Elisabeth of Portugal

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Saint Isabel of Portugal, oil painting by Francisco de Zurbarán , 184 × 98 cm, Museo del Prado .
Saint Isabel of Portugal heals the wounds of a sick person , oil painting by Goya , 1799.
The Gothic high tomb of the Queen in Coimbra with its contemporary representation

Saint Elizabeth of Portugal , born Isabella of Aragon (* January 4, 1271 in Saragossa , † July 4, 1336 in Estremoz ), Portuguese Rainha Santa Isabel , was Princess of Aragon and from 1282 to 1325 Queen of Portugal , later a Franciscan . She is a saint who is still popular in Portugal today .

Life

Elisabeth was the daughter of King Peter III. born of Aragon and Constance von Hohenstaufen . She was thus on her mother's side a great-granddaughter of the Roman-German Emperor Friedrich II. She had five siblings, including the Aragonese kings Alfons III. and Jacob II and Frederick II of Sicily . It was named after Saint Elizabeth of Hungary , who was a half-sister of her paternal grandmother, Yolanda of Hungary .

Elisabeth was very pious throughout her life and spent much of her time in pious works and prayers. She was married on June 24, 1282 at the age of twelve to King Dionysius of Portugal, who entered into extramarital relations, but jealously controlled them. Her modesty and piety were particularly noticeable at the Portuguese royal court. When her son Alfonso IV declared war on his father out of concern for his inheritance, the queen herself rode unarmed between the two armies, thus preventing the battle between father and son. After the death of her husband, she retired as a Franciscan to a nunnery in Coimbra , where she led a life of penance and prayer. Once again, she lived up to her reputation as a peacemaker when a war broke out between her son Alfonso IV and his father-in-law, the King of Castile, in 1336. Despite her old age and weakened by illness, she rode to Estremoz , where she again stood between the two armies and thus prevented another war. Elisabeth died a short time later. Just like her great aunt Elisabeth of Thuringia / Hungary, a rose miracle is ascribed to her:

According to legend, the queen left the castle in Leiria on a winter morning to distribute bread to the poor.

In order not to attract attention, she has covered them with her veil. When she is surprised by her husband D. Dinis, who does not approve of her generosity, and asks what she is hiding, Elisabeth replies that they are roses. Your husband is suspicious. "Roses in January?" Elisabeth lifts the scarf out of necessity and suddenly there are actually roses instead of bread underneath.

The queen was buried in the monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, which she founded but only survived as a ruin, and was later reburied in the nearby, new monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, together with her Gothic high tomb.

She was canonized by Pope Urban VIII in 1625 and is venerated as a peacemaker, especially in Portugal. Many churches and schools in the country still bear her name today.

family

With her husband, King Dionysius, she had two children:

  • Konstanze (born January 3, 1290 - † November 18, 1313), ⚭ 1302 King Ferdinand IV of Castile .
  • Alfonso IV (February 8, 1291 - May 28, 1357).

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth of Portugal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham, David Faris: Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families . In: Royal ancestry series . Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, Md. 2004, ISBN 0-8063-1750-7 , pp. 588 (English, 945 p., Limited preview in Google book search).
predecessor Office Successor
Beatrix of Castile (1242-1303) Queen of Portugal
1282-1325 		Beatrix of Castile (1293-1359)
personal data
SURNAME Elisabeth of Portugal
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rainha Santa Isabel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Princess of Aragon and Queen of Portugal
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1271
PLACE OF BIRTH Zaragoza
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1336
Place of death Estremoz