Urraca of Castile 1
General Notes: Urraca , d. 1126, Spanish queen of Castile and León (1109-26), daughter and successor of Alfonso VI. Her first husband, Raymond of Burgundy, died in 1107, and in 1109 she was married to Alfonso I of Aragón. Her reign was disturbed by strife among the powerful nobles and especially by recurrent warfare with her husband, who had seized her lands. The marriage was annulled in 1114, and Urraca recovered most of her lands with the help of her son by her first husband. He succeeded her as Alfonso VII. 2 Noted events in her life were: • Acceded: Queen of Castile and León, 1109. Urraca married Raymond of Burgundy, son of William I of Burgundy and Etienette de Longwy, in 1087 in Toledo. (Raymond of Burgundy died on 24 May 1107 in Grajal.) Urraca next married Alfonso I of Aragón, son of Sancho I of Aragon and Felicitas of Roucy, in Oct 1109 in Monzón, Spain. (Alfonso I of Aragón was born circa 1073 and died in 1134.) Marriage Notes: The most personal note we have of Alfonso comes from the Muslim historian Ibn al-Athir, who relates that once, asked about his failure to take concubines, Alfonso responded that a real soldier lives with men, not women." The remark has the ring of truth to it. Certainly Alfonso had not been married before his luckless match with Urraca in the fall of 1109. He was probably thirty-six at that time to his bride's twenty-nine. After his definitive separation from her, he would never attempt marriage again, dying childless in 1134. 3 Urraca next had a relationship with Pedro González de Lara. Marriage Notes: Besides her two legitimate children by Raymond of Burgundy, Urraca also had an illegitimate son by her lover, Pedro González de Lara. She recognized their son, Fernando Perez Furtado, in 1123. |