Sancha of León (8 November 1067) was a princess and queen of León. She was married to Ferdinand I, the

Count of Castile This is a list of counts of Castile. The County of Castile had its origin in a fortified march on the eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Asturias. The earliest counts were not hereditary, being appointed as representatives of the Asturian king. Fr ...

who later became King of León after having killed Sancha's brother in battle. She and her husband commissioned the

Crucifix of Ferdinand and Sancha The crucifix of Ferdinand and Sancha ( es, crucifijo de don Fernando y doña Sancha) is an ivory carving from ''circa'' 1063, today in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid. It was part of an offering by King Ferdinand I of Leó ...

Life

Sancha was a daughter of

Alfonso V of León Alfonso V (c. 9947 August 1028), called the Noble, was King of León from 999 to 1028. Like other kings of León, he used the title emperor () to assert his standing among the Christian rulers of Spain. He succeeded his father, Bermudo II, in 99 ...

by his first wife, Elvira Menéndez. She became a secular abbess of the

Monastery of San Pelayo The Monasterio de San Pelayo is a convent for women of the Benedictine order, located in the city of Oviedo, Spain. It is also known as the ''monastery of the pelayas''. The monastery was founded by King Alfonso II of Asturias (''the chaste''), ...

. In 1029, a

political marriage A marriage of state is a diplomatic marriage or union between two members of different nation-states or internally, between two power blocs, usually in authoritarian societies and is a practice which dates back into ancient times, as far back as ear ...

was arranged between her and count García Sánchez of Castile. However, having traveled to León for the marriage, García was assassinated by a group of disgruntled vassals. In 1032, Sancha was married to García's nephew and successor,

Ferdinand I of Castile Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

, when the latter was 11 years old. At the

Battle of Tamarón The Battle of Tamarón took place on 4 September 1037 between Ferdinand, Count of Castile, and Vermudo III, King of León. Ferdinand, who had married Vermudo's sister Sancha, defeated and killed his brother-in-law near Tamarón, Spain, after ...

in 1037 Ferdinand killed Sancha's brother

Bermudo III of León Bermudo III or Vermudo III (c. 1015– 4 September 1037) was the king of León from 1028 until his death. He was a son of Alfonso V of León by his first wife Elvira Menéndez, and was the last scion of Peter of Cantabria to rule in the Leones ...

, making Sancha the heir and allowing Ferdinand to have himself crowned King of León. Sancha's own position as queen of León is unclear and contradictory. She succeeded to the throne of León as the heir of her brother and in her "own right" but despite this, she is not clearly referred to as

queen regnant A queen regnant (plural: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank and title to a king, who reigns ''suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known as a "kingdom"; as opposed to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reignin ...

, and after the death of her husband the throne passed to her son, despite the fact that she was still alive. Following Ferdinand's death in 1065 and the division of her husband's kingdom, she is said to have played the futile role of peacemaker among her sons. She was a devout Catholic, who, with her husband, commissioned the crucifix that bears their name as a gift for the

Basilica of San Isidoro In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

Children

Sancha had five children: *

Urraca of Zamora Urraca of Zamora (1033/34 – 1101/03) was a Leonese ''infanta'', one of the five children of Ferdinand I the Great, who received the city of Zamora as her inheritance and exercised palatine authority in it. Her story was romanticized in the ' ...

Sancho II of León and Castile 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/ ...

Elvira of Toro Elvira (1038 or 1039 – 15 November 1101) was a Leonese '' infanta'' and the Lady of Toro, Zamora, the daughter of Ferdinand I of León and Castile and Sancha of León, and granddaughter-namesake of Elvira Menéndez, and also an aunt of ...

Alfonso VI of León and Castile 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. ...

García II of Galicia García II (1041/April 104322 March 1090), King of Galicia, was the youngest of the three sons and heirs of Ferdinand I, King of Castile and León, and Sancha of León, whose Leonese inheritance included the lands García would be given. Garcia f ...

Death and burial

She died in the city of León on 8 November 1067. She was interred in the Royal Pantheon of the

, along with her parents, brother, husband, and her children Elvira, Urraca and García. PanteónSanIsidoroLeón

The following Latin inscription was carved in the tomb in which were deposited the remains of Queen Sancha:

"H. R. SANCIA REGINA TOTIUS HISPANIAE, MAGNI REGIS FERDINANDI UXOR. FILIA REGIS ADEFONSI, QUI POPULAVIT LEGIONEM POS DESTRUCTIONEM ALMANZOR. OBIIT ERA MCVIIII. III N. M."

Which translates to:

"Here lies Sancha, Queen of All Spain, wife of the great king Ferdinand and daughter of king Alfonso, who populated León after the destruction of Almanzor. Died in the one thousand one hundred eighth era on the third
nones Nones may refer to: * ''Nones'' (Auden), a 1951 book of poems by W. H. Auden * ''Nones'' (Berio), a 1954 orchestral composition by Luciano Berio *Nones (calendar), or ''Nonae'', days of the Roman Calendar *None (liturgy) Nones (), also known as N ...
of May May 1071"

References

Bibliography

*Blanco Lozano, Pilar. ''Colección diplomática de Fernando I'' (1037–1065). León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación «San Isidoro» (CSIC-CECEL) y Archivo Histórico Diocesano, 1987. . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sancha Of Leon Beni Alfons House of Jiménez 11th-century Spanish women Queen mothers Galician queens consort Roman Catholic royal saints Hispanic empresses and queens 11th-century people from the Kingdom of León 1010s births 1067 deaths Burials in the Royal Pantheon at the Basilica of San Isidoro Leonese infantas Spanish beatified people Daughters of kings