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Sancho III of Castile
| Sancho III of Castile | |
|---|---|
.png) Sancho III of Castile in a miniature from the Compendio de crónicas de reyes in the National Library of Spain | |
| King of Castile | |
| Reign | 21 August 1157 – 31 August 1158 |
| Predecessor | Alfonso VII |
| Successor | Alfonso VIII |
| Born | 1133 or 1134[1] Toledo |
| Died | 31 August 1158[2] Toledo |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Blanche Garcés of Navarre |
| Issue | Alfonso VIII |
| House | House of Burgundy |
| Father | Alfonso VII of León |
| Mother | Berenguela of Barcelona |
Sancho III of Castile, called "the Desired" (Toledo, 1133 or 1134[1] – ibid., 31 August 1158),[2] was King of Castile from 21 August 1157 until his death one year later, when he was succeeded by his son Alfonso.
After his death a struggle for power broke out in the Kingdom of Castile between the House of Lara and the House of Castro.
Family origins
He was the son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and of Queen Berenguela of Barcelona. His paternal grandparents were Queen Urraca I of León and Count Raymond of Burgundy, and his maternal grandparents were Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and his wife Countess Douce of Provence. He was the brother of Ferdinand II of León. He was raised and nursed by María de Lezama, wife of Rodrigo Pérez, both natives of Santiago del Val, to whom King Alfonso VII granted the town of Villasilos on 24 November 1137 in gratitude.[3]
Biography
On the death of his father he inherited the Kingdom of Castile, while his brother, Ferdinand II, inherited the Kingdom of León. The division of the two kingdoms between the two sons of Alfonso VII did not lead to conflict between the brothers owing to the intervention of their half-sister Sancha of Castile, wife of the King of Aragon Alfonso II, who intervened in the dispute so that both would respect the territorial limits of each kingdom.
On 30 January 1151 he married, in the city of Calahorra, Blanche Garcés, daughter of King García Ramírez of Pamplona and of Margaret of L'Aigle. From the King's only marriage was born, in 1155, the Infante Alfonso, who inherited the throne of Castile upon the death of his father in 1158.
In 1158 he contributed to the creation of the Order of Calatrava when the Templars refused to continue defending the frontier stronghold of Calatrava, which had been granted to them by Alfonso VII in 1147. Sancho III then handed over the tenancy and the lordship of Calatrava to Abbot Raymond of Fitero and to the knight Diego Velázquez, who founded the Order of Calatrava.
Following his father's policy, he succeeded in having his brother-in-law King Sancho VI of Navarre, in 1157, and the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer IV, in 1158, pay homage to him and declare themselves his vassals in the Agreement of Serón de Nágima (1158). That same year he invaded the kingdom of his brother Ferdinand II of León, but did not come to blows with him, since both monarchs sealed an agreement, known as the Treaty of Sahagún, which was signed on 23 May 1158.
Sancho III undertook to return to his brother the King of León the frontier lands between the two kingdoms that he had conquered, on condition that these be given as lordships to Leonese nobles close to the Castilian King. They also agreed to lend each other mutual aid against third parties, divided between themselves the zones of influence over the Muslim territories not yet conquered, and established that if either of them died without issue, the kingdom of the deceased would be inherited by the surviving brother.
The death of Sancho III of Castile, which occurred in the city of Toledo on 31 August 1158,[2] invalidated the Treaty of Sahagún that the late king had signed with his brother. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Alfonso, then a minor, which gave rise to a struggle for power in the Kingdom of Castile between the House of Lara and the House of Castro.
Burial
After his death in the City of Toledo, the body of King Sancho III was buried in the Main Chapel of the Cathedral of Toledo, where his father, Alfonso VII of León, had been buried. Decades later, King Sancho IV of Castile ordered the construction, inside the Cathedral of Toledo, of the Chapel of the Holy Cross, to which on 21 November 1289 the remains of the kings Alfonso VII, Sancho III and Sancho II of Portugal, who had been buried in the chapel of the Holy Spirit of the cathedral, were transferred.[4] Later, in 1295, Sancho IV of Castile was buried in the Cathedral of Toledo, in a tomb placed next to the one containing the remains of Alfonso VII and near that of Sancho III.
At the end of the 15th century, Cardinal Cisneros ordered the construction of the present main chapel of the Cathedral of Toledo, on the site occupied by the chapel of the Holy Cross. Once the consent of the Catholic Monarchs had been obtained, the chapel of the Holy Cross was demolished, and the remains of the kings buried there were transferred to the tombs that Cardinal Cisneros commissioned from the sculptor Diego Copín de Holanda, which were placed in the new presbytery of the Toledo cathedral. Owing to the new placement of the royal mausoleums, Sancho III shared a mausoleum, on the Epistle side of the presbytery, with Sancho IV of Castile. The recumbent statue representing Sancho IV, placed below the one representing Sancho III, represents Sancho III with a youthful appearance, his brow girded with a royal crown and his head resting on two embroidered cushions. The Monarch appears dressed in a tunic with ample folds and his hands are crossed over his lap. The chest of the tomb is decorated with vegetal scrolls, unlike that of Sancho IV of Castile, which is decorated with the coats of arms of the Crown of Castile.[5]
In the Monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos there is a tomb in which, according to the tradition of the monastery, the remains of Sancho III the Desired rested, and this tomb was formerly placed in front of the one attributed to his father, Alfonso VII of León.[6] However, neither Sancho III nor his father was buried in these tombs, since those buried in them were the Infante Ferdinand de la Cerda, son of Alfonso X, and his firstborn son Alfonso de la Cerda; moreover, these tombs are decorated with the coats of arms of the Infante Ferdinand de la Cerda and of his son.[lower-alpha 1]
Marriage and issue
He married on 30 January 1151 in Calahorra. From his marriage to Blanche Garcés of Pamplona, daughter of King García Ramírez, three children were born:
- A son (1153/54–1153/55).[lower-alpha 2]
- Alfonso VIII of Castile (1155–1214).[8] He inherited the throne of Castile on the death of his father and during his reign fought his cousin Alfonso IX of León and the Almohads, whom he defeated at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, fought in 1212. He died in 1214 and was buried in the Monastery of Las Huelgas of Burgos, which he had founded.
- Infante García of Castile (1156–1156). He was buried in the monastery of San Pedro de Soria.
However, other sources state that Sancho III had only one son, the Infante Alfonso, who would succeed him on the throne, and after whose birth his mother, Queen Blanche Garcés of Navarre, died.[lower-alpha 3]
Ancestry
Ancestors of Sancho III of Castile
- Sancho III of Castile
- Alfonso VII of León
- Berenguela of Barcelona
- Raymond of Burgundy
- Urraca I of León
- Ramon Berenguer III
- Douce of Provence
- William I of Burgundy
- Stephanie of Vienne
- Alfonso VI of León
- Constance of Burgundy
- Ramon Berenguer II of Barcelona
- Mafalda of Apulia
- Gilbert I of Gévaudan
- Gerberga of Provence
- Reginald I of Burgundy
- Adelaide of Normandy
- Gerard of Vienne
- Ferdinand I of Castile
- Sancha of León
- Robert I of Burgundy
- Hélie de Semur
- Ramon Berenguer I
- Almodis de la Marche
- Robert Guiscard
- Sichelgaita
- Berenguer II of Rodez
- Adela of Carlat
- Geoffrey I of Provence
- Stephanie of Marseille
Notes
- ↑ "The tradition of the monastery of Las Huelgas of Burgos attributes to this king a tomb in the nave of Saint Catherine, located in front of another that is assigned to Alfonso VII. But these are false attributions, for neither the father nor the son was transferred there; rather, they lie in the Cathedral of Toledo."[6]
- ↑ Szabolcs de Vajay refers to a donation by King Alfonso VIII to the Monastery of San Pedro de Soria, where "sepultura regum fratrum meorum...adornari cognosco", indicating that the king had more than one brother. If this is correct, the chronology dictates that he must have been born before King Alfonso VIII.[7]
- ↑ "Alfonso was born on 11 November 1155; according to the Marquis of Mondéjar, at the end of July or the beginning of August 1156. The birth cost the mother her life, for she died as a result, one year before the emperor her father-in-law."[9]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 González González 1960, p. 137.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 González González 1960, p. 147.
- ↑ Reglero de la Fuente 2005, p. 403.
- ↑ Rivera Recio 1985, p. 128.
- ↑ Elorza et al. 1990, pp. 56, 61.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Arco y Garay 1954, p. 241.
- ↑ González González 1960, p. 138, n. 81.
- ↑ González González 1960, p. 144.
- ↑ Arco y Garay 1954, p. 239.
Bibliography
- Arco y Garay, Ricardo (1954). Sepulcros de la Casa Real de Castilla (in español). Instituto Jerónimo Zurita. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. OCLC 11366237.
- Elorza, Juan C.; Vaquero, Lourdes; Castillo, Belén; Negro, Marta (1990). Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Bienestar Social (ed.). El Panteón Real de las Huelgas de Burgos. Los enterramientos de los reyes de León y de Castilla (in español) (2nd ed.). Valladolid: Editorial Evergráficas S.A. ISBN 84-241-9999-5.
- González González, Julio (1960). El reino de Castilla en la época de Alfonso VIII (in español). Vol. 3 vol. Madrid: CSIC. p. 1080.
- Pérez González, Maurilio (1997). Crónica del Emperador Alfonso VII (in español). León: Universidad de León, Secretariado de Publicaciones. ISBN 84-7719-601-X.
- Reglero de la Fuente, Carlos M. (2005). El Monasterio de San Isidro de Dueñas en la Edad Media, Un priorato cluniacense Hispano (911-1478), Estudio y colección documental (in español). León: Caja España de Inversiones y Archivo Histórico Diocesano de León. ISBN 84-87667-71-6.
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