Sancho Alfónsez
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Sancho Alfónsez (or Adefónsez) (c. 1093 – 29 May 1108) was the only son of King Alfonso VI of Castile and León; his mother was the Moorish princess Zaida. Alfonso's heir from May 1107, he eventually co-ruled from Toledo. He predeceased his father, being killed while trying to escape the field of the Battle of Uclés. His death, on his first recorded military expedition, precipitated a succession crisis that ended with the accession of his elder half-sister Urraca and her husband,
Alfonso the Battler Alfonso I (7 September 1134), called the Battler or the Warrior (), was King of Aragon and Kingdom of Navarre, Navarre from 1104 until his death in 1134. He was the second son of King Sancho Ramírez and successor of his brother Peter I of Arago ...
, already
King of Navarre This is a list of the kings and queens of kingdom of Pamplona, Pamplona, later kingdom of Navarre, Navarre. Pamplona was the primary name of the kingdom until its union with Kingdom of Aragon, Aragon (1076–1134). However, the territorial desig ...
and
Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...
, to the throne of
Kingdom of Castile The Kingdom of Castile (; : ) was a polity in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. It traces its origins to the 9th-century County of Castile (, ), as an eastern frontier lordship of the Kingdom of León. During the 10th century, the Ca ...
- León.


Childhood, to 1103

According to Pelayo of Oviedo, the
Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...
princess Zaida was the mother of Alfonso's only son, but he is confused about the origins of Zaida. She was married to Fath al-Mamun, the ruler of the ''taifa'' of Córdoba, and thus a daughter-in-law (and not a daughter, as Pelayo believed) of al-Mutamid of
Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...
. Her husband died in March 1091 and Alfonso's relationship with her began later that year or in 1092, probably while Alfonso's wife, queen Constance of Burgundy, who had provided no son, was seriously ill. Constance died in Autumn 1093. It is probable on chronological grounds that Zaida became pregnant with the ''
infante Infante (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as "infant" or translated as "prince", is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to the ...
'' in late 1092 or early 1093, or for legalistic grounds, after the death of Constance and before Alfonso's 1095 remarriage to Bertha. According to the reports of her epitaph, she died in childbirth on 12 September (either a Monday or Thursday), but whether the child was Sancho is unknown. Though illegitimate, his birth must have dashed the hopes of
Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ ...
, the Count of Galicia and son-in-law of the king, who, according to the '' Chronicon Compostellanum'', had been promised the kingdom. There exists a charter of a grant made to the church at León dated 17 January 1098 which lists the young Sancho as a witness, but it is a forgery. Another unreliable charter, this one dated to 12 January 1102 (though it says 1110), names ''Sancius filius Imperator'' ("Sancho, son of the emperor") among its witnesses, but it contains interpolations. Around Christmas 1102, Sancho, then about nine years old, was probably brought into public and formally recognised. The recognition of Sancho, which would have marked him as a potential heir, was probably supported by the powerful Leonese magnate Pedro Ansúrez, who was shortly to be exiled until after the ''infantes death, probably because his position with respect to the young Sancho had earned him the enmity of Count Raymond and Henry,
Count of Portugal The County of Portugal (Galician-Portuguese: ''Comtato de Portugalle''; referred to as Portugalia in contemporary documents) refers to two successive medieval counties in the region around Guimarães and Porto, today corresponding to litoral Nor ...
, both aspirants to the throne.


Early public life, 1103–1107

In early January 1103 a church council was held in the royal presence at Carrión de los Condes to mediate a land dispute between
Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...
and Mondoñedo. Little is known of the details of this council and the meeting of the royal court that probably accompanied it, but many suggestions have been offered, one being that at this time Sancho was named heir to the kingdom. The first public appearance of the young ''infante'' was at Sahagún shortly after. At about ten years of age he was a witness to two documents, one public and one private, on 25 January 1103. He signed as ''Sanctius infans quod pater fecit confirmo'' ("the ''infante'' Sancho, whose father made him confirm
he charter He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
). He thereafter figures more and more in royal charters. Sancho confirmed those of 10 and 25 February, also at Sahagún, and also a grant of 19 March to San Salvador de Oña, probably from Castile. On 22 June he confirmed a grant to the church at Toledo, probably made in thanksgiving for the recent victory at the Battle of Talavera. In October he was still with the court at
Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...
, where he confirmed an exchange between Raymond and the bishop. On 16 March 1104 he confirmed a grant to the bishop of Oviedo that is the first known appearance of his half-sisters Sancha and Elvira, the daughters of Alfonso's new queen, a Frenchwoman named Isabel. On 5 January 1105 a large group of Portuguese magnates, along with their count and countess, Henry and Theresa, met at Sahagún and made a donation of some Portuguese lands to the
Abbey of Cluny Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with ...
and that of San Isidro de Dueñas. Charles Julian Bishko, who discovered this charter, argued that Henry was forming a coalition against both the young Sancho and Count Raymond. This, however, presumes the absence of Alfonso from his own court. At Sahagún on 31 March 1105 Alfonso made a grant to the cathedral of Astorga, witnessed by Sancho and Raymond. Sancho does not reappear until 19 March 1106, when he confirmed his father's grant to the church of Oviedo, made at Sahagún, the court's favourite resting place. He then confirmed a private charter at Sahagún on 18 January 1107. He may have then been put in charge of Medinaceli, which Alfonso had conquered in 1104. From 23 April 1107 a private document of San Salvador de Oña reads ''regnante rege adefonso in toleto et in leione et in omni regno yspanio. Santius filius. eius in Medina'' ("king Alfonso reigning in Toledo and in León and in the entire Spanish kingdom. Sancho, his son, eigningin Medinaceli"). On 14 April he joined in a grant of his father and queen Isabel, recorded at Astorga, to the people of Riba de Tera and Valverde, ''cum uxore mea Elisabet et filio nostro Sancho'' ("with my lfonso'swife and our son Sancho").


Responsibility and death, 1107–1108

At León in early May 1107 Alfonso held a great court at which he declared Sancho his heir. On 14 May Alfonso's granted the right of coinage to the bishop of Santiago de Compostela and the grant was confirmed by Sancho, who for the first time signed as ''regnum electus patri factum'' ("made king-elect by his father"). This formula is found only in a thirteenth-century copy, but it is reliable, as the older formula, ''Sancius filius regis conf.'' ("Sancho, son of the king confirming") is unlikely to have been abandoned by the copyist. Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, followed by Bishko, redated the charter to 1105 on the basis of the '' Historia Compostelana'', a date which would lend support to the theory of a ''pacto sucessório'' (pact of succession) between Henry and Raymond in the spring of that year. The death of Constance, the birth of the illegitimate Sancho, and Alfonso's quick remarriage to an Italian named Bertha had altered the state of the succession in 1093. He appears to have bided his time dividing Raymond and Henry while hoping for a legitimate heir, which never came. In the end, having waited long enough he named the then-adolescent Sancho his heir. On 27 May 1107 Raymond died. On 30 December Alfonso confirmed all the rights and privileges granted to
Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...
, Bishop of Salamanca, by Raymond. Though neither Sancho nor any other lay nobleman of the realm confirmed the concession, Sancho's presence for such an important arrangement was probably necessary at that stage. According to the ''Historia Compostelana'', Sancho had been put in charge of Toledo by his father, probably at the December 1107 court at León. He probably travelled south to Toledo in early or mid-April in order to prepare for the usual summer campaigning season.Reilly 1988, 349. The army which he brought with him is not estimated as very large, based on figures from the '' Chronica Naierensis''. In May 1108 a large army of Moors united and attacked Uclés, which they took on 27 May, forcing the garrison back into the ''
alcázar An ''alcázar'', from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in Spain built during Al-Andalus, Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for governmental figures throughout ...
'' (citadel). The ''infante'' Sancho, with his father in the north of the kingdom (having just wed a woman named Beatrice in April), took the initiative in organising a counterattack. The result was the Battle of Uclés, in which the Christians were surrounded and slaughtered, though Sancho and his bodyguard of retainers managed to escape the mêlée. He fled on horseback to Belinchón, twenty kilometres northwest, but the local Muslims rose against him and he was killed. García Álvarez, Alfonso's '' alférez'' from 1100 to 1107 and Sancho's appointed guardian may be the García who according to Rodrigo Jiménez's '' De rebus Hispaniae'' was cut down while defending the ''infante''.Reilly 1988, 224. He died without issue.


Notes


References

*Reilly, Bernard F. 1982
''The Kingdom of León-Castilla under Queen Urraca, 1109–1126''.
Princeton: Princeton University Press. *Reilly, Bernard F. 1988

Princeton: Princeton University Press. *Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. 1992. "Contribución al estudio del reinado de Alfonso VI de Castilla: algunas aclaraciones sobre su política matrimonial." ''Anales de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía'', 2:299–336. *Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. 2007. "De nuevo sobre la mora Zaida." ''Hidalguía: la Revista de Genealogía, Nobreza y Armas''. 54:225–242. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sancho Alfonsez 1090s births 1108 deaths People of the Reconquista Leonese infantes Castilian infantes Illegitimate children of Alfonso VI Sons of emperors Sons of kings Heirs apparent who never acceded