Violant or Violante of Aragon, also known as Yolanda of Aragon (8 June 1236 – 1301), was

Queen consort of Castile This is a list of the queens consort and kings consort of the Kingdom of Castile, and later, Crown of Castile. ''It is, in part, a continuation of the list of Asturian royal consorts and the list of Leonese royal consorts''. Countesses Banu ...

and León from 1252 to 1284 as the wife of King

Alfonso X of Castile Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, es, el Sabio; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Ger ...

Life

Violant was born in

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Province of Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Ara ...

, the daughter of King

James I of Aragon James I the Conqueror ( es, Jaime el Conquistador, ca, Jaume el Conqueridor; 2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was King of Aragon and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; and Valencia from 1238 to 12 ...

(1213–1276) and his second wife,

Yolande of Hungary Violant of Hungary ( hu, Jolán; ca, Iolanda or Violant d'Hongria; es, Yolanda or Violante de Hungría; c. 1215 – c. 1251) was the queen of Aragon from 1235 until 1251 as the second wife of King James I of Aragon. A member of the Hungarian ...

(ca.1215-1253).Elena Woodacre, ''Queenship in the Mediterranean: Negotiating the Role of the Queen in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras'', (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 52. Her maternal grandparents were

Andrew II of Hungary Andrew II ( hu, II. András, hr, Andrija II., sk, Ondrej II., uk, Андрій II; 117721 September 1235), also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1205 and 1235. He ruled the Principality of Halych from 11 ...

and

Yolanda de Courtenay Yolanda of Courtenay (c. 1200 – June 1233), was a Queen of Hungary as the second wife of King Andrew II of Hungary. Yolanda was the daughter of Count Peter II of Courtenay and his second wife, Yolanda of Flanders, the sister of Baldwin I ...

.''Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture'', ed. Theresa Martin, (Brill, 2012), 1089. In January 1249, Violant married King

at Burgos, who before his marriage, had a romantic relationship with Mayor Guillén de Guzmán who bore to him an illegitimate daughter Beatrice. Due to Violant's young age, she was unable to get pregnant for several years. Alfonso came to believe that his wife was barren and came to even consider the possibility of asking the pope for an annulment of the marriage. Legend has it that the Queen could not get pregnant and the doctor told her to rest.

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

was recaptured by the Crown of Castile and the King and Queen rested in a farm located in the fields near the city, and there she became pregnant; the King decided to call the place "Pla del Bon Repos" ("Plain of good sleep"), a name that has been left to posterity and today is a suburb of Alicante. In 1275, Violant's son and heir to Castile,

Ferdinand de la Cerda 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 ...

, died heir to the Castilian-Leonese throne and Alfonso at first ignored the rights of Ferdinand's two sons,

Alfonso 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. ...

and

Fernando Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...

, and instead made their second son, Prince Sancho heir; he would later succeed as Sancho IV of Castile. In response, the widow of Ferdinand, Blanche of France, enlisted the help of her brother,

Philip III of France Philip III (1 May 1245 – 5 October 1285), called the Bold (french: le Hardi), was King of France from 1270 until his death in 1285. His father, Louis IX, died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Philip, who was accompanying him, returned ...

. At the same time, queen Violant sought support for her grandchildren from her brother, King Peter III of Aragon, who agreed to protect and guard them in the kingdom of Aragon, accommodating her grandchildren in the Castle of Xativa. During the reign of her son Sancho IV, and the latter's son,

Ferdinand IV of Castile Ferdinand IV of Castile (6 December 1285 – 7 September 1312) called the Summoned (''el Emplazado''), was King of Castile and León from 1295 until his death. His upbringing and the custody of his person were entrusted to his mother, Queen M ...

, Queen Violant lived almost permanently in Aragon and she supported the rights to the throne of Castile and León of her grandson, Alfonso de la Cerda. In 1276, Violant founded the Convent of San Pablo in

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 ...

. This was erected in honor of the Hungarian Order of St. Paul. Violant's mother brought some Hungarian influence on the Spanish culture, and also introduced the Order of St. Paul. Queen Violant died in

Roncesvalles Roncesvalles ( , ; eu, Orreaga ; an, Ronzesbals ; french: Roncevaux ) is a small village and municipality in Navarre, northern Spain. It is situated on the small river Urrobi at an altitude of some in the Pyrenees, about from the French bor ...

, Navarre, in 1301, on her return from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where she had won the Jubilee in 1300.

Children

Coat of Arms of Violant of Aragon as Queen of Castile

Alfonso and Violant had the following children: # Berengaria (1253 – after 1284). She was betrothed to Louis, the son and heir of King Louis IX of France, but her fiancé died prematurely in 1260. She entered the convent in Las Huelgas, where she was living in 1284. # Beatrice (1254–1280). She married

William VII, Marquess of Montferrat Guillaume VII de Montferrat. William VII (c. 1240 – 6 February 1292), called the Great Marquis ( it, il Gran Marchese), was the twelfth Marquis of Montferrat from 1253 to his death. He was also the titular King of Thessalonica. Biography ...

. #

, Infante of Castile (23 October 1255 – 25 July 1275). He married Blanche, the daughter of King Louis IX of France, by whom he had two children. Because he predeceased his father, his younger brother Sancho inherited the throne. #

Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...

(1257–1275) # Sancho IV of Castile (13 May 1258 – 1295) # Constance (1258 – 22 August 1280), a nun at Las Huelgas. # Peter, Lord of Ledesma (June 1260 – 10 October 1283) # John, Lord of Valencia de Campos (March or April 1262 – 25 June 1319). # Isabella, died young. # Violant (1265–1296). She married Diego López V de Haro, Lord of Biscay # James, Lord of Cameros (August 1266 – 9 August 1284)

References

''Translation from Spanish Wikipedia'' , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Violant Of Aragon 1236 births 1301 deaths Castilian queen consorts Leonese queen consorts Galician queens consort German queens consort House of Aragon Aragonese infantas 13th-century people from the Kingdom of Aragon 13th-century Castilians 13th-century Spanish women Daughters of kings Queen mothers