s nephews had their grandfather on their side but Sancho had the backing of the nobles. This culminated in a rather bitter civil war that Sancho emerged from victorious (although he was forced to imprison his brother John who opposed him and execute a significant number of his nephew’s supporters). The civil war came to an end around the time Sancho and Maria married – Sancho forced his father from power and the majority of the country soon bowed to him (although the cities of Seville, Murcia and Badajoz remained opposed). A peace treaty was signed that acknowledged Sancho as the rightful heir and agreed that he would rule as regent on Alfonso’s behalf until his death, however because Alfonso was the world’s worst father, when he died alone and miserable in Seville in 1284 he left a will that back-tracked on every aspect of the 1282 peace treaty and excluded Sancho from the line of succession, naming Alfonso’s grandson as his heir. Luckily Sancho was a grown man and a fairly decent military leader whilst his nephew was a child and therefore far too young to command any kind of presence on the battlefield. That didn’t stop a ton of scheming on the behalf of just every about everyone and Sancho was forced to fight the Moors and the Aragonese and the French and whoever else decided that becoming allies with Sancho’s nephew was a good idea. It was during this chaos that Maria de Molina’s political ascent began; she and her husband were obviously a formidable duo and he allowed her quite significant political influence literally from the get go. In fact when his father died in 1284, they were crowned together in a way that made it abundantly clear that Maria was a force to be reckoned with, and throughout his reign she exerted considerable influence, proving to be his most loyal and most trusted advisor. The marriage however did not last long. You see Sancho IV fell ill at some point in the early 1290’s (probably with tuberculosis) and began relying significantly on his wife, delegating various duties he could no longer fulfil to her. When he had become King, Sancho had evidently believed he’d have plenty of time to deal with all of the political issues plaguing his kingdom however he soon realised that time was running out. He also realised much to everyone’s horror that he had won the throne in part due to the fact that his nephews had been children unable to successfully build a coalition of opposition against him. Those children however were now infinitely wilier young men who had the upper hand against Sancho’s heir – his and Maria’s 9-year-old Ferdinand. Realising he didn’t have that many years left, Sancho dedicated the last few years of his life trying to prepare everyone for what would come after he died; this included organising a marriage between his son Ferdinand and a princess of either France of Portugal. In September 1291, Sancho and Maria signed an agreement that established a betrothal between Ferdinand and Constance of Portugal. They also betrothed their eldest daughter Isabella to James II King of Aragon. Sancho evidently recognised that his son would need a strong and politically shrewd regent who would be able to wrangle the nobility and defend his son’s interest. No-one he felt was better suited to the role than Maria and upon his death in 1295 (with Maria by his side), no one was all that surprised that his will dictated that she serve as regent until their son was an adult. Within 5 minutes of him dying, all of his enemies came out the woodwork and began causing all sorts of headaches for Maria. 

A coalition was formed against her – except they were all kinda against each other too. It was very much a “my enemy is your enemy situation” wherein although they all disliked each other (and all wanted the throne), they disliked Maria more. They all declared that the marriage between Sancho IV and María was without validity, and therefore all their children (including Ferdinand) were illegitimate. This coalition included her brother in law John who Sancho had stupidly pardoned and who was now eager to be King himself claiming the throne as Sancho’s legitimate brother and Sancho’s now grown up nephews who were backed by Aragon and France with the eldest Alfonso insisting that he had the best claim to the throne – in this he was backed by his mother Violante of Aragon. James II King of Aragon (Violante’s brother) threw his two cents in as did Denis King of Portugal and monarchs throughout Europe tried to determine the best way to exploit the chaos in Castile. The powerful Castilian nobles including the likes of Diego Lopez V de Haro and the Lara’s (it’s always the bloody Laras)  took the opportunity to further foment strife, always a favourite pastime of theirs, and to top off the general chaos, Sancho’s uncle Henry of Castile arrived home wanting to rule the kingdom on behalf of his great-nephew (who he demanded custody of as the most senior male member of the family) despite the fact he’d just spent twenty three years in prison in Italy and had only recently been released. To put it bluntly it was an absolute disaster, a sinking ship if you will and Maria found herself having to try and steady it. As messy as the situation was, Maria proved that Sancho’s faith in her had been 100% justified although at the Cortes of Valladoid in 1295 she was forced to accept sharing guardianship with Henry (he however proved to be more of a hindrance than a help). In the summer of 1295 following the Cortes of Valladoid, Maria and Henry met in Ciudad Rodrigo with Denis who Maria was aware was being pressured by her brother in law John to to declare war to Castile and, at the same time, support his claims to the Castilian throne. One of her greatest weapons was the use of marriage alliances and the gifts of territories which she used to secure allies and guarantee support from important Castilian magnates; not only did she in the summer of 1295 manage to convince King Denis to renew the betrothal between Ferdinand IV and Constance of Portugal but to further sweeten the deal she offered the hand of her daughter Beatrice to Denis’ son and heir Afonso. She then confirmed Diego Lopez V de Haro as the Lord of Biscay and temporarily returned various properties Sancho had removed from his brother hoping that this act of generosity would convince John to recognise Ferdinand IV as his sovereign. He did (but only privately). The summer however wasn’t completely successful; Maria and Sancho’s eldest daughter Isabella who had been chilling in Aragon as the fiancee of the King of Aragon was rudely sent back to Castile by James II who broke the engagement and promptly declared war against Castile. 1296 started badly; Maria’s brother in law John decided to rebel and took various important cities and in April of that year his nephew Alfonso seemingly gave up his claim to the throne and backed his uncle with John being proclaimed King of Leon, Seville, Galicia, Castile, Toledo, Cordoba, Murcia and Jaen. Meanwhile the Sultan of Granada Muhammad II al-Faqih tried to exploit the utter chaos by attacking the lands in Andalusia that Maria was trying to defend; she sent her co-guardian Henry to negotiate and politely ask him to stop. Things got a tad brighter later that year when Peter of Aragon, one of John’s main supporters died although the temporary reprieve did not last. Both the Portuguese and Aragon monarchs attacked Castile in the fall – James II of Aragon attacked Murcia and Soria, and Denis of Portugal attacked along the line of Douro river. Her brother in law John and his partner in crime Juan Núñez II de Lara then decided to lay siege to Valladolid where Maria had sought refuge with her son. Henry who if you recall was trying to negotiate peace with the Granadians decided to attack them instead; that unsurprisingly ended badly and the Castilians were defeated. Maria then turned her attention to Denis I of Portugal reminding him of the previous agreements they had made in regards to marriage alliances and offered gold and properties to sweeten the deal; Denis relented and the Treaty of Alcañices were signed which agreed on a number of different points including the borders between Castile and Portugal and the various fortresses and towns Maria agreed to give him in exchange for him not being a traitorous shit. The Treaty did what it was supposed to – now allied with Maria and Ferdinand, the Portuguese boy only retreated but Denis also sent 300 knights under one of his main lieutenants João Afonso de Albuquerque to assist Maria against her opponents. The treaty between Castile and Portugal was ratified both by Maria and Denis, but also by several representatives of the nobiliary and ecclesiastical arms of both kingdoms, as well as by the Brotherhood of the councils of Castile and by its equivalent of Leon. This treaty had major long term consequences; the border between the two kingdoms was barely touched in the centuries that followed, becoming one of the longest frontiers of the European continent. In early 1298 John and his nephew Alfonso with the help of Juan Nunez II de Lara began to mint fake coin, since it contained less metal than it corresponded, with the purpose of destabilising the economy of the Kingdoms of Castile and León; while these shenanigans were going on Maria and Ferdinand continued losing cities to their opponents; the cities of Sigüenza and Almazan were taken by Juan Núñez II de Lara whilst James II of Aragon held the city of Albarracin. Maria then asked her sort of ally the King of Portugal to send troops to assist her however he the double-dealing jerk had secretly come to an agreement with Henry of Castile to reach a peace agreement with John under which the latter kept the Kingdom of Galicia and the city of Leon. Maria was absolutely not having it and made it clear she had no intention of surrendering to anyone; she managed to bribe Henry with the cities of Ècija, Roa and Medellin and told him to butt out. She secured the support of the Castillian Cortes who repeatedly confirmed her authority and began building her own coalition. She also turned out to be pretty amazing at fomenting strife between her opponents – she played the powerful Haro and Lara families against each other perfectly which meant they were more fixated on each other than on opposing her. The tension went on for several years however by 1299 things were looking a little brighter for Maria and Ferdinand; her policy of turning their opponents against each other was working and the coalition against them weakened significantly when one of their principal opponents Juan Núñez de Lara was captured by Juan Alfonso de Haro, Lord of Cameros.  He decided to save himself by a) swearing fealty to Ferdinand, b) marrying his sister Juana to Henry of Castile and c) returning the cities of Osma, Palenzuela, Amaya, Dueñas, Ampudia, Tordehumos, Le Mota and Lerma to the crown. In 1300 Maria received her crowning glory when Maria raised enough money to guarantee the dispensation making her marriage legal; seeing that the wind was very much blowing in her direction, John of Castile attended the Cortes of Valladolid of 1300 and renounced to his claim to the throne, finally making public his oath of fidelity to Fernando IV and his successors. By this point the only one still causing a problem was James II of Aragon who in 1301 besieged the town of Lorca; Maria reacted by ordering the sieges of the castles of Alcalá and Mula, and immediately after the city of Murcia where James II was based. Because the men in this tale are absolute trash, both Henry and John of Castile warned James of the incoming siege and so he was able to escape. In 1301 the Pope finally granted her a very long overdue dispensation meaning that her son was no longer considered illegitimate and Maria had not spent a decade living in sin; the dispensation was announced in Burgos and made pretty much all the arguments against Ferdinand, null and void. Maria’s biggest problem then became Henry of Castile, who apparently was not happy with the legitimation of Ferdinand IV and so allied himself with Juan Núñez II de Lara. Both were joined by John of Castile, because apparently swearing fealty doesn’t mean all that much. In 1301, the King of Aragon became far less of a problem; while Maria was in Vitoria dealing with the Kingdom of Navarre who were complaining about a whole host of issues, a number of nobles in Aragon rebelled against James II and offered their support to Maria and Ferdinand, offering to return to Castile the cities that James had taken from them earlier on in the civil war. Not only after Henry of Castile allied with Diego López V de Haro, offered to leave his position as royal guardian as long as Ferdinand and Maria granted him the towns of Atienza and San Esteban de Gormaz. They clearly couldn’t get rid of him fast enough and agreed. 

On the 23rd January 1302 Ferdinand IV married Constance of Portugal. Not long afterwards Henry and John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara accused Maria of giving away the jewels given to her by her late husband. When that allegation proved to be a blatant lie they accused her of having appropriated the subsidies granted to the Crown in the Cortes of previous years. Once again that accusation was proven to be a giant lie when Nuno the Abbot of Santander and Maria’s Chancellor reviewed and made public her accounts which proved that not only had she not used government funds but she’d actually contributed her OWN MONEY to supporting the monarchy. Ouch. For reasons unknown to me, Ferdinand then became pally pally with his uncle John (yes the one that had rebelled against him several times), with the latter aiming to turn Ferdinand against his mother. Henry of Castile was unhappy that Ferdinand wasn’t showing him the same level of love and began making all kinds of threats which Maria took upon herself to deal with, despite a growing distance between her and her son. At a planned 1303 meeting between Ferdinand and Denis of Portugal, Maria was noticeably absent. Relations between Maria and Ferdinand obviously deteriorated to the point that towards the end of 1303 Henry of Castile and James II of Aragon put forth a plan to Maria. The plan was that Ferdinand’s cousin Alfonso would become King of Leon and marry Maria’s daughter Isabella whilst Peter of Castile (Maria’s second son) would be King of Castile and marry a daughter of James II. The main aim of this plan was to finally bring about some tangible peace and to eliminate the growing influence of John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara. Maria understandably rejected the idea. That didn’t stop Henry and James from trying again a year later. By this time Ferdinand had realised he needed his mother’s assistance and was trying to win back her favour; luckily for everyone involved Henry of Castile fell seriously ill. Maria demonstrating exceptional foresight sent orders to all of Henry’s fortresses, directing them to surrender to no-one other than the King’s troops. Henry died in August of that year. In 1304 the Treaty of Torrellas was signed between Aragon and Castile which finally put to bed the claims of Ferdinand’s cousin Alfonso and the continued annoying presence of the Aragaonese. John of Castile assisted in this negotiations and for the first time in what must have felt like centuries, peace looked somewhat possible. Another Treaty – the Treaty of Elche in 1305 It was around that time that Maria ceased to be regent due to Ferdinand’s age. Between 1305 and 1308 one of the biggest issues that plagued court was the dispute over the Lordship of Biscay; the title had initially belonged to Lope Diaz III de Haro who left it to his son Diego Lopez IV de Haro. When he had died in 1288 without a son and heir, the title had passed to his sister Maria Diaz de Haro who it just so happened was the wife of John of Castile. After the death of Sancho IV and John’s decision to rebel against Maria and Ferdinand, Maria had removed the title and granted it to Maria-Diaz’s uncle Diego Lopez V de Haro. The bitter feud over the Lordship of Biscay had been going on ever since; by 1307 things looked extra tense again and so Maria roped in her half sister Juana Alfonso de Molina, who it just so happened was the mother of Maria Diaz, and they tried to convince her to basically disobey her husband and agree to Ferdinand’s solution to the Biscay problem. Apparently their persuasion worked and it was agreed that María Díaz de Haro would succeed her uncle after his death. In the years that followed the Castilian nobles proved themselves to be as difficult as ever, and Ferdinand spent most of his reign a) dealing with them whilst attempting to strengthen royal authority, b) continue the Reconquista (conquering the cities of Gibraltar in 1309 and Alcaudete in 1312) and reforming the justice system, government administration and the laws of Castile. Throughout the entirety of his reign, Maria retained a certain degree of influence over her son although obviously lacked the authority she had, had as regent. Ferdinand and his wife Constance had three children two daughters Constance and Eleanor and a son Alfonso; only Eleanor and Alfonso survived to adulthood. He ruled until his very sudden death on the 7th September 1312 in the city of Jaén. Now we have absolutely no idea how he died and history and legend have unfortunately become one in the same. You see Ferdinand died alone, without anyone present and no-one had any idea what happened. Chroniclers at the time all offered different variations of his last few days; what we do know is shortly before his death Ferdinand ordered the execution of a number of knights he had accused of treason. As those men were being executed they declared that within thirty days of their death, Ferdinand would be summoned by God to appear before him in judgement for their deaths. An unspecified number of days later Ferdinand was found dead in his bed with no clear cause of death. There was some tension in the aftermath of his death; his wife Constance and brother Peter decided that he should be buried in the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba however Maria wanted him to be buried at the Toledo Cathedral next to his father Sancho IV. Ferdinand’s death was to put it mildly incredibly bad timing; for starters his son was a literal baby, not yet two years old and therefore in need of a regent. Per Ferdinand’s will, a regency council was established that was made up of his mother Maria, his widow Constance, his brother Peter and his uncle John (yes that guy was still hanging around). Regency councils seem like a terrible idea to me because what happens if they all hate each other and can’t agree on anything? Pandemonium is usually what you end up with. Now Maria due to her previous experience as regent ended up becoming the de facto leader of the regency council; the death of Constance in 1313 only increased her influence. For six years Maria, John and Peter formed a triumvirate of power which somehow seems to have been successful. In 1319 as part of the Reconquista, John and Peter decided to lead the Castilian troops at the Battle of Sierra Elvira (although it later became known as the Disaster of the Vega de Granada). The battle ended catastrophically for the Castilians with both John and Peter dead. This thus left Maria once again the sole regent of Castile, a position she held until her death in 1321. When she died she was buried at the Monastery of Santa María la Real de las Huelgas in Valladolid; the monastery had been destroyed in a disastrous fire in 1282 and Maria had donated the nuns that had survived the fire a palace to replace their lost home. She had maintained a close relationship with the monastery in the decades since. Now I’ve read some sources that suggest Maria always had the intention of being married at the monastery whilst I’ve read other sources that suggested she wished to be buried besides her husband at the Cathedral of Toledo and for some reason her wishes were ignored. Either way, in the aftermath of her death, her son Philip, Juan Manuel (the 1st cousin of her late husband) and Juan de Castilla y Haro (the son of Maria’s brother in law John of Castile) all claimed the regency for themselves and ended up splitting the kingdom between them. Maria’s grandson Alfonso eventually came of age and took power for himself in 1325. 

One of the hallmarks of medieval royalty, heck one of the hallmarks of royalty in pretty much every era is the good old fashioned sibling rivalry that usually ends up causing all sorts of problems. Castile like many other European countries had this in abundance and one of the most famous examples includes this girl; meet Urraca of Zamora. Born in either 1033 or 1034 the daughter of Ferdinand I “The Great” of Castile and Sancha of Léon; her father was the first person to have himself crowned “Emperor of Spain” in 1056. Her birthdate isn’t actually recorded anywhere but we do know she was born after her parents marriage in 1030 but before her parents became King & Queen of Leon in 1037 – we also know her birth didn’t happen immediately post her parents wedding so it’s likely to have taken place place around 1033/1034. She was her parents eldest child and they had four more children after her; we’re not 100% sure of their birthdates either but it’s likely Sancho the first born son was born in the 2nd half of 1038 or early 1039, Elvira was born in either 1039 or 1040 (it’s definitely the latter if Sancho was born in early 1039), Alfonso was born probably in 1041 and a final son Garcia was born sometime between 1041 and the 24th 1043 when Ferdinand made a donation to the Abbey of San Andres de Espinareda. In the document confirming the donation he made a reference to his five children meaning Garcia had already been born. Now very little is known about Urraca’s childhood; according to the Historia Silense, Urraca’s fther demanded all of children (daughters included) were educated in the arts particularly literature and music whilst her brothers were also trained in fighting, horses and hunting. One super interesting fact about Urraca is that she was never married off. For reasons not overwhelmingly clear at the time, Urraca remaiened unmarried; in fact her sister Elvira did too. In December 1063 when she was around 29-30, the most powerful magnates in Castile and Leon met in the city of Leon for the consecration of the Basilica of San Isidoro. Ferdinand took the opportunity to announce his plans for the succession; he declared that he had decided to distribute his territories evenly amongst his five children. By his decree the eldest Sancho received the Kingdom of Castile and the parias of the Taifa of Zaragoza, Alfonso was granted the Kingdom of Leon and the parias of the Taifa of Toledo and Garcia was given the region of Galicia (which he elevated into a kingdom) and the parias of the Taifas of Badajoz and Seville. Even Urraca and Zamora were given territories; Urraca received Zamora and Elvira was granted Toro. The two women were also given palatinate power over their territories meaning their brothers could not interfere. Before he died, Ferdinand then decided to abandon the whole being emperor thing and became a monk. He asked his children to respect his wishes and challenged to them to be nice and play fair and to serve God and their respective kingdoms. Wishful thinking perhaps because the minute he died, war began. 

You see Sancho as the eldest son clearly thought that meant he should inherit everything and by everything I mean everything. He first went for his younger brother Garcia’s new kingdom of Galicia overthrowing him within five years of their father’s death; Alfonso assisted in overthrowing their baby brother probably hoping that a) he might be able to suck up to his brother enough that Sancho would leave Leon alone or b) he might be able to pick off some of Galicia for himself. He achieved neither, because the minute Sancho was done with Galicia he turned his attentions to his territories of his other siblings including the territories of his sisters Urraca and Elvira. Now some sources state that Urraca’s favouritism of Alfonso was always known, and so her siding with him over Sancho was not particularly surprising. By 1072 Toro ruled by Elvira had fallen, Zamora ruled by Urraca however was better defended held out, no doubt helped by the fact that Urraca proved to be quite the military tactician. Sancho also went against Alfonso leading the latter to flee to the city of Toledo – he asked Urraca to join him however she refused, stating that there was not a chance in hell she had any intention of leaving Zamorra. Unable to penetrate the walls of the city, Sancho sought the advise of none other than El Cid (yes that El Cid) who convinced him to just wait it out. El Cid argued that eventually Zamorra would run out of food and supplies and Urraca being a soft hearted woman lacking the brutality and ruthlessness of men would struggle to watch the people of her city starve to death. She would eventually El Cid predicted give in and surrender. Clearly the man did not known Urraca. Then something very interesting and very suspicious happened; Sancho was assassinated, and by assassinated I mean impaled in the back with his sword by a Zamoran noble Vellido Adolfo who entered Sancho’s camp claiming that he wanted to help overthrow Urraca and betray Zamorra. He offered to pinpoint the weaknesses in the Zamoran battle strategy but only if he was allowed a private face to face with Sancho who being a tad naive agreed. Within a few minutes of entering the room, Sancho was dead and Vellido hot-footed it back to Zamora, chased by El Cid; the gateway he used to re-enter the city became known as the Portillo del Traidor (“Gateway of the Traitor”). In his final moments Sancho allegedly uttered the words “the traitor Vellido has killed me, and I die for my sins because I broke the oath I made to my father.” I don’t know how true this is but I think the moral of the story is that karma ladies and gentlemen is well and truly a bitch. There’s technically no solid proof that Urraca sent Vellido to assassinate her brother, I mean there’s no official edicts nor was Vellido ever put on trial and forced to testify. However everyone and I mean everyone, came to the conclusion that either Alfonso or Urraca were responsible, with most people pointing the fingers at the latter. I’m inclined to agree. In the aftermath the Castilian nobility were a tad miffed and maintained the siege of Zamora for a period after Sancho’s death; in part due to their anger at their king being murdered and also because they were concerned about what would happen to them if Alfonso became King. In other words they were a lil bit suspicious of both Urraca and Alfonso, and therefore unwilling to bow before them. Urraca sent summons to the nobles of Sancho’s dominions, ordering them to do just that. Eventually the nobles had to give in; with Sancho dead there was not that much point continuing the siege. They then reluctantly acknowledged Alfonso as the rightful King of both Castile and León. Unfortunately there was still intense suspicion amongst the Castilian nobles leading to El Cid and a coalition of very-influential magnates forcing Alfonso to swear to his innocence publicly in front of St Gadea’s Church in Burgos. This incident ultimately ignited the later legendary feud between Alfonso and El Cid. Throughout his reign Alfonso was constantly on the offensive, leading his nomadic court, intent on securing borders, keeping rebellious nobles under control, and fighting to reconquer al-Andalus; throughout this reign both Urraca and Elvira exercised power far greater than any of Alfonso’s wives. Urraca was especially favoured by her brother leading to the wildest of rumours; that Urraca and Alfonso had a lifelong incestous relationship. Now as I said Alfonso and Urraca’s close bond was an acknowledged fact whilst they were alive and numerous contemporary sources reference the fact that Alfonso and Urraca effectively ruled together. The allegations of incest however only appear in the century after their deaths with Granadine historiographer Abu Bakr ibn al-Sayrafi being the first to accuse them. The second known reference to Urraca’s alleged incest with Alfonso appears in Fray Juan Gil de Zamora’s historical tract De praeconibus Hispaniae (c. 1278-1282). Most of the people that allege incest between the two, claim the relationship only began after their brother Sancho’s demise. Weirdly other Latin sources compare their relationship to that of a mother and son. In the centuries after her death Urraca became the fixation of Iberian poets and writers who focused on her questionable relationship with her brother Alfonso and her ordering the death of her other brother Sancho. She’s portrayed as both a pious and devoted daughter, a loyal sister and co-ruler and a passionate and cruel temptress because of course the woman has to be the one to do the seducing. Interestingly enough Urraca was throughout her life a keen patroness of the arts herself. For a great article about the allegations I’d suggest Teresa Catarella’s piece “Urraca and her Brother Alfonso VI: Incest as Politics”, in A Journal of Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Vol 35, No.2, (2007), pp 39-67. I don’t know what to think about the rumours of incest; 99% of historical allegations of incest aren’t true and these two I think probably fit into that category. Urraca ruled Zamorra until the late 1090’s when she retired to a monastery in Leon where it was initially believed she died in 1101. In recent years however sources from the period have shown that she made a philanthropic donation in 1103 meaning she was still alive. Her exact date of death is unknown; however it’s almost certain that she died before Alfonso who died in 1109. She outlived all of her siblings except Alfonso and was buried besides her parents, her sister Elvira and her brother Garcia at the Basilica of San Isidoro. Upon his death Alfonso was succeeded by his only legitimate daughter Urraca (see above) named after his beloved sister. 

The final woman in this post we unfortunately do not have an image of so I’m using a photo of her tomb. Depressing but its the best we’re going to get. Sancha Raimundez was born probably in 1095 although it’s possible her birth happened slightly later. She was certainly at least a few years old by 1102 when she’s referenced in an official document for the first time. She was born the daughter of Urraca of Castile & Leon (the daughter of Alfonso VI and Constance of Burgundy) and Raymond of Burgundy. The politics of her childhood were complicated to say the least; her mother was her grandfather’s only definitively legitimate child however he also had a son Sancho who may or may not have been legitimate. Urraca evidently saw herself as the rightful heir and Sancha’s childhood was characterised by growing tensions between her mother, half-uncle and grandfather; now there’s very little known about other aspects of Sancha’s childhood; we do know that her mother and great-aunt Elvira were exceptionally close and when Sancha was born her mother named Elvira her guardian. According to Elvira’s will Sancha lived with her until her death in 1099. It’s likely Sancha was then raised in Galicia with her parents and brother Alfonso. She also seems to have spent some time with another aunt also called Sancha; both of her aunts had possession of the Infantado – a set of monasteries and churches throughout the kingdom, which upon the death of the owners, who could only be unmarried infantas, reverted to the Crown. Sancha’s childhood was rocked slightly by the death of her father in 1107; two years later in 1109 her uncle Sancho died abruptly, leaving her mother the undisputed heir to the throne. That same year her grandfather died and Sancha’s mother Urraca became Queen in her own right, making Sancha the eldest child of the ruling Queen. Sancha doesn’t appear to have had a particularly prominent role at court during her mother’s reign (1109-1126) not appearing in any significant number of documents until 1118, nor was she ever forced into marrying; whether her mother kindly allowed her to remain unmarried because that’s what Sancha wanted or whether Urraca made the decision that Sancha had to remain unmarried is unknown. It’s not until her brother Alfonso became King in 1126 that she becomes super important and her appearance in documents becomes much more frequent. In records from the period she is referred interchangeably throughout his reign, as either infanta or infantísima or even queen. These references appear in Alfonso’s royal decrees always after his name, suggesting she played a similar political role to Urraca of Zamora. She evidently became his closest advisor and collaborator and her name isn’t just included on the odd document, it’s literally on every single public record. In 1127, a year after the death of her mother, her brother granted her the Infantado, which served as the foundation of her power and made her the lady of several of the most important monasteries of the kingdom, including San Isidoro de Leon. She first took possession of the Infantado of León, and later, those of Galicia, Asturias and Castille. The busiest period of her political career seems to be between 1148 and 1156 where literally nothing happened in Leon or Castile that didn’t have something to do with her. The hallmark of her career was her significant patronage; in 1138, she ordered the restoration of the Monasterio de Santa Maria de Carracedo, ceding it to the monks of the Monastery of Santa María de Valverde in Corullon; she expanded the monastery by adding more cloisters, a chapter house and a new bell tower whilst in 1140 she donated the monastery of Santa María de Wamba (which no longer exists) to the Order of St John of Jerusalem. She retained a close relationship with the Knights of St John until her death. Interestingly the lands and places donated to the Hospitallers had been part of an Infantazgo that had belonged to Sancha’s father, Raymond of Burgundy; this likely means she inherited it from him. She also in 1147 founded the Monastery of Santa María de La Santa Espana. A year later at the meeting of the cortes, she persuaded her brother, the bishops and the magnates to have the Augustinian canons, who lived in the Monastery of Carbajal, transferred to the Collegiate Church of San Isidoro de Leon, thereby moving the Benedictine nuns who lived in San Isidoro to the the Monastery of Carbajal. Known for her piety and devotion, she was greatly respected and well loved in her brother’s kingdoms. Her entire life was basically one giant charity work and other prominent acts of philanthropy including the donation in 1156 of the town of San Juan de Arenas to the Hospitallers. Her brother died in 1157 and in his will dictated that his kingdoms be split between his two sons – Ferdinand II became King of Leon whilst Sancho III became King of Castile. She died two years later and in her will she ordered that all the possessions that she had enjoyed during her lifetime which had belonged previously to the Monastery of San Julián and Santa Basilisa of Ruiforco should be returned to San Isidoro. She was buried in the Pantheon of Kings in San Isidoro de Leon besides her mother Queen Urraca.

Hope you all enjoyed this post, see you all soon for more

Alexandra