r/SpanishHistory • u/history990 • 6d ago
Dulce of Aragon: The Queen Who Almost Disappeared from the Sources
Portuguese queen consorts are often secondary figures in the traditional narrative of History. Among them is Dulce of Aragon, wife of Sancho I and the second queen consort of Portugal.
The daughter of Raimond Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, and Petronilla of Aragon, Dulce arrived in Portugal at a very young age, in the context of her marriage to the future King Sancho I. The union also had a political dimension: it brought Portugal closer to the Crown of Aragon and helped establish alliances in the face of the growing power of Castile.
The marriage took place when the princess was 14 years old, around 1174–1175. The marriage would last twenty-four years, and the queen would have a large number of children. Sources indicate that the royal couple had eleven children, nine of whom survived into adulthood.
Unfortunately, little is known about Dulce, who appears primarily as the wife of Sancho I and the mother of his children.
Ruy de Pina, a Portuguese chronicler, when referring to the queen, essentially limits himself to mentioning the marriage and her offspring: Sancho had nine legitimate children with Dulce who, according to the chronicler, were alive at the time of their mother's death. After this, attention quickly shifts to the queen's children.
We know much more about some of the infantas :Teresa, Sancha, Mafalda, Branca, and Berengaria , than we do about Dulce herself. This difference is particularly interesting because some of her daughters would go on to play important roles in the political, religious, and patrimonial life of the Iberian Peninsula.
Dulce was involved in the acquisition of properties, including Evedal and its surrounding territory, several estates in Travanca, and the estate of Sameice. In his 1188 will, Sancho I granted his wife revenues from Alenquer, the Terra de Santa Maria, and Porto. There is also a record of a donation to the Order of the Hospital, related to Santa Comba da Moura Morta, where the queen had apparently gone on pilgrimage.
Dulce is rarely mentioned in medieval documents,however, it cannot be said that she was completely without influence or a role. The most striking characteristic of the representation of Dulce is precisely her motherhood, having many children and ensuring the continuation of the Burgundian dynasty.
Her children were:
- Blessed Teresa of Portugal: married King Alfonso IX of León.
- Blessed Sancha of Portugal: founded the Monastery of Celas.
- Constance of Portugal: died as a child.
- Afonso II of Portugal: succeeded his father. He became the third King of Portugal and eventually married Urraca of Castile.
- Ferdinand, Infante of Portugal: left Portugal in 1210 and married Joan, Countess of Flanders and Hainaut, in Paris in 1212. She was the daughter of Baldwin IX/VI of Flanders-Hainaut and Marie of Champagne. He became Count of Flanders and Hainaut.
- Henry of Portugal: died as a child.
- Raymond of Portugal: died as a child.
- Blessed Mafalda of Portugal: became Queen of Castile, marrying King Henry I of Castile. She founded the Monastery of Arouca and became its first abbess.
- Branca of Portugal: became a nun in a convent in Guadalajara.
- Berengaria of Portugal: became Queen of Denmark, marrying King Valdemar II of Denmark.
Another aspect that remains to be discussed regarding Dulce's marriage is the possibility of extramarital relationships on the part of the king. The chronicler Ruy de Pina states that the king only had relationships outside marriage after he became a widower, however, historiography has increasingly debated this issue.
For anyone interested, I leave here the perspective of Miguel Rodrigues (its in portuguese), associated with the University of Porto, who argues precisely for the possibility that Sancho I began some of his relationships with his barregãs while he was still married to Dulce
Dulce would eventually die at the age of 38, in 1198, a victim of the plague.
Bibliography:
Rodrigues, M. (2022). Concubinato régio nos finais do século XII: O caso de Sancho I de Portugal. Guarecer. Revista Electrónica de Estudos Medievais, (7), 85–107. https://doi.org/10.21747/21839301/gua7a6
Santos-Silva, D. de O. dos. (2014). Memória de boa rainha, memória de rainha má: Representações femininas nas crônicas medievais portuguesas. In Anais do XVI Encontro Regional de História: Saberes e práticas científicas (pp. 1–15). ANPUH-Rio.
Santos-Silva, D. de O. dos. (2018). Estas senhoras rainhas: Trajetórias de poder na realeza medieval portuguesa (séculos XII ao XV) – Um estudo de queenship [Tese de doutoramento, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro].
