Urraca of Castile
Encyclopedia
Urraca was Queen regnant
of León
, Castile
, and Galicia
, and claimed the imperial title
as suo jure
Empress of All the Spains from 1109 until her death in childbirth
, as well as Empress of All Galicia.
, and as eldest legitimate child of her father was heiress presumptive from her birth until 1107, when Alfonso recognized his illegitimate son Sancho as his heir. Urraca became heiress presumptive again after Sancho’s death the following year, when he was killed after the Battle of Uclés.
at age eight to Raymond of Burgundy
, a mercenary adventurer. Author Bernard F. Reilly suggest that rather than a betrothal, the eight-year-old Urraca was fully wedded to Raymond of Burgundy as he almost immediately appears in protocol documents as Alfonso VI's son-in-law, a distinction that would not have been made without the marriage. Reilly doubts that the marriage was consummated until Urraca was 13, as she was placed under the protective guardianship of a trusted magnate. However, Urraca's pregnancy and stillbirth at age 14 suggests the marriage was consummated when she was 13 or 14 years old.
Urraca's marriage to Raymond was part of Alfonso VI's diplomatic strategy to attract cross-Pyrenees alliances, and in 1105 she gave birth to a son, who would become Alfonso VII. However, after Raymond died in 1107, Urraca’s father contracted with Alfonso I of Aragon, known as the Battler, for a dynastic marriage with Urraca, opening the opportunity for uniting León-Castile with Aragón.
Urraca protested against the marriage but honoured her late father’s wishes (and the Royal Council's advice) and continued with the marriage negotiations, though she and her father’s closest advisers were growing weary of Alfonso I's demands. Despite the advisers' initial opposition, the prospect of Count Henry of Portugal
filling any power vacuum led them to go ahead with the marriage. As events would unfold, these advisers underestimated Urraca's political prowess, and later advised her to end the marriage.
The marriage of Urraca and Alfonso I almost immediately sparked rebellions in Galicia and scheming by her illegitimate half-sister Theresa
and brother-in-law Henry
, the Countess and Count of Portugal.
As their relationship soured, Urraca accused Alfonso of physical abuse
, and by May 1110 Urraca separated from Alfonso. In addition to her objections to Alfonso's handling of rebels, the couple had a falling-out over his execution of one of the rebels who had surrendered to the queen, to whom the queen was inclined to be merciful. Additionally, as Urraca was married to someone many in the kingdom objected to, the queen's son and heir became a rallying point for opponents to the marriage.
Estrangement between husband and wife escalated from discrete and simmering hostilities into open armed warfare between the Leonese-Castilians and the Aragonese. An alliance between Alfonso of Aragon and Henry of Portugal culminated in the 1111 Battle of Candespina
in which Urraca's lover and chief supporter Gómez González
was killed. He was soon replaced in both roles by another count, Pedro González de Lara
, who took up the fight and would father of two of Urraca's children. By the fall of 1112 a truce was brokered between Urraca and Alfonso with their marriage annulled
. Though Urraca recovered Asturias, Leon, and Galicia, Alfonso occupied a significant portion of Castile (where Urraca enjoyed large support), while her half-sister Theresa and her husband Count Henry of Portugal occupied Zamora
and Extremadura
. Recovering these regions and expanding into Muslim lands would occupy much of Urraca's foreign policy.
According to author Bernard F. Reilly, the measure of success for Urraca’s rule was her ability to restore and protect the integrity of her inheritance - that is, the kingdom of her father - and transmit that inheritance in full to her own heir. Policies and events pursued by Alfonso VI - namely legitimizing her brother and thereby providing an opportunity for her illegitimate half-sister to claim a portion of the patrimony, as well as the forced marriage with Alfonso I of Aragon - contributed in large part to the challenges Urraca faced upon her succession. Additionally, the circumstance of Urraca’s gender added a distinctive role-reversal dimension to diplomacy and politics, which Urraca used to her advantage.
as prudent
, modest
, and with good sense. According to Reilly, the Historia Compostelana also attributes her "failings" to her gender, "the weakness and changeability of women, feminine perversity, and calls her a Jezebel
" for her liaisons with her leading magnates, with at least one relationship producing an illegitimate son. These observations were hardly neutral or dispassionate, according to Reilly, who wrote: "[T]here is no question that the queen is in control, perhaps all too much in control, of events." Urraca's use of sex in politics should be viewed more as a strategy that provided the queen with allies but without any masters.
Queen regnant
A queen regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right, in contrast to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigning king. An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire....
of León
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
, Castile
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
, and Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...
, and claimed the imperial title
Imperator totius Hispaniae
Imperator totius Hispaniae is a Latin title meaning "Emperor of all Spain". In Spain in the Middle Ages, the title "emperor" was used under a variety of circumstances from the ninth century onwards, but its usage peaked, as a formal and practical title, between 1086 and 1157...
as suo jure
Suo jure
Suo jure is a Latin phrase meaning "in her [or his] own right".It is commonly encountered in the context of titles of nobility, especially in cases where a wife may hold a title in her own right rather than through her marriage....
Empress of All the Spains from 1109 until her death in childbirth
Maternal death
Maternal death, or maternal mortality, also "obstetrical death" is the death of a woman during or shortly after a pregnancy. In 2010, researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, estimated global maternal mortality in 2008 at 342,900 , of...
, as well as Empress of All Galicia.
Childhood
Urraca was the eldest surviving child of Alfonso VI of León with his second wife Constance of BurgundyConstance of Burgundy
Constance of Burgundy was the daughter of Duke Robert I of Burgundy and Helie de Semur-en-Brionnais. She was Queen consort of Castile and León by her marriage to Alfonso VI of Castile. She was the granddaughter of King Robert II of France, the second monarch of the French Capetian dynasty...
, and as eldest legitimate child of her father was heiress presumptive from her birth until 1107, when Alfonso recognized his illegitimate son Sancho as his heir. Urraca became heiress presumptive again after Sancho’s death the following year, when he was killed after the Battle of Uclés.
First marriage and widowhood
Urraca’s place in the line of succession made her the focus of dynastic politics, and she became a child brideChild marriage
Child marriage and child betrothal customs occur in various times and places, whereby children are given in matrimony - before marriageable age as defined by the commentator and often before puberty. Today such customs are fairly widespread in parts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America: in...
at age eight to Raymond of Burgundy
Raymond of Burgundy
Raymond of Burgundy was the fourth son of William I, Count of Burgundy, and was Count of Amous. He came to the Iberian Peninsula for the first time during the period 1086–1087 with Odo I, Duke of Burgundy...
, a mercenary adventurer. Author Bernard F. Reilly suggest that rather than a betrothal, the eight-year-old Urraca was fully wedded to Raymond of Burgundy as he almost immediately appears in protocol documents as Alfonso VI's son-in-law, a distinction that would not have been made without the marriage. Reilly doubts that the marriage was consummated until Urraca was 13, as she was placed under the protective guardianship of a trusted magnate. However, Urraca's pregnancy and stillbirth at age 14 suggests the marriage was consummated when she was 13 or 14 years old.
Urraca's marriage to Raymond was part of Alfonso VI's diplomatic strategy to attract cross-Pyrenees alliances, and in 1105 she gave birth to a son, who would become Alfonso VII. However, after Raymond died in 1107, Urraca’s father contracted with Alfonso I of Aragon, known as the Battler, for a dynastic marriage with Urraca, opening the opportunity for uniting León-Castile with Aragón.
Reign
Marriage negotiations were still underway when Alfonso VI died and Urraca became queen. Many of Alfonso VI’s advisers and leading magnates in the kingdom formed a “quiet opposition” to the marriage of the Queen to the King of Aragon. According to Bernard F. Reilly, these magnates feared the influence the King of Aragon might attempt to wield over Urraca and over Leonese politics.Urraca protested against the marriage but honoured her late father’s wishes (and the Royal Council's advice) and continued with the marriage negotiations, though she and her father’s closest advisers were growing weary of Alfonso I's demands. Despite the advisers' initial opposition, the prospect of Count Henry of Portugal
Henry, Count of Portugal
Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal was Count of Portugal from 1093 to his death. He was brother of Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy, and Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, all sons of Henry, the heir of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy. His name is Henri in modern French, Henricus in Latin, Enrique in modern Spanish...
filling any power vacuum led them to go ahead with the marriage. As events would unfold, these advisers underestimated Urraca's political prowess, and later advised her to end the marriage.
Second marriage
Theresa, Countess of Portugal
Theresa of Portugal was the first ruler of independent Portugal...
and brother-in-law Henry
Henry, Count of Portugal
Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal was Count of Portugal from 1093 to his death. He was brother of Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy, and Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, all sons of Henry, the heir of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy. His name is Henri in modern French, Henricus in Latin, Enrique in modern Spanish...
, the Countess and Count of Portugal.
As their relationship soured, Urraca accused Alfonso of physical abuse
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
, and by May 1110 Urraca separated from Alfonso. In addition to her objections to Alfonso's handling of rebels, the couple had a falling-out over his execution of one of the rebels who had surrendered to the queen, to whom the queen was inclined to be merciful. Additionally, as Urraca was married to someone many in the kingdom objected to, the queen's son and heir became a rallying point for opponents to the marriage.
Estrangement between husband and wife escalated from discrete and simmering hostilities into open armed warfare between the Leonese-Castilians and the Aragonese. An alliance between Alfonso of Aragon and Henry of Portugal culminated in the 1111 Battle of Candespina
Battle of Candespina
The Battle of Candespina was fought on 26 October 1111 between the forces of Alfonso I of Aragon and those of his estranged wife, Urraca of León and Castile, in the Campo de la Espina near Sepúlveda. Alfonso was victorious, as he would be again in a few weeks at the Battle of Viadangos.The battle...
in which Urraca's lover and chief supporter Gómez González
Gómez González
Gómez González , called de Lara or de Candespina, was a Castilian nobleman and military leader who had some claim to being Count of Castile. He was the eldest son and successor of Gonzalo Salvadórez and his wife Sancha, and thus kinsman of the Lara family...
was killed. He was soon replaced in both roles by another count, Pedro González de Lara
Pedro González de Lara
Pedro González de Lara was a Castilian magnate. He served Alfonso VI as a young man, and later became the lover of Alfonso's heiress, Queen Urraca. He may have joined the First Crusade in the following of Raymond IV of Toulouse, earning the nickname el Romero...
, who took up the fight and would father of two of Urraca's children. By the fall of 1112 a truce was brokered between Urraca and Alfonso with their marriage annulled
Annulment
Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place...
. Though Urraca recovered Asturias, Leon, and Galicia, Alfonso occupied a significant portion of Castile (where Urraca enjoyed large support), while her half-sister Theresa and her husband Count Henry of Portugal occupied Zamora
Zamora (province)
Zamora is a Spanish province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León.The present-day province of Zamora province was one of three provinces formed from the former Kingdom of León in 1833, when Spain was re-organised into 49 provinces.It is bordered by...
and Extremadura
Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
. Recovering these regions and expanding into Muslim lands would occupy much of Urraca's foreign policy.
According to author Bernard F. Reilly, the measure of success for Urraca’s rule was her ability to restore and protect the integrity of her inheritance - that is, the kingdom of her father - and transmit that inheritance in full to her own heir. Policies and events pursued by Alfonso VI - namely legitimizing her brother and thereby providing an opportunity for her illegitimate half-sister to claim a portion of the patrimony, as well as the forced marriage with Alfonso I of Aragon - contributed in large part to the challenges Urraca faced upon her succession. Additionally, the circumstance of Urraca’s gender added a distinctive role-reversal dimension to diplomacy and politics, which Urraca used to her advantage.
Character
Urraca is characterized in the Historia CompostelanaHistoria Compostelana
The anonymous Historia Compostelana is based on the relation of events by a writer in the immediate circle of Diego Gelmírez, second bishop then first archbishop of Compostela, one of the major figures of the Middle Ages in Galicia...
as prudent
Prudence
Prudence is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four Cardinal virtues .The word comes from Old French prudence , from Latin...
, modest
Modesty
Standards of modesty are aspects of the culture of a country or people, at a given point in time, and is a measure against which an individual in society may be judged....
, and with good sense. According to Reilly, the Historia Compostelana also attributes her "failings" to her gender, "the weakness and changeability of women, feminine perversity, and calls her a Jezebel
Jezebel
Jezebel may refer to:* Jezebel, wife of King Ahab*Jezebel, in the Book of Revelation 2:20 a prophetess in the church of Thyatira* Jezebel , starring Bette Davis and Henry Fonda* Jezebel , a blog aimed at women...
" for her liaisons with her leading magnates, with at least one relationship producing an illegitimate son. These observations were hardly neutral or dispassionate, according to Reilly, who wrote: "[T]here is no question that the queen is in control, perhaps all too much in control, of events." Urraca's use of sex in politics should be viewed more as a strategy that provided the queen with allies but without any masters.
Death and legacy
As queen, Urraca rose to the challenges presented to her and her solutions were pragmatic ones, according to Reilly, and laid the foundation for the reign of her son Alfonso VII, who in spite of the opposition of Urraca's lover Pedro González de Lara succeeded to the throne of a kingdom whole and at peace at Urraca’s death in 1126.Ancestry
External links
- Reilly, Bernard F. "The Kingdom of León-Castilla under Queen Urraca, 1109-1126"
- Reilly, Bernard F. The Medieval Spains, 1993.