Sancha of Portugal (; 1180 in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

– 13 March 1229 in Celas Monastery), was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

infanta ''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...

'', second daughter of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Sancho I of Portugal Sancho I of Portugal (), nicknamed "the Populator" ( pt, "o Povoador"), King of Portugal (Coimbra, 11 November 115426 March 1211) was the second but only surviving legitimate son and fifth child of Afonso I of Portugal by his wife, Maud of Savoy. ...

and Dulce of Aragon.

Life

She was born 1180 and was the feudal Lady of Alenquer. Sancha and her sisters Teresa and Malfada were very wealthy, having inherited large estates after the death of their father in 1211. In 1212, their brother

Ferdinand 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 ...

married

Joan, Countess of Flanders Joan, often called Joan of Constantinople ( 1199 – 5 December 1244), ruled as Countess of Flanders and Hainaut from 1205 (at the age of six) until her death. She was the elder daughter of Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, and Marie o ...

and was imprisoned by the French after

Battle of Bouvines The Battle of Bouvines was fought on 27 July 1214 near the town of Bouvines in the County of Flanders. It was the concluding battle of the Anglo-French War of 1213–1214. Although estimates on the number of troops vary considerably among mo ...

in 1214. Their brother, King Afonso II of Portugal contested ownership of his sisters' castles of

Seia Seia () is a municipality in Guarda District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 21,755, in an area of . Its urban population is about 7,000. Seia was elevated to city status on July 3, 1986. The municipality is situated on the northwestern slo ...

, Alenquer and

Montemor-o-Novo Montemor-o-Novo () is a municipality in the District of Évora in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 17,437, in an area of 1232.97 km2. The city itself had a population of 8,928 in 2001. The present Mayor is Olímpio Manuel Vidigal Galvão, ...

and their right to use the title of queen. Afonso wanted to centralize power and feared that this could create a problem of sovereignty that could come to divide the country. Much of the Portuguese nobles sided with the princesses, but they were defeated. The king's brother

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, had also sided with his sisters and was banished. On the death of Afonso II, his son Sancho II granted some lands and castles to his aunts but he made them renounce the title of princess-queen. The final peace came in 1223. In 1219, she welcomed the Franciscan Berard of Carbio and his companions to Alenquer. Upon hearing that they planned to go to Morocco to preach the Gospel, she provided them with laymen's clothes so they could pass through Seville, which remained under Muslem rule. A significant portion of her wealth she spent on acquiring property to establish and support her monastery. Sancha founded the Monastery Santa Maria de Celas, near Coibra, around January 1223. Part of the work of the nuns at Celas was the care of the sick. It later affiliated with the Cistercian order.Shadis, Miriam. "Founders, Sisters, and Neighbors in the Thirteenth Century", ''Women and Community in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia''
(Michelle Armstrong-Partida et al, eds.) Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2020 Sancha died at the Monastery Santa Maria de Celas. Her body was moved to Lorvão Abbey by her sister Theresa of Portugal. On 13 December 1705 she was

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

by Pope Clement XI's papal bull ''Sollicitudo Pastoralis Offici'', along with her sister Theresa of Portugal. Her feast day and that of her two sisters Teresa and

Mafalda ''Mafalda'' () is an Argentine comic strip written and drawn by cartoonist Quino. The strip features a six-year-old girl named Mafalda, who reflects the Argentinian middle class and progressive youth, is concerned about humanity and world pea ...

is 20 June.

Ancestry

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sancha Of Portugal, Infanta 1170s births 1229 deaths House of Burgundy-Portugal Portuguese infantas French beatified people Portuguese Roman Catholics Roman Catholic royal saints 12th-century Portuguese people 13th-century Portuguese people 12th-century Portuguese women 13th-century Portuguese women 13th-century venerated Christians Beatifications by Pope Clement XI Daughters of kings