Sancha of Castile

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Sancha of Castile ( catalan : Sanca de Castella , Spanish : Sancha de Castilla * 21st September 1154 / 55 ; † 9. November 1208 in Villanueva de Sigena ) was from 1174 to 1208, a queen of Aragon as wife of King Alfonso II. the chaste .

Life

Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile, depicted in the Liber Feudorum Maior , late 12th century.
The coffins of Peter II of Aragon and the Sancha of Castile in the monastery of Sigena.

Sancha was the only surviving child of King Alfonso VII of León-Castile († 1157) from his second marriage to Richeza of Poland . She was married by her nephew Alfons VIII on January 18, 1174 in Saragossa to Alfons II of Aragón, who was also awarded the sword on the occasion . This marriage was to seal the alliance between Castile and Aragon, which was negotiated as early as 1170, dynastically. The marriage resulted in at least eight children, whose dates of birth, however, have not been recorded:

Sancha became known through the founding of the Hospitaller Abbey of Santa María von Sigena (now known as Villanueva de Sigena), which she was heavily sponsored by , which probably took place in spring 1188. Already in October 1187 she had acquired the goods of Sigena, Sena and Urgellet in an exchange deal with the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem on the condition that they would be used as the foundation of a monastery that was to be built for the Aragonese and Catalan nuns . The Bishop of Huesca allegedly consecrated the monastery on April 21, 1188 , after which the first 13 nuns, including Sancha's youngest daughter Dulcia, were able to take their religious vows on April 23. In the same month her husband gave the monastery the first large donation of land, referring to Sancha as the “mistress” ( dominatrix ) of Sigena on the occasion .

In her husband's will of April 1196, who died shortly afterwards, Sancha was entrusted with the guardianship government for her son Peter II, which she was to take on until he was twenty. This point in time was apparently reached in the spring of 1197, as she was first documented as a nun of Sigena on April 23 of this year. Despite retreating into monastic life, Sancha got into a dispute with her son over the goods of her Wittum , which had once been transferred to her by her husband. Although Alfonso II in his will, the provisions of which were given by Pope Celestine III. had been recognized, had decreed that her Wittum was to be handed over to Peter II when he came of age, she did not want to do without it. In the dispute with her son, she had the support of her nephew Alfonso VIII of Castile, who hoped to maintain his influence on Aragon through his aunt. Ultimately, the dispute could only after an intervention by Pope Innocent III. , which Sancha had requested, to be contractually settled in 1201. In 1205, Sancha's daughter Konstanze, widowed Queen of Hungary, was quartered in Sigena, who was probably married to King Frederick of Sicily here in October 1208 as well .

Sancha appears for the last time on November 6, 1208 in Sigena as a documentary witness. As early as November 15th, her son made a gift to one of her servants in Sigena as a reward for his many years of service for his mother, who had probably already died by that date. Her death is usually dated November 9, 1208, based on the monastery necrology, which is no longer preserved in the original. She was buried in Sigena, where her son, who had died in 1213, was also buried in 1217.

literature

  • Damian J. Smith: Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon: The Limits of Papal Authority. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004.
  • Anthony Luttrell, Hellen J. Nicholson: Hospitaller Woman in the Middle Ages. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jaime Caruana Gómez de Barrera: Itinerario de Alfonso II de Aragón , in: Estudios de edad media de la Corona de Aragón , Vol. 7 (1962), pp. 145-146.
  2. ↑ a b The existence of the Infants Raimund Berengar and Dulcia is recorded in a list of the children of Alfonso II from the chronicle of Bernat Desclot from 1283. See Miguel Coll i Alentorn, Crònica , Vol. 2 (Barcelona, ​​1949), pp. 6-7.
  3. ↑ Jéronimo Zurita , Anales de la corona de Aragón , ed. by Ángel Canellas López (1967), Vol. 1, Lib. 2, §47.
  4. ↑ Agustín Ubieto Arteta: Documentos de Sigena (Valencia, 1972), No. 5.
  5. ↑ Fra Ramón de Huesca: Teatro histórico de las iglesias del Reyno de Aragón , Vol. 6 (1796), pp. 209-210.
  6. ↑ Agustín Ubieto Arteta: Documentos de Sigena (Valencia, 1972), No. 7.
  7. ^ Alfonso II Rey de Aragón, Conde de Barcelona y Marqués de Provenza. Documentos (1162-1196) , ed. by AI Sánchez Casabón (1995), No. 628, p. 818.
  8. ↑ Archivo Provincial de Huesca, S-58/5: Fragmento de una historia del Monasterio de Sigena , ch. 27, fol. 60v.
  9. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 215, Col. 1342-1343. Ádám Anderle: Constanza de Aragón en la historiografía española , in: Acta Hispanica , Vol. 1 (1996), p. 9.
  10. ↑ Agustín Ubieto Arteta: Documentos de Sigena (Valencia, 1972), No. 51.
  11. ↑ Agustín Ubieto Arteta: Documentos de Sigena (Valencia, 1972), No. 52.
  12. ↑ Mariano de Pano y Ruata: La Santa Reina Doña Sancha, hermana hospitalaria, fundadora del monasterio de Sijena (Saragossa, 1944), p. 108.
personal data
SURNAME Sancha of Castile
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sança de Castella (Catalan); Sancha de Castilla (Spanish)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of Aragon
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1154 or September 21, 1155
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1208
Place of death Villanueva de Sigena