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Birth:          ABT 1082 Burgos, Castile
Death:          8 Mar 1126 Saldana, Palencia, Spain
Burial:         Leon

Notes
heiress of Castile and Leon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urraca_of_Le%C3%B3n
Urraca (April 1079 – 8 March 1126) called the Reckless (la Temeraria),[1] was Queen 
of León, Castile, and Galicia from 1109 until her death in childbirth. She claimed the 
imperial title as suo jure Empress of All the Spains[2] and Empress of All Galicia.[3]
Life[edit]

Early years[edit]

Born in Burgos, Urraca was the eldest and only surviving child of Alfonso VI of León 
with his second wife Constance of Burgundy; for this, she was heir presumptive of the 
Kingdoms of Castile and León until 1107, when her father recognized his illegitimate 
son Sancho as his heir.

Urraca’s place in the line of succession made her the focus of dynastic politics, and 
she became a child bride at age eight (1087) to Raymond of Burgundy, a mercenary 
adventurer.[4] Urraca's marriage to Raymond was part of Alfonso VI's diplomatic 
strategy to attract cross-Pyrenees alliances. Author Bernard F. Reilly suggests that, 
rather than a betrothal, the eight-year-old Urraca was fully wedded to Raymond of 
Burgundy, as he almost immediately appears in protocol documents as Alfonso VI's 
son-in-law, a distinction that would not have been made without the marriage. Reilly 
doubts that the marriage was consummated until Urraca was 13, as she was placed 
under the protective guardianship of a trusted magnate. Her pregnancy and stillbirth at 
age 14 suggest that the marriage was indeed consummated when she was 13 or 14 
years old.

In addition to this stillborn child, Urraca gave birth to two more children by Raymond: 
a daughter, Sancha Raimúndez (born before 11 November 1095 and after 1102) and a 
son, Alfonso Raimúndez, who would become Alfonso VII (born 1 March 1105). 
Raymond died in 1107, leaving Urraca a widow with two small children.

Urraca became again an heir presumptive after the death of her half-brother Sancho 
at the Battle of Uclés in 1108. Alfonso VI reunited the nobles of the Kingdom in 
Toledo and announced that his widowed daughter was the chosen one to succeeded 
him. The nobles agreed with the royal designation but demanded that Urraca should 
marry again. Several candidates for the hand of the heiress to the thrones of León and 
Castile appeared immediately, including counts Gómez González and Pedro González 
de Lara. Alfonso VI feared that the rivalries between Castilian and Leonese nobles 
would be increased if she married any of these suitors and decided that his daughter 
should wed Alfonso I of Aragon, known as the Battler, opening the opportunity for 
uniting León-Castile with Aragon.

Reign[edit]

Marriage negotiations were still underway when Alfonso VI died on 29 June/1 July 
1109 and Urraca became queen. Many of Alfonso VI’s advisers and leading magnates 
in the kingdom formed a “quiet opposition” to the marriage of the queen to the King of 
Aragon. According to Bernard F. Reilly, these magnates feared the influence the King 
of Aragon might attempt to wield over Urraca and over Leonese politics.

Urraca protested against the marriage but honoured her late father's wishes (and the 
Royal Council's advice) and continued with the marriage negotiations, though she and 
her father’s closest advisers were growing weary of Alfonso I's demands. Despite the 
advisers' opposition, the prospect of Count Henry of Portugal filling any power vacuum 
led them to go ahead with the marriage which took place in early October 1109 at the 
Castle of Monzón de Campos, with the major of the fortress, Pedro Ansúrez, acting as 
godfather of the wedding. As events unfolded, these advisers underestimated Urraca's 
political prowess, and later advised her to end the marriage.

The marriage of Urraca and Alfonso I almost immediately sparked rebellions in Galicia
[5] and scheming by her illegitimate half-sister Theresa and brother-in-law Henry, the 
Countess and Count of Portugal. Also, they believed that the new marriage of Urraca 
could put in jeopardy the rights of the son of her first marriage, Alfonso Raimúndez. 
One of the first acts of the new spouses was to sign a pact under which the monarchs 
granted to each other soberana potestas over the other's kingdom, declaring heir of 
both their future children, and in the case that the union was childless, the surviving 
spouse would succeed the other one in the throne. From the start, the Galician faction 
was divided in two tendencies: one headed by Diego Gelmírez, Archbishop of 
Santiago de Compostela (who defended the position of Alfonso Raimúndez as Urraca's 
successor) and another led by Count Pedro Fróilaz de Traba, tutor of the young prince 
(who was inclined to the complete independence of Galicia under the rule of Alfonso).

A third group of opposition to the royal marriage was at the court and was headed by 
Count Gómez González, whose motivation against Urraca and Alfonso I of Aragon 
could have been his fear of losing power, a sensation soon confirmed when Alfonso I 
appointed Aragonese and Navarrese nobles for important public posts and as holders 
of fortresses.

From Galicia, the count of Traba began the first aggressive movement against the 
monarchs reclaiming the hereditary rights of Alfonso Raimúndez. In response to the 
Galician rebellion, Alfonso I of Aragon marched with his army to Galicia and in 1110, 
reestablished the order there after defeating the local troops in Monterroso Castle.

The Galician rebellion against the royal power was only the beginning of a series of 
political and military conflicts which, with the complete opposite personalities of 
Urraca and Alfonso I and their mutual dislike, gave rise to a continuous civil war in the 
Hispanic kingdoms over the following years.

As their relationship soured, Urraca accused Alfonso of physical abuse, and by May 
1110 she separated from Alfonso. In addition to her objections to Alfonso's handling of 
rebels, the couple had a falling-out over his execution of one of the rebels who had 
surrendered to the queen, to whom the queen was inclined to be merciful. Additionally, 
as Urraca was married to someone many in the kingdom objected to, the queen's son 
and heir became a rallying point for opponents to the marriage.

Estrangement between husband and wife escalated from discrete and simmering 
hostilities into open armed warfare between the Leonese-Castilians and the 
Aragonese. An alliance between Alfonso of Aragon and Henry of Portugal culminated 
in the 1111 Battle of Candespina in which Urraca's lover and chief supporter Gómez 
González was killed. He was soon replaced in both roles by another count, Pedro 
González de Lara, who took up the fight and would father at least two further children 
by Urraca: a daughter, Elvira Pérez de Lara (c.1112-1174), who would wed twice, first 
to García Pérez de Traba, lord of Trastámara and son of Pedro Fróilaz de Traba, then 
to count Beltrán de Risnel, and a son, Fernando Pérez Hurtado (c.1114-1156). By the 
fall of 1112 a truce was brokered between Urraca and Alfonso with their marriage 
annulled. Though Urraca recovered Asturias, Leon, and Galicia, Alfonso occupied a 
significant portion of Castile (where Urraca enjoyed large support), while her half-sister 
Theresa and her husband Count Henry of Portugal occupied Zamora and Extremadura. 
Recovering these regions and expanding into Muslim lands would occupy much of 
Urraca's foreign policy.

According to author Bernard F. Reilly, the measure of success for Urraca’s rule was 
her ability to restore and protect the integrity of her inheritance – that is, the kingdom 
of her father – and transmit that inheritance in full to her own heir. Policies and events 
pursued by Alfonso VI – namely legitimizing her brother and thereby providing an 
opportunity for her illegitimate half-sister to claim a portion of the patrimony, as well as 
the forced marriage with Alfonso I of Aragon – contributed in large part to the 
challenges Urraca faced upon her succession. Additionally, the circumstance of 
Urraca’s gender added a distinctive role-reversal dimension to diplomacy and politics, 
which Urraca used to her advantage.

Character[edit]

Urraca is characterized in the Historia Compostelana as prudent, modest, and with 
good sense. According to Reilly, the Historia Compostelana also attributes her 
"failings" to her gender, "the weakness and changeability of women, feminine 
perversity, and calls her a Jezebel" for her liaisons with her leading magnates, with at 
least one relationship producing an illegitimate son. These observations were hardly 
neutral or dispassionate, according to Reilly, who wrote: "[T]here is no question that 
the queen is in control, perhaps all too much in control, of events." Urraca's use of 
sex in politics should be viewed more as a strategy that provided the queen with allies 
but without any masters.

Death and legacy[edit]

As queen, Urraca rose to the challenges presented to her and her solutions were 
pragmatic ones, according to Reilly, and laid the foundation for the reign of her son 
Alfonso VII, who in spite of the opposition of Urraca's lover Pedro González de Lara 
succeeded to the throne of a kingdom whole and at peace at Urraca’s death in 1126.

Parents
____ Alfonso VI "The Valiant" (BEF Jun 1040 - 1 Jul 1109)
OF BURGUNDY Constance (8 May 1046 - 1093)

Siblings
ALFONSEZ OF CASTILE AND LEON Urraca (ABT 1082 - 8 Mar 1126)

Marriage To DE BOURGOGNE Raymond (ABT 1070 - 24 May 1107)
    m. 1087 Toledo

Notes

Parents
DE BOURGOGNE William (Guillaume) I "the Great" (1020 - 12 Nov 1087)
DE LONGWY Stephanie (ABT 1035 - AFT 1088)

Children by DE BOURGOGNE Raymond ABT 1070 - 24 May 1107
____ Alfonso VII "Pierre-Raimund" (1 Mar 1105 - 21 Aug 1157)

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