Berenguela (arras)

Who he is

Name

Berenguela of Castile (Berenguela de Castilla)

Title

Queen of León

Since

Marriage at Valladolid, late 1197; arras charter, Palencia, 8 December 1199

Born

1179 or 1180, about 20

Family

Eldest daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England; granddaughter of Henry II of England. Daughter Leonor (1198/99) with her; Constanza born during 1200; Ferdinand probably 1201.

Confidence

medium

Arras terms from the Tratado de Cabreros article's summary of the 1199 charter and from the Fernando Núñez de Lara article (the Asturian castles).

Overlord

Alfonso IX; the surety castles answer to Alfonso VIII

What it holds

• The towers (fortifications) of León, Astorga and Valencia de Don Juan (Coyanza)
• About thirty royal castles in León, Galicia and Asturias. Asturias: Aguilar, Gozón, Ventosa, Buanga, Oviedo, Santa Cruz de Tineo and Tudela, held for her by Fernando Núñez de Lara (see Lara in Asturias). Galicia: names not pinned (the online summary gives garbled forms: San Pelagio de Barro, Aguiar da Moa, Alba de Búval, Canderrei, Aguiar de Pedraio)
• Her dowry from Alfonso VIII: the Leonese places he took in 1196-97 (Valencia de Don Juan, Mayorga, Castroverde de Campos, Ardón; Alba de Tormes, Barruecopardo, Bolaños de Campos, Paradinas de San Juan, Carpio de Azaba, Monreal, Alpalio). Which of these she actually held on 1 January 1200 is not pinned
• Not hers but bound to her arras: ten castles pledged by Alfonso IX to Alfonso VIII as surety (names not pinned; probably those Alfonso VIII still held in 1206: Monreal, El Carpio, Valderas, Bolaños de Campos, Villafrechós, Castrotierra de Valmadrigal, Almanza, Siero in Asturias, Siero de Riaño)

How it was acquired

Arras charter of Palencia, 8 December 1199, completing the marriage settlement of 1197.

Allies and rivals

Her father Alfonso VIII is her guarantor and the holder of the surety castles. Her husband needs the marriage for peace. Innocent III wants the marriage ended. Castellans sworn to her include Leonese knights and at least one Castilian magnate (Fernando Núñez de Lara).

How things stand that morning

On 1 January 1200 the castellans have just done, or are doing, homage to the queen; the surety castles are in Castilian hands. The arrangement is fresh and untested.

Wealth

The rents, tolls and services of the castles and their districts; the dowry towns.

Military

No household force of her own is recorded; the castles are held by their castellans; twelve knights, her vassals but Leonese, guard the dowry under the charter.

Threats

• A papal separation, which would hand Alfonso IX's arras castles to Castilian control
• Alfonso IX wanting the castles back
• Leonese magnates resenting Castilians in Leonese castles

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. During 1200Birth of Constanza.Depends on: The pregnancy and the marriage Stopped by: Separation or death

Later, on the likely course

1. May 1204 (later)She leaves León for Castile, keeping her lands; in 1206 she makes over Salamanca, Castroverde and the dowry castles to her son Ferdinand.Depends on: The separation Rome demands Stopped by: A dispensation

Places of note

• Towers of León: Arras of 8 December 1199
• Tower of Astorga: Arras of 8 December 1199
• Towers of Coyanza: Arras of 8 December 1199; taken by Alfonso VIII in 1196
• Castle of Oviedo: Arras castle held for her by Fernando Núñez de Lara
• Castroverde de Campos: Taken by Alfonso VIII 1196; dowry; hers by 1206 (holder in 1200 not pinned)
• Ardón: Taken by Alfonso VIII 1196; dowry (not pinned)
• Paradinas de San Juan: Taken by Alfonso VIII 1196; dowry (not pinned)
• Barruecopardo: Taken by Alfonso VIII 1196; dowry (not pinned)
• Cabreros del Monte: Hers by 1206, when she gave it to her son; not pinned for 1200

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The arras charter is well known (Julio González printed it) but we reached only a summary: the Galician castle names are garbled and the ten surety castles are unnamed.

On the map: The arras towers stand in towns that keep their own records, so they are points. The pledged parts are an inference from the 1206 list; 'Monreal' could not be located and is left off.

Primary sources for León

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Toledo and other short Iberian annals (12th and 13th centuries; Anales Toledanos I to 1219). Florez's volume 23 gathers the short annals of the peninsula. Read online
• Chronicle of the World (Lucas of Tuy), Lucas de Tuy (1236, for Queen Berenguela). The Leonese counterpart to Rodrigo, written at San Isidoro for Berenguela. Read online
• Historical Monuments of Portugal: Writers (Annals of King Afonso, Chronicon Conimbricense, Chronica Gothorum and others) (12th to 15th centuries). The Portuguese annals in one volume. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• History of the Affairs of Spain, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (completed 1243). The archbishop's history of the peninsula, written forty years on by a Navarrese who served Castile. Read online
• The Gift of the Imamate, Ibn Sahib al-Sala (Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Baji) (late twelfth century; the surviving part covers 1159 to 1173). The only Almohad court chronicle written from inside the administration, by a chancery secretary who travelled with the caliphs Abd al-Mu'min and Abu Yaqub Yusuf.

5 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.