Urraca Alfonso, Queen of Navarre and Regent of Asturias

Urraca Alfonso, queen of Navarre and regent of Asturias (married 24 June 1144)

Urraca Alfonso was the daughter of Alfonso VII of León (the son of a woman whom we have met before, Queen Urraca of Castile and León) and Gontrodo Pérez, member of a noble Asturian family, which accounts for the name by which her daughter is also know, La Asturiana.*

Gontrodo was the wife of a feudal lord (tenente), Gutierre Sebastiániz, at the time of her relationship with King Alfonso, whom she seems to have met when he was in Asturias to quell a rebellion.

Urraca Alfonsa's tomb in the cathedral of Palencia
(with a questionable date of death)

At the time of Urraca Alfonso's birth, Alfonso VII's queen and wife was Berengaria of Barcelona, to whom he had been married in 1128, when she was just twelve years old--the first of their seven children would be born in 1134.

(After the death of Queen Berengaria in 1149, King Alfonso would go on to marry Richeza of Poland in 1152, with whom he would have two more legitimate children, one of whom was Sancha of Castile, queen of Aragon.) 

A contemporary life of King Alfonso, the Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris, notes that Gontrodo was "extremely beautiful and of the highest nobility." But historical judgments differ. About this relationship, the nineteenth-century historian of Spanish queens, Anita George, concludes that, while the king "loved [Gontrodo] with the most ardent passion," she was a "worthless" rival.

Worthless or not, Gontrodo gave birth to Urraca in 1133, making her the king's first-born child. According to a seventeenth-century Jesuit historian of Asturia, Alfonso treated this daughter as he did his legitimate children, in particular his sons--he awarded her land and titles and arranged for her to be educated, along with his other children, by his sister, Sancha Raimúndez of León. 

The king also secured a significant marriage for Urraca Alfonso—to García Ramírez, king of Navarre, on 24 June 1144. The twelfth-century chronicle of Alfonso contains a lengthy account of this politically expedient decision and of the lavish marriage ceremonies that celebrated the match. (Urraca Alfonso's half-sister, Sancha of Castile--one of Alfonso VII's daughters with Berengaria--would marry King García Ramírez's son in 1153. Another interesting example of "traditional marriage"--half sisters marrying a father and a son. And yes—Alfonso VII has two daughters named Sancha of Castile, one born to each of his two wives. No wonder this gets confusing!)

After the death of the king of Navarre in 1150, Urraca, now dowager queen, was sent to Asturias by her father. There she took up residence in Ovieda, where King Alfonso allowed his daughter to retain her title of "queen" and entrusted her with the administration of the province. 

In 1153, she confirmed the charter of the Monastery of Santa María de la Vega, her mother's foundation. After the death of King Alfonso VII in 1157, Urraca's half-brother, Fernando II, continued to allow her to administer Asturias, although he himself returned to Oviedo and ruled as king of "Galicia and León"--Asturias was a province of Galicia.

Urraca Alfonso, dowager queen of Navarre, remarried in 1163. A charter from that year indicates that the Urraca and her second husband, Álvaro Rodríguez de Castro, were now managing Asturias together: "Alvaro Rodríguez with his wife Urraca governing Asturias" (Alvaro Roderici cum uxore sua regina Urraca Asturias imperante).

At some point in early 1164, the two were involved in an uprising in Asturias, a rebellion that was crushed by her half-brother, now king of León. 

Urraca Alfonso gave birth to two children. Her daughter Sancha was born in 1148, while Urraca Alfonso was queen of Navarre. During her second marriage, she gave birth to a son, Sancho Álvarez de Castro, in 1164. Like his mother, he would eventually control Asturias, a chronicle noting, "Sancho Álvarez [was] governing Asturias" and describing him as "the son of Queen Urraca" (Dominante Asturias Sancius Alvari filius regina Urrace).

There is some dispute about the year of Urraca Alfonso's death--the Oviedo Enciclopedia cites her date of death as 1164. This date is also accepted by the online biographical dictionary of the Real Academia de la Historia, which notes that Urraca Alfonso's second husband, Álvaro Rodríguez de Castro, was free to remarry in that year, since Urraca had died. Finally, the notes to the twelfth-century chronicle of Alfonso VII indicate that Urraca Alfonso died "after" 1164. 

However, a document from the Monastery of Villaverde de Sandoval records a gift made by "La infanta Urraca, hija de Alfonso VII" of significant property in 1178.** The donation is made for for songs to be sung for her soul and that of her father (Hace la donación para que en el cabildo del monasterio, en el que desea ser enterrada, se cante un aniversario por su alma y la de su padre el día de San Juan Bautista). This date may be confused, however--in his edition of the chronicle of Alfonso, Glenn Edward Lipskey notes "References to dates will follow the original manuscripts of the chronicle which utilize the calendar of the Spanish Era. Thirty-eight years must be subtracted in order to arrive at the corresponding year within the Christian calendar." Could the 1178 year in the original document be in the old-style calendar? 

Finally, to further confuse matters, Urraca Alfonso's tomb in the chapel of Santa María Magdalena in the Cathedral of Palencia, though constructed later, gives her year of death as 1189. (Urraca was buried in the Romanesque cathedral at the time of her death, but it was rebuilt in the fourteenth century in the Gothic style.)

So this breathtaking gap--Urraca Alfonso may have died in 1164 or as late as 1189--is just another indication of the failure of documentation for many historical women's lives. 

*There are variant spellings for Gontrodo's name (she is also at times known as Gontrodo Petri), and some discussion about exactly how noble her family was. Born about the year 1105 or 1106, she had three children with her husband. After 1137, the name of her husband, Gutierre Sebastiániz, disappears from the records. Gontrodo's name appears only sporadically in the records, and the evidence suggests that she retired to a convent after her liaison with Alfonso VII--she donates an inheritance to the Monastery of San Vicente in 1141, and several years later, property that had been given to her by Alfonso VII. But the twelfth-century Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris claims that, after her daughter's marriage, Gontrodo became a nun:

Now Guntroda, King García's mother-in-law, recognized the enormous honor paid to her daughter who had become a queen. . . . Even though she possessed many worldly desires, Guntroda looked eagerly to spiritual matters as much as she could. She consecrated herself to God and remained in his service. Accordingly, she became a nun in Oviedo. There she joined a religious community in the church of Saint Mary. She felt that with help from the Mother of God she certainly would be able to discover some joy in life. She would appease God by praising him continually through the Divine Office. She would then await the glorious end of her life persevering in this devout practice. Praying constantly in a true spirit of sincerity, she would repent for all of her sins. 

In 1153, Gontrodo founded the Monastery of Santa María de la Vega in Oviedo, where she became a nun, dying there on 26 June 1186. Online information is available online at the Oviedo Enciclopedia.

Alfonso VII would also have a daughter with a another woman named Urraca, Urraca Fernández de Castro, widow of a Leonese nobleman, Rodrigo Fernández. The date of Stephanie Alfonso's birth isn't clear, but her mother seems to have begun her relationship with the king in 1139, after her husband's death. Between that date and 1148, the king awarded property and privileges to Urraca Fernández and Stephanie Alfonso.

A twelfth-century manuscript drawing of
Urraca Fernández (right) and her husband, Rodrigo Martínez

After Alfonso VII's death in 1157, his son, Fernando II, now king, arranged for the marriage between his half-sister and the head of his household, Fernando Rodríguez de Castro. In 1180, Stephanie's husband murdered her--he stabbed her to death. He suspected his wife was unfaithful to him . . .  But, oops, maybe not. Whatever the case (and there is a dramatic, romanticized story that he realized he was wrong and was sorry afterwards), King Fernando forgave him for having murdered his half-sister . . . Which is why Stephanie is also known as Stephanie the Unfortunate (Estefanía la Desdichada).

Stephanie was buried near her grandmother, Queen Urraca of Castile and León. Her epitaph makes no mention of the circumstances of her "unfortunate" death: 

Here lies the Infanta Doña Estefanía, daughter of Emperor Alfonso, wife of the powerful Fernán Ruiz, mother of Pedro Fernández Castellano, who died on July 1, 1180. 

(The Latin inscription reads: HR INFANTISSA DOMINA STEPHANIA, FILIA IMPERATORIS ADEFONSI, CONJUX FERDINANDI RODERICI POTENTISSIMI BARONIS, MATER PETRI FERDINANDI CASTELLANI, QUAE OBIIT WAS MCCXVIII. KAL. JULII.)

**Document 10, dated 10 February 1178. Scroll down to find it. And thank you, Internet Archive, for preserving access to COLECCIÓN DOCUMENTAL DEL MONASTERIO DE VILLAVERDE DE SANDOVAL (1132-1500). 

 

Berengaria "the Great"

Berengaria of Castile, queen regnant of Castile (died 8 November 1246)

The formidable twelfth-century ruler, Urraca of Castile and León, fought throughout her life to maintain the unity of her kingdom--her chief antagonist was her own husband, Alfonso I of Aragon.  She prevailed in the struggle, and after her death, her son inherited the throne, becoming Alfonso VII of Castile and León. 

An eighteenth-century sculpture
of Berengaria,
Madrid

But the kingdom whose unity Urraca had preserved was divided by her son: when Alfonso VII died in 1157, his older son became Sancho III, king of Castile, and his younger son became Ferdinand II of León. It was left to another queen regnant, Berengaria to reunite the two kingdoms.

Born in 1180, Berengaria (also known as Berenguela) was the eldest child of Urraca of Castile's great grandson, Alfonso VIII, and his wife, Eleanor of England. (Eleanor was the daughter of a woman we've met before, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the sister of another capable ruling woman, Blanche of Castile.)

Berengaria was her father's heir presumptive until the birth of Ferdinand in 1189. (Queen Eleanor of England had given birth to two boys, one in 1181 and another in 1184, but both had died soon after birth.)

Given her proximity to her father's throne, Berengaria was a very desirable match--a marriage contract between the princess and Conrad, one of the sons of Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman emperor, was agreed upon in 1187, and Conrad was knighted by Alfonso in 1188. 

But by 1191, the contract was dissolved--it may have been her grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who objected to Berengaria's marriage to the son of the Holy Roman emperor because of the political pressures such a union might place on her own French possessions.

The question became moot when Conrad was assassinated in 1196--perhaps by a woman he had raped, perhaps as a result of an infection from being bitten by the woman he was attempting to rape. In either case, Berengaria was lucky to avoid marriage to someone whose contemporaries described as "a man thoroughly given to adultery, fornication, defilement, and every foulness" (he wasn't totally condemned by this chronicler, however, who went on to add "nevertheless, he was vigorous and brave in battle and generous to his friends").

It was Berengaria's mother who seems to have been instrumental in arranging her daughter's marriage to Alfonso IX of León. It was an expedient choice: the king of León had invaded Castile (with the aid of Muslim forces, which had resulted in his excommunication).

Of course Alfonso already happened to have a wife--he had married Teresa of Portugal, his first cousin, in 1191, and by 1196, the couple had three children. In 1196, however, their marriage was annulled by Pope Celestine III. 

A manuscript illustration of Alfonso IX and
Berengaria of Castile

And so Alfonso married Berengaria, variously described as his first cousin, once removed, or his second cousin. Whatever their exact relationship, this marriage was also challenged on the basis of consanguinity, the kingdom placed under interdict by the pope.

Nevertheless, Berengaria and Alfonso remained together--they would have five children, despite their marriage being declared invalid in 1198. 

In 1204, although the couple had tried to secure a dispensation, the marriage was formally annulled, but the offending parties did manage to have their children declared legitimate. Berengaria returned to her father’s court in Castile.

The peace between Castile and León was disrupted by the separation of the royal pair. Alfonso attacked Castile again in 1204, though treaties between the two kingdoms were made in 1205, 1207, and 1209. The conflicts were exacerbated by Alfonso's efforts to disinherit his children by Berengaria in favor of his children by Teresa of Portugal.

When her father died in 1214, Berengaria became guardian and regent for the young Enrique I, her brother. (Enrique was born in 1204; Ferdinand had died in 1211). Although she was quickly replaced by disaffected Castilian nobles, when Enrique died in 1217 Berengaria herself became ruler of Castile. 

Her succession as queen regnant was problematic, however, in part because there was some question about whether she or her sister Blanca was the next legitimate heir to the throne, and in part because her former husband, Alfonso of León, was her son's closest male relative--and potential heir. After receiving the crown, therefore, Berengaria abdicated in favor of her son, who was recognized as King Ferdinand III

Berengaria's husband invaded Castile. Although he did not succeed in efforts to unseat the young king, Alfonso of León's opposition to Berengaria persisted; when he died in 1230, instead of naming Ferdinand to succeed him in León, his two daughters by his first wife were named as his heirs. 

Berengaria a advised her son "with great prudence," indicating how to gain León without shedding more blood. Negotiating with his half-sisters, Ferdinand exchanged rich dowries for the crown of León, thereby reuniting the kingdoms of Castile and León. 

Berengaria continued to play a significant role in the kingdom; she advised her son about military and political affairs until her death in 1246.

Berengaria's tomb,
Monasterio de las Huelgas de Burgos

There are two important new studies of Berengaria and her queenship: Janna Bianchini's The Queen's Hand: Power and Authority in the Reign of Berenguela of Castile and Miriam Shaddis's Political Women in the High Middle Ages: Berenguela of Castile and Her Family.

Isabella I of Castile, "the Servant of God"

Isabella I of Castile, queen regent of Castile and León, queen consort of Aragon (crowned 13 December 1474)

Isabella of Castile,
a portrait now in Windsor Castle

Isabella of Castile has figured in many of my posts this year, including the one just two days ago on Juana of Castile, her niece (the daughter of Isabella's half-brother, King Enrique IV) and "rival" for the throne of Castile and León.* 

And, next to the Tudor queens, the queen of Castile is probably the most familiar early-modern queen for American readers today--if for no other reason than her association with Christopher Columbus. 

Rather than rehearsing her biography here, I thought I'd write a bit about her crowning, which may be a less familiar story. 

As I wrote in my post on Juana of Castile, when Enrique IV died in December of 1474, the question of who would succeed him was not altogether clear.

When his daughter Juana was born in 1462, both the king and the Cortes had recognized her status as his heir, successor to the crown of Castile if no son were to be born. But in crisis and under duress, the king had been persuaded to name his half-sister as his heir and successor in 1468, disinheriting his daughter. 

Although Isabella had agreed that she would not marry without Enrique's permission, she did so anyway. She wrote to Enrique announcing her intention and seeking his permission. She began by reminding him of their agreement: "I agreed to submit to your wishes . . . in which it was agreed that the true succession of these said your kingdoms would belong to me as your legitimate heir and successor." Then she sought his permission for her proposal, asking that "Your Highness would . . . consent to the marriage with the . . . prince of Aragon." 

Despite the fact that Enrique's permission was not forthcoming, Isabella and Ferdinand were married on 18 October 1469. The terms of the marriage contract ensured Isabella's rights and her independence: Ferdinand would be prince-consort of Castile, not its king. Ferdinand had to promise "virtual obedience" to Isabella; among other "capitulations," he agreed to live in Castile, to seek permission before leaving the kingdom and before taking any children they might have out of the kingdom, to renew none of his father's claims to Castilian possessions, and to make no government appointments without Isabella's consent. Further, he agreed to provide Isabella a sizeable marriage gift and to serve as her military defender. 

By February 1470, Isabella was pregnant. At last, on 26 October, more than a year after his half-sister's marriage, Enrique replied. Declaring Isabella could no longer be considered his heir, he decided Juana was--once more--his legitimate daughter and, therefore, his heir. But, despite Enrique's assertions of Juana's legitimacy, the succession question had not been settled when the king died on 11 December 1474. 

Two days later, on 13 December 1474, Isabella was proclaimed "Queen Proprietess" of Castile. Ferdinand, "as her legitimate husband," was recognized as king. At the church of San Miguel in Segovia, the royal standard raised above her, Isabella took up an unsheathed lance, a symbol of sovereign authority; in the procession that followed, she was proceeded by a rider carrying an upraised naked sword, a symbol of royal justice. Neither ceremony had ever been performed by and for a queen. 

Ferdinand, meanwhile, was in Aragon. On 16 December he received a letter from Isabella telling him of Enrique's death but not of her coronation. The chronicler Alonso Palencia was with Ferdinand when he received a letter three days later, on 19 December, describing his wife's coronation and the ceremonies. 

According to Palencia, Ferdinand was surprised--"I have never heard of a queen who usurped this male privilege." His secretary Gonzalez registered more than surprise, shocked not only by Isabella's "insolent action" but by her appropriation of male symbols. He wondered aloud if there were "in antiquity" any "precedent for a queen to be proceeded by this symbol." "Everyone knows that these are conceded to kings," he continued," "but never was known a queen who had usurped this masculine attribute."

Isabella of Castile,

portrait by Antonio del Rincón

Ferdinand was nevertheless confident that he could assert his rights as king. Palencia wrote that Ferdinand felt he would conquer Isabella "with patience"; he "felt certain he would triumph through satisfying assiduously the demands of conjugal love, with which he could easily soften the intransigence that bad advisors had planted in his wife's mind." Speaking for himself, Palencia judged that Isabella was "after all, a woman." His reading of Castilian law led him to conclude that "in the marriage of a crown heiress, even though the husband be of inferior lineage, he must enjoy the scepter and the title of him together with her as well as all the other priorities accorded to males all over the world." 

Despite Ferdinand's hopes and Palencia's reading of the laws of succession, Isabella and the Castilian nobility persisted in asserting her role as queen regnant and Ferdinand's as king-consort. Isabella herself announced her position in a letter of 16 December to the towns of Castile, "inviting" them to recognize her as "natural queen" and Ferdinand as "the very illustrious and most powerful Prince . . . , [her] lord, . . . [her] legitimate husband." 

Fernando del Pulgar, the queen's secretary and chronicler, assembled historical support for Isabella's succession, citing the precedents of a number of queens regent, including Sancha of León (d. 1067), the wife of Ferdinand I of Castile, who became queen of León in her own right after the death of her father Alfonso V in 1037; Sancha's daughter Urraca of Zamora (1033-1101), who inherited absolute sovereignty over the city of Zamora and the title of "queen" (click here and scroll to the bottom); Urraca, queen of León, Castile, and Galicia (1079-1126), about whom I posted earlier this year; and Berenguela of Castile (1179-1246), who was regent of Castile for her brother, and then succeeded him as queen regent after his death in 1217.

Ferdinand and his allies in Aragon and in Castile, on the other hand, argued that natural and divine law gave precedence to a man over a woman; while law and custom might not exclude women from a throne, in practice, when a woman succeeded, it was her husband who ruled. They also argued that Ferdinand's independent claims to the throne of Castile gave him precedence over Isabella: Ferdinand was the nearest male descendant in the Trastamara line. 

There matters stood, unresolved even when Ferdinand joined Isabella in Segovia on 2 January. The king-consort was further provoked by learning that, should the queen predecease him, the Castilian throne would pass not to him but to their daughter Isabel, who had been born in 1470. Despite Isabella's efforts at conciliation, Ferdinand threatened to return to Aragon. At last the matter was placed before a council in Segovia on 15 January. About this confrontation Isabella's biographer Nancy Rubin writes: "That meeting proved to be one of the most extraordinary examinations of female inheritance rights in prefeminist Europe, one whose highly emotional tone would finally be resolved by Isabella's cool logic."

The subject of the succession, Isabella began, addressing Ferdinand,  "need never to have been discussed because where there is such union as by the grace of God exists between you and me, there can be no difference."  As her husband, Ferdinand was king of Castile: "Already, as my husband, you are king of Castile, and your orders have to be obeyed here. . . . But since it has pleased these knights to open this discussion, perhaps it is just as well that any doubt they have be clarified, as the law of our kingdoms provide[s]." 

Isabella of Castile,
portrait by Jan Flanders

As she reminded him, Castilian law preferred the inheritance of legitimate daughter in the direct line to a male in a collateral line. And beyond law, Isabella also reminded Ferdinand of the vagaries of male inheritance. If Ferdinand were to die, another, more distant, male relative might claim Castile if women were excluded from succession.

In the end, Ferdinand accepted Isabella's arguments, their agreement reflected in the motto, now famous, which they adopted: "Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando--To stand as high, as high to stand, Isabella as Ferdinand." That he agreed is clear. Why he agreed is another matter. 

Motivated by self-interest, fear, or, perhaps, love, Ferdinand accepted the terms Isabella offered, and the two thus established what historian Rafael Altamira calls a "diarchy," a "joint government by two monarchs." There is a qualification to their shared arrangement, however. As Altamira notes, this equality "existed between husband and wife with regard to the Crown's government of Castile. That co-participation was in no wise reflected in the government of Aragon, which was exclusively Ferdinand's prerogative." 

But, while no similar shared rule was negotiated in Ferdinand's kingdom, he ultimately named Isabella his co-regent in Aragon.

. . . . 

Isabella and Ferdinand, the great monarchs, who succeeded in uniting Spain, were not very successful in their offspring. Isabella and Ferdinand did have one son, Juan, but he died before succeeding his parents on their combined Spanish throne. 

I've already mentioned Isabella's daughters on occasion throughout this daybook, none of whom had a particularly happy or successful life (click the labels below to read more). Their eldest daughter, Isabel, princess of Asturias, was married first to Afonso of Portugal and then, after his death, was forced into a marriage with Afonso's uncle, Manuel of Portugal. Born in 1470, Isabel died in 1496, just twenty-seven years old. 

The Spanish monarchs' second daughter, Maria of Aragon, was married to her dead sister's widower, Manuel of Portugal, in 1500. Born in 1482, she gave birth to ten children (eight of whom survived infancy) before dying in 1517, at the age of thirty-four.

The story of Catalina--Catherine--of Aragon is well known and hardly a happy one. Born in 1485, she married, first, Arthur of England, and then, after his death, Henry VIII. She gave birth to at least six children (and may have suffered miscarriagaes), but only one daughter, Mary, survived. Abandoned by her husband, her marriage disolved, Catherine of Aragon died in 1536, just fifty years old.

I've written a lengthy post here about Juana of Castile, whose bizarre and tragic life was certainly long--she died at the age of seventy-five--but not at all happy. 

I've also written here about Isabella of Castile's daughter-in-law, Margaret of Austria, Prince Juan's wife. His life was short--he died at age nineteen. The formidable Margaret lived a full, successful, and remarkable life, the only one of Isabella's "daughters" who seemed to profit from the model of Isabella of Castile.

. . . . 

Isabella of Castile was a formidable queen, though not entirely an admirable one, at least from a twenty-first century perspective. On 31 March 1492 she issued the Alhambra Decree, an edict of expulsion to be carried out against Spanish Jews, who were accused of posing a great danger to Christians: a "great harm" is enacted on Christians because of the "contact, intercourse and communication which they have with the Jews, who always attempt in various ways to seduce faithful Christians from our Holy Catholic Faith."

Jews were given four months to convert to Christianity or to leave the country; if they left, they necessarily had to leave behind all their property, though they were allowed to take with them what they could carry--except, of course, for gold, silver, or "minted money." The numbers of Jews forced to leave Spain was considerable, though estimates vary from 130,000 to 800,000. For those who "converted," between 50,000 and 70,000, the Inquisition was a constant danger. Added suspicions of the Jewish conversos was an ever-more-rigid view of the "purity" or "cleanliness" of Spanish--that is, not Jewish Spanish--blood.

While the terms of the 1491 Treaty of Granada, ending the Reconquista, had guaranteed rights and religious tolerance to the surrending Moors, there were increasing pressures on the Moors to convert. Revolts in 1499 and 1500 led to a change in policy, with the Spanish Moors, too, forced either to convert to Christianity or to face expulsion. Those who converted and remained in Spain, the moriscos, also faced the persecutions of the Inquisition. (In 1609, Philip III of Spain issued a final expulsion order for all moriscos.)

Despite these unpleasant realities, in 1958, a process of canonization was started for Isabella of Castile. In 1970 the commission of experts examining the case reported that "A Canonical process for the canonization of Isabella the Catholic could be undertaken with a sense of security since there was not found one single act, public or private, of Queen Isabella that was not inspired by Christian and evangelical criteria; moreover there was a 'reputation of sanctity' uninterrupted for five centuries and as the investigation was progressing, it was more accentuated."

In 1972, her case was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Isabella of Castile was awarded the title "Servant of God" in 1974. (This title represents the first stage in the canonization process, followed by "venerable," "beatified," and, finally, "saint.")

*Parts of this post have been adapted from The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan).

Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem

Melisende of Jerusalem (queen of Jerusalem, 21 August 1131)

The daughter of Baldwin II, the Crusader king of Jerusalem, Melisende followed her father onto the throne, as queen regnant, ruling Jerusalem for more than twenty years, from 1131 until 1153.  

Melisende at her
coronation

Born 1105 in the county of Edessa, a Crusader state established in 1098, Melisende was the daughter of Baldwin of Boulogne, the count of Edessa, and Morphia of Melitene, the daughter of an Armenian nobleman who ruled the nearby city of Melitene and became a vassal of Baldwin's.

Morphia was a politically astute companion to Baldwin, undoubtedly a capable model for her eldest daughter, Melisende, and the couple's other three children, all daughters, Alice (later princess of Antioch), Hodierna (later countess of Tripoli), and Ioveta (later abbess of Bethany).

When Baldwin became the king of Jerusalem in 1118, he was "encouraged" to put aside his wife, because Morphia had only given him daughters (three at the time) and as a king, Baldwin would, obviously, need a male heir. Instead, Baldwin raised Melisende as his heir, styling her "daughter of the king and heir of the kingdom of Jerusalem"; she was named officially as his successor in 1128.

Even so, Baldwin thought Melisende would need a husband to protect her status as queen regnant, and he arranged for her marriage to Fulk of Anjou in 1129, which proved to be a bad decision. (Fulk's son by a previous marriage, Geoffrey of Anjou, was married to a woman--and would-be ruling queen--whom we  have met before, Matilda of England.)

Even before Baldwin's death, Fulk began maneuvering to control Melisende's role as queen, aiming to reduce her to a queen consort rather than a queen regnant. But after Melisende gave birth to a son in 1130, Baldwin II held a coronation for his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, investing them as co-rulers of Jerusalem--Melisende alone was given the guardianship of her son, Baldwin III, thus reducing Fulk's influence.

After Baldwin II's death on 21 August 1131, Melisende began to rule jointly with her husband, who persisted in his efforts to wrest political power from her. Rather than rejecting a woman as ruler, the Haute Court, the feudal council of the kingdom of Jerusalem, supported Melisende. 

The conflicts and tensions between husband and wife persisted, and the two went to war in 1134. No less a man than the renowned theologian and religious reformer Bernard of Clairvaux urged Melisende to "show the man in the woman" and to "order all things . . . so that those who see you will judge your works to be those of a king rather than a queen."

After defeating the forces of her husband in 1135, Melisende was reconciled to him (she bore another child in 1136). She continued to rule with Fulk until his death in 1143, after which she ruled as regent for her son, Baldwin III. About Melisende's role as queen regnant, the historian and archbishop William of Tyre, concluded, "Power in the kingdom resided in the hands of the Lady Melisende, a queen beloved of God, to whom it belonged by hereditary right." (His Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, the History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea or the History of Jerusalem, was written between 1170 and 1184.)

In one form or another, she governed from 1131 to 1153, when Baldwin III was twenty-three years old--and insisted that he be given power as sole king, though he had shown no interest at all in governing before that time. To appease Baldwin, the Haute Court decided that, as a compromise, the kingdom should be divided into northern and southern halves, with Baldwin to rule the northern part and Melisende continuing as queen regnant in the southern portion, including the city of Jerusalem. 

But Baldwin was not happy with that decision. Once again, tensions broke out into warfare, this time the son attacking his mother. Eventually, peace was restored and Melisende "retired," though she was called upon to act as regent of Jerusalem for her son when he was on campaign, fighting endless battles to maintain control in the Holy Land.

Melisende died on 11 September 1161. Her son died just two years later, in 1163, succeeded by Melisende's younger son, Amalric. 

Interestingly, Melisende of Jerusalem was a ruling queen at a time when there were several notable women rulers. 

Although she was not a queen regnant, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who controlled the wealthy and politically significant duchy of Aquitaine in her own right, was Melisende's contemporary. As queen of England, she was a political player of the first order. Melisende and Eleanor actually met when Eleanor accompanied her first husband, Louis VII of France, on the Second Crusade.

We have also met Urraca of Castile and León, a queen regnant who, like Melisende, inherited her title from her father Alfonso VI. Matilda of England (1102-67), married to Fulk of Anjou's son, was designated heir to the English throne by her father Henry I, though she never managed to reign as queen.

And as another interesting note, Melisende’s sisters were also regents; Alice of Jerusalem (m.c. 1126) acted as regent of Antioch for her daughter, Constance, while Hodierna of Jerusalem (c. 1120s-50s) was regent of Tripoli. Melisende’s niece, Constance (1126-1160s), whose mother had functioned as regent of Antioch, herself governed Antioch as regent.

Melisende's correspondence is available at Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters.

I can recommend two wonderful books about Melisende of Jerusalem. The first is a new biographical treatment, Sharan Newman's Defending the City of God: A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem. The second places Melisende in her cultural context: Margaret Tranovich, Melisende of Jerusalem: The World of a Forgotten Crusader Queen.

Update, 22 November 2019: The BBC's In Our Time features a full-length broadcast discussion of Melisende of Jerusalem on its 21 November program. To listen to the podcast, click here.

Urraca of Castile and León: Empress of All the Spains

Urraca of Castile and León (succeeds to the throne, 1 July 1109)

Probably born about the year 1079, Urraca was the daughter of Alfonso VI of Castile and León. Alfonso's marital career was every bit as long and complicated as Henry VIII's--he had five wives (and three mistresses), but, thankfully, he didn't behead any of them.

Despite all his sexual liaisons, married or otherwise, he managed to have only one son, Sancho Alfónsez--though his eldest child was a daughter, Urraca. Unlike Henry, however, Alfonso didn't think women were incapable of rule.

Queen Urraca presiding at court

Sancho Alfónsez's mother was the king's mistress, Zaida of Seville; although the child was illegitimate, he was not born as the result of an adulterous relationship. The king was between wives when he was involved with Zaida, so, according to religious definitions, he was a fornicator, not an adulterer. (Just so you know.)

But when it came to an heir, clearly an illegitimate son trumped a legitimate daughter . . . The king formally recognized his son in 1102 and declared him to be his heir in 1107.

Even so, there was no question about Urraca's status. She was the daughter of Alfonso and his second wife, Constance of Burgundy. (Alfonso's first queen, Agnes of Aquitaine, died without giving birth to any children, but with the mistress who had followed her, Jimena Muñoz, Alfonso had two daughters--unlike Sancho Alfónsez, neither Elvira nor Theresa was named as heir to their father's throne). Before her death in 1093, Constance of Burgundy gave birth to five more children, but only Urraca survived infancy.

Urraca was married very young--as biographer Bernard Reilly notes, the "cumulative documentary evidence" suggests that she was "at most" eight years old at the time of her marriage. Given her significance in the succession, as her father's only legitimate child, she was married in 1086 to Count Raymond of Burgundy, her mother's great-nephew. (The date of the marriage isn't known, but in 1086 Raymond appears in documents as Alfonso's son-in-law.) While Reilly notes that canon law "sets the minimum age for marriage at twelve for women," he also adds that "the breach of canon law in the face of dire political necessity was hardly unknown"--and since Alfonso was busy in the Reconquista (Toledo fell in 1085, Zaragoza was under siege in 1086), Alfonso had a great "need" for the foreign assistance offered by strengthening his alliance with "a powerful southern French nexus."

The marriage was probably not consummated right away--or at least Reilly believes it was not, since Urraca was under the guardianship of a "powerful and trusted Leonese magnate" rather than her husband. The marriage may have been consummated in 1090, when the king's younger brother died, leaving him without a male heir, and certainly by the time Urraca was fifteen, because in 1095 she had given birth to her first child, a daughter named Sancha. A son, Alfonso, was born in 1105. Her husband Raymond died in 1107.

When Alfonso's son and heir, Sancho Alfónsez, died in 1108, the king turned to his eldest daughter, Urraca, as his successor. As the widow of Count Raymond of Burgundy, she had already succeeded her husband as ruler of his territories. In order to secure his daughter's succession in Castile and León as well, Alfonso VI arranged a second marriage for her, to Alfonso I of Aragon. 

Instead of a peaceful and profitable union, however, husband and wife went to war. After the death of her father in 1109, Urraca returned to Castile, where she ruled in her own right. In 1112, her marriage to Alfonso of Aragon was annulled. In 1116, she recognized her eleven-year-old son by her first marriage as her co-ruler and heir. Throughout the rest of her life, Urraca fought to maintain control of her kingdom. Only after her death in 1126, when her son became Alfonso VII, did Alfonso of Aragon end his fight for Castile and León. 

In assessing both Urraca and her reign, Bernard Reilly notes the "prevailing tendency" not only of the queen's contemporaries but also of modern historians to overlook the years of her rule "as a kind of interregnum to be discussed and dismissed as quickly as possible." But he notes the singular achievement of the woman he calls an "indomitable queen": "she was both a woman and the crowned head of a major western kingdom who ruled in her own right."

While ruling as queen, Urraca had two children with Pedro González de Lara. She died in childbirth in 1126.

The most complete account of Urraca, queen of Castile and León is Bernard F. Reilly's The Kingdom of León-Castilla under Queen Urraca, 1109-1129, from which I have quoted here.

. . . . .

By the way, while Alfonso VI preferred an illegitimate son to Urraca, he was not unfamiliar with female rule--his daughter was named after his sister, Urraca, who had proven herself as a ruler. When Alfonso VI's father, Ferdinand I, died, he divided his kingdom among his children: he left Castile to his older son, Sancho II, and León to Alfonso, but he also left Urraca absolute sovereignty over the city of Zamora and the title of "queen," which she used all her life. Urraca ruled Zamora peacefully until war broke out between her brothers. After Sancho turned on Alfonso, defeating and exiling him, Urraca of Zamora went to war against Sancho, who died while besieging her. As a result, Alfonso not only regained León but gained Castile, becoming Alfonso VI, king of a once-more united Castile and León.

And don't worry about our Urraca's sisters, either. She had two "legitimate" sisters, daughters of Isabel of France (Alfonso's fourth wife). The elder, Sancha, married a Castilian nobleman, Rodrigo González de Lara, the younger, Elvira, married Richard II, king of Sicily. As for her two "illegitimate" half-sisters, Jimena Muñoz's children, they were also married well. Elvira married the count of Toulouse and then, after his death, a Castilian nobleman, Count Fernando Fernández de Carrión. The younger, Theresa, was a bit of a problem for Urraca--Theresa married the count of Portugal--she ultimately went to war with Urraca and invaded León. Sisters!!! But Theresa also went to war with her son . . .