Agnes of Aquitaine ( es, Inés), a member of the House of Poitou, was an 11th-century Iberian queen, first of León, then also of Castile by her marriage to

Alfonso VI Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

Family

Contemporary records show Agnes to have been daughter of

William VIII, Duke of Aquitaine William VIII ( – 25 September 1086), born Guy-Geoffrey (''Gui-Geoffroi''), was duke of Gascony (1052–1086), and then duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers (as William VI) between 1058 and 1086, succeeding his brother William VII (Pierre-Gui ...

and his second wife Matilda, whose origins are uncertain. She has been confused with a half-sister of the same name who was also an Iberian queen, Agnes, wife of

Peter I of Aragon and Navarre Peter I ( es, Pedro, an, Pero, eu, Petri; 1068 - 1104) was King of Aragon and also Pamplona from 1094 until his death in 1104. Peter was the eldest son of Sancho Ramírez, from whom he inherited the crowns of Aragon and Pamplona, and Isabella o ...

Queen

In 1069, Agnes married Alfonso VI, king of León. His father divided the kingdom into three realms upon his death. Alfonso and his brother

Sancho The name Sancho is an Iberian name of Basque origin (Santxo, Santzo, Santso, Antzo, Sans). Sancho stems from the Latin name Sanctius.Eichler, Ernst; Hilty, Gerold; Löffler, Heinrich; Steger, Hugo; Zgusta, Ladislav: ''Namenforschung/Name Studies/ ...

would first join forces to supplant their brother García in

Kingdom of Galicia The Kingdom of Galicia ( gl, Reino de Galicia, or ''Galiza''; es, Reino de Galicia; pt, Reino da Galiza; la, Galliciense Regnum) was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire north ...

, before turning on each other. In January 1072, Alfonso (and presumably Agnes) was forced to flee and Sancho took the entire realm of their father. Sancho was assassinated later that year and Alfonso returned, being crowned king of the reunited kingdom of their father in October 1072. At that time he also claimed to be "

Emperor of all Spain is a Latin title meaning "Emperor of All Spain". In Spain in the Middle Ages, the title "emperor" (from Latin ''imperator'') was used under a variety of circumstances from the ninth century onwards, but its usage peaked, as a formal and pract ...

". They last appear together in May 1077, and then Alfonso appears alone. This suggests that Agnes had died, although

Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis ( la, Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Modern historia ...

reports that in 1109 Alfonso's 'relict' Agnes remarried to

Elias I of Maine Elias I (also ''Hélie'' or ''Élie'') (died 11 July 1110), called de la Flèche or de Baugency, was the Count of Maine, succeeding his cousin Hugh V, Count of Maine. He was the son of Jean de la Flèche and Paula, daughter of Herbert I, Count ...

. Though this has led to the speculation that Alfonso and Agnes had divorced due to

consanguinity Consanguinity ("blood relation", from Latin '' consanguinitas'') is the characteristic of having a kinship with another person (being descended from a common ancestor). Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are related by blood fr ...

, it seems more likely that the episode related to Alfonso's final wife and widow, Beatrice, who is known to have returned to France after Alfonso's death, and that Orderic confused the two. Agnes and Alfonso had no children, nor did Elias by his wife.

Death and burial

Several alternative accounts are given for the death of Agnes. Some sources place it in 1078, corresponding to her disappearance from the records. A surviving obituary notice has been interpreted as placing her death in 1097. This record, though, simply refers to Queen Agnes, and probably was reference to her half-sister Agnes, Queen of Navarre, who died in that year. Were the report of her marriage Elias accurate, it would require her survival at least to that date. A burial monument to Agnes is among those in the royal monastery of

Sahagún Sahagún () is a town and municipality of Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León and the province of León. It is the main populated place in the Leonese part of the Tierra de Campos natural region. Sahagún contains some ...

, near that of Alfonso's second wife,

Constance of Burgundy Constance may refer to: Places *Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English *Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada * Constance, Kentucky * Constance, Minnesota * Constance (Portugal) * Mount Constance, Washington State People * Consta ...

. However, the surviving monuments at Sahagún are not contemporary and errors have been found in the reported inscriptions, so this may not be authentic.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Agnes Of Aquitaine, Queen Of Castile House of Poitiers Hispanic empresses and queens Castilian queen consorts Leonese queen consorts Galician queens consort 11th-century people from the Kingdom of León 11th-century Spanish women