Urraca of Portugal (; (1148 – 1211)) was the queen of León from 1165 until 1171 or 1172 as the wife of King Ferdinand II. She was the daughter of the first Portuguese king,

Afonso I Afonso I of PortugalOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician languages, Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', dependi ...

, and the mother of

Alfonso IX 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. ...

. After her marriage to Ferdinand was annulled, the former queen became a nun.

Family

Urraca was born 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 ...

in 1148. She was the daughter of

, the first

king of Portugal This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution. Through the ...

, and

Maud of Savoy Matilda of Savoy (french: Mathilde, pt, Mafalda or Matilde; – 3 December 1157/58) was Queen of Portugal, after her marriage to King Afonso Henriques, the first sovereign of Portugal, whom she married in 1146. Origins She was the second or thir ...

. She had several siblings, including Sancho I. In May or June 1165, Urraca married

Ferdinand II of León Ferdinand II (c. 1137 – 22 January 1188), was a member of the Castilian cadet branch of the House of Ivrea and King of León and Galicia from 1157 until his death. Life Family Born in Toledo, Castile, Ferdinand was the third but second surv ...

. The only son of this marriage,

, was born in Zamora on 15 August 1171. The marriage of Ferdinand II and Urraca was annulled in 1171 or 1172 by

Pope Alexander III Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland ( it, Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a con ...

because the two were second cousins, great-grandchildren 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 peninsul ...

Monasticism

After the annulment of her marriage, Urraca became a nun, joining the

Order of Saint John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

. She retired to live in the estates that her former husband had given her in the Carta de Arras (wedding tokens) in Zamora. Later, she resided in the Monastery of Santa María de Wamba, which belonged to the aforementioned order. On 25 May 1176, Queen Urraca donated land and villas to the Order of Saint John, probably coinciding with her joining the order. These properties included Castroverde de Campos and Mansilla in León, and Salas and San Andrés in

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

. She was present in 1188 at the coronation of her son Alfonso IX, who succeeded his father Ferdinand II on 22 January 1188. On 4 May in that same year, she and her son confirmed the privileges granted by Ferdinand II to the

Order of Santiago The Order of Santiago (; es, Orden de Santiago ), is a religious and military order founded in the 12th century. It owes its name to the Patron Saint of Spain, "Santiago" (St. James the Greater). Its initial objective was to protect the pilgri ...

. Her presence is registered for the last time in medieval charters in 1211, when she donated the village of Castrotoraf, which she had received from Ferdinand in 1165 as a wedding gift, to the Cathedral of Zamora.

Death

Queen Urraca died in

Wamba, Valladolid Wamba is a municipality of Spain located in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León. The municipality spans across a total area of 38.16 km2 and, as of 1 January 2020, it has a registered population of 310. Location It lies on the so ...

, in 1211. She was buried at the Monastery of Santa María de Wamba in what is now the province of

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

. St Mary's, the former monastic church and the only part remaining of the ancient monastery, contains the Chapel of the Queen: a plaque that was placed there subsequently mentions that Queen Urraca had been interred in this church.

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Urraca Of Portugal 1148 births 1211 deaths 12th-century nobility from León and Castile 12th-century Portuguese people 12th-century Portuguese women Burials in the Community of Castile and León Galician queens consort House of Burgundy-Portugal Leonese queen consorts People from Coimbra Portuguese infantas Portuguese people of Spanish descent Portuguese people of French descent Daughters of kings