Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan
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Saturday, January 4, 2025

Saint Isabel of Aragon, queen of Portugal

Isabel of Aragon, queen of Portugal and Catholic Saint (born 4 January 1271*)


Isabel of Aragon, born in Sargossa in 1271, was the third child of the Infante Peter of Aragon--after the death of his father in 1271, he became Peter III of Aragon and Valencia. Isabel's mother was Constance of Sicily, who inherited her father's claim to the throne of Sicily, a throne later claimed by Peter in his wife's right. 

A sixteenth-century painting of
Isabel of Aragon, queen of Portugal,
artist unknown
(Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro)
In addition to their daughter Isabel, who was to become queen of Portugal, the couple had five other children. 

Three of Isabel's brothers would become kings: Alfonso, who became king of Aragon and Valencia after his father's death in 1285; James, who became king of Sicily after his father's death in 1285 and king of Aragon and Valencia after his brother Alfonso's death in 1291; and Frederick, who was regent of Sicily for his brother James (after James became king of Aragon) and who then, in 1296, became king of Sicily (after James was willing to cede Sicily to France in a treaty, and the Sicilians refused to be ceded). 

Isabel's younger sister, Yolande, married Robert of Naples, but Yolande died before she could become queen when Robert became king of Naples in 1309; after his death in 1343, he was succeeded by his granddaughter, Joanna I of Naples

Isabel's youngest brother, Peter, never became king of anything--he eventually married Guillemette of BĂ©arn in 1291, but he died in 1296, just twenty years old.

Isabel's father also had a number of illegitimate children with two different women. His children with  Maria Nicolau were born before his marriage, those with Ines Zapata during his marriage. 

So, that was Isabel of Aragon's family. As for Isabel herself, she was named for her great aunt, Elizabeth of Hungary, who had been canonized in 1235. Elizabeth of Hungary's sister, Yolande, had married to James I of Aragon and was the mother of Isabel's father, Peter. The name was appropriate for Isabel, who received "a strict and pious education." According to the brief entry on Isabel of Portugal in the Catholic Encyclopedia, she "led a life of strict regularity and self-denial from her childhood."

That "childhood" did not last long, however--Isabel was married by proxy in February 1282, when she was just twelve years old: "I, [Isabel], daughter of the Most Illustrious Don Pedro, by the grace of God king of Aragon, hereby bestow my body as the legitimate wife of Dom Dinis, king of Portugal and of the Algarve, in his absence as if he were present. . . . " By June, she was in Portugal, the wedding celebrated in the city of Trancosa on 26 June 1282.

This rather awkward full-length portrait of
Isabel of Aragon and her husband, 
Dinis of Portugal, dating to the 
mid-seventeenth century, hangs in the 
Sala dos Capelos in the University of Coimbra

In Portugal, Isabel fulfilled her most important duty as queen, giving birth to two children. Her daughter, Constance, was born in 1290, her son Afonso, in 1291. Constance would eventually become queen of Castile, marrying Ferdinand IV of Castile in 1302, while Afonso would succeed his father as king of Portugal in 1325. 

In addition to her reputation for piety, Isabel played a role in politics, acting as something of an intermediary in the negotiations between her husband and Ferdinand of Castile in 1297, and then between her brother James and Ferdinand in 1304. She also had to intervene in the deadly feud between her husband and her son, Afonso, during a civil war that pitted father against son between 1322 and 1324. Years later, in 1336, she would once again be needed to intervene in politics when her brother, now king of Portugal, went to war with Ferdinand of Castile's son, Alfonso, who had succeeded his father as king of Castile. For her diplomatic efforts, she became known as "the Peacemaker."

Isabel of Portugal died on 4 July 1336, shortly after her successful intervention in the conflict between her brother and Alfonso of Castile. As recounted in the Catholic Encyclopedia, "the exertion brought on her final illness; and as soon as her mission was fulfilled she died of a fever, full of heavenly joy, and exhorting her son to the love of holiness and peace."

Isabel of Aragon, queen of Portugal, was buried in the Convent of Santa Clara in Coimbra, which she had "re-founded" and to which she had devoted herself after the death of her husband. Known for her faith, piety, and good works during her life, she was credited with miracles by the faithful after her death. (One of these miracles is virtually identical to the "miracle of the roses" for which Elizabeth of Hungary is known.) She was beatified in 1516 by Pope Leo X and canonized in 1626 by Urban VIII. Her feast day is now celebrated on 4 July.

In 1677, because of frequent flooding at the convent, her body was transferred to the Convent of Santa Clara-a-Nova, also in Coimbra, built to replace the older convent. 

 
*Isabel's exact date of birth is not always cited--for the purposes of this post, I'm going with the date provided by the Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes of Saints (Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi).