By Jessica Knauss
She was the Queen of Castile. He was the King of Aragón. Their marriage could unite two dynasties and create the most powerful kingdom in Western Europe…
A Marriage That Sparked Rebellion, Sieges, and Battles
She was the Queen of Castile. He was the King of Aragón. Their marriage could unite two dynasties and create the most powerful kingdom in Western Europe…
You might think I’m referring to the 1479 union of Isabel
and Fernando, the Reyes Católicos, one
of the most successful monarchical couples in history (and profiled beautifully
here). But this Queen of Castile and King of Aragón were married 370 years before
Isabel and Fernando. The marriage of Urraca of León and Castile and Alfonso I of
Aragón was an experiment in nation-building that failed miserably, perhaps to
pave the way for the later success of the
Reyes Católicos.
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| Statue of Urraca in the Parque del Buen Retiro (Photo by Jessica Knauss) |
Before this explosive marriage, Urraca had already been a
child bride, given birth to the boy who would be Alfonso VII, and become Queen
of León and Castile. She married her first husband at the age of eight. Historical
evidence suggests that the marriage was consummated when she was all of
thirteen. She had no time for naïveté, and by the time her first husband died
and she was on the marriage market again, she was 26 and ready to assert all
the command granted by her position. In Aragón, women were not allowed to
become queen, but in Castile, Urraca had always known ultimate earthly power as
her birthright. Regardless, her authority became jeopardized during the life of
her father, who named her brother his heir and opened up the possibility of his
illegitimate children, including his daughter Teresa, sharing the fractured kingdom
with the legitimate ones. Her father unwittingly trained Urraca in strategy and
the willingness to fight for her rights.
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| Statue of Alfonso I of Aragón in Zaragoza (WikiMedia Commons) |
Alfonso I of Aragón, known as “the Warrior,” proved the validity
of his nickname in battle and also in this marriage. He was well over 30 when
the nuptial negotiations began and had been the King of Aragon for five years
when the wedding took place. His agenda revolved around the taking and keeping
of cities and power, occupations in which women did not play a role. Alfonso’s inured
bachelor ways left him unprepared for Urraca’s refusal to play a subordinate
role to his imperial ambitions.
The fireworks began when Urraca’s father came up with the
mere idea of getting Urraca and Alfonso I together. In spite of the obvious
advantages such a union would have against the Almoravid threat from the south,
many local nobles feared the eastward shift in power. They were also anxious to
unite their own families with the Castilian royal line. The marriage
negotiations, which took place over the protests of Castilian and French nobles
in addition to Urraca herself, became protracted beyond the death of Urraca’s
father. Once Urraca was Queen, any new marriage could disenfranchise her
ability to assure her children’s inheritance. Pure enjoyment of the privileges
of widowhood may have been her chief reservation about Alfonso I.
Swayed by a sense of duty to her father’s wishes, Urraca
married Alfonso in 1109 at the castle of Monzón de Campos. Alfonso wasted no
time in titling himself Emperor of Spain and naming his Aragonese nobles to high
positions all over the Christian part of the Iberian Peninsula. The Galician
nobles declared a rebellion when they insisted Urraca’s son was the rightful
inheritor to their kingdom. Alfonso responded with military action and
established control against Galician troops at Monterroso Castle in 1110.
This military action was only a prelude to the unrest and
all-out civil war the marriage would provoke for the next few years. It seems
that Urraca and Alfonso had an explosive case of negative chemistry. Two
factions developed at court, each one in support of one spouse against the
other. Urraca quickly achieved an annulment from Pope Paschal II on the basis
that she and Alfonso were second cousins. She also cited abuses, tyranny,
removing bishops from their dioceses and planning the death of her son. Urraca
had already put some geographical distance between herself and Alfonso, but he
refused to accept the annulment. When he learned that she had been carrying on
an affair with Gómez González, an important count at her court, Alfonso had
Urraca imprisoned and used all his military might to take over as many cities
that supported her as he could, deposing more bishops and archbishops as he
went.
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| Urraca as Queen (WikiMedia Commons) |
Gómez González, with the help of the Queen’s supporters,
freed her from Alfonso’s prison and took her to Candespina, where they thought
she would be safe. Alfonso could not allow such an affront to his power. In October 1111, with support from Urraca’s illegitimate
half-sister Teresa, he won the Battle of Candespina, which Gómez González did
not survive.
The emotional blow of losing her lover did no harm to
Urraca’s strategic thinking. Teresa attempted to use the victory as a
bargaining chip, but Urraca hated her more than she hated Alfonso. She agreed
to reconcile with her husband as long as he forced Teresa to stay within her
own lands in Galicia.
With disregard for Alfonso’s wishes, Urraca then proceeded
to proclaim her son from her first marriage King of Galicia. The entire year of
1112 was a succession of confrontation and reconciliation in words and deeds,
including the battles of Astorga and Carrión de los Condes. In 1113, the Queen
besieged Burgos, the most Castilian of cities. Although his military prowess
could have won the city for Alfonso, he understood that with only the support
of his Aragonese and Navarrese nobles, he wouldn’t be able to make this empire
work in any practical way. He finally accepted the annulment in 1114, making it
official at a council in Palencia and returning to Aragón.
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| Urraca's royal signature |
Urraca never married again, preferring to keep the company
of powerful men without being under their thumbs. The union of Castile and
Aragón would have to wait for a different kind of spark.
The definitive work in English about Urraca’s reign is
Bernard F. Reilly’s The Kingdom of
León-Castilla under Queen Urraca, 1109–1126.
A driven fiction writer, Jessica Knauss has edited many fine historical novels. Find out more about her historical novel, Seven Noble Knights, and her other writing and bookish activities here. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter, too!
