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Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400 pp 247–270Cite as

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Unexceptional Women: Power, Authority, and Queenship in Early Portugal

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Abstract

Historiographic assessments of queens as exceptional have particularly hindered understanding of royal daughters, designated queens, who played a very particular role in the function and legitimacy of the Portuguese monarchy in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The essay explains the adoption of the identity of “queen” by the first ruler of Portugal, Teresa, and then examines the function of the queenship of her female descendants in the courts of Afonso Henriques and Sancho I.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Maria João Violante Branco, “The King’s Counsellors’ Two Faces: A Portuguese Perspective,” in the Medieval World, ed. Peter Linehan and Janet L. Nelson (London: Routledge, 2001), 518.

  2. 2.

    Bernard F. Reilly, TheKingdom of León-Castilla Under Queen Urraca 1109–1126 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982); Miriam Shadis, Berenguela of Castile (1180–1246) and Political Women in the High Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); and Peggy K. Liss, Isabel the Queen, Rev. ed. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

  3. 3.

    Lucy K. Pick, Her Father’s Daughter: Gender Power, and Religion in the Early Spanish Kingdoms (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017), 151.

  4. 4.

    Pick, Her Father’s Daughter, 230.

  5. 5.

    Pick, Her Father’s Daughter, 228.

  6. 6.

    For example, in Sancha’s 1155 donation to Eslonza, she describes herself “Ego Sancha regina comitis Raimundi et Vrrache regine regia proles facio kartam donacionis…” Colleción Documental de la Infanta Doña Sancha, ed. M. Encarnación Martín López (León: Archivo Histórico Diocesano, 2003), Doc. 73.

  7. 7.

    Pick, Her Father’s Daughter, 232.

  8. 8.

    For example, in 1197: “conjugia mea nomine Tarasia prolis Adefonsi Principis totius Spanie.” Documentos Medievais Portugueses, ed. Rui Pinto de Azevedo (Lisbon: Academic Portuguesa da Historia, 1958), 1:4. Hereafter DMP-R.

  9. 9.

    DMP-R no. 5, in 1097: “Henricus comes Portugalensis et coniux mea Tarasia hoc factum et damus et confirmamus…”

  10. 10.

    Portugaliae Monumenta Historica, Leges et Consuetudines (Lisbon: Typis Academicis, 1863), 1:354, Foro for Tentugal (1108). “Ego comes Hanricus una cum uxore mea formosissima Tarasia comitissa filia regis domni Adefonsi… Similter et ego supra dicta dulcissima Tarasia predicti regis filia manu propria quicquid supra scriptum est confirmo.” Hereafter PMH. See DMP-R, appendix XIII. Because of diplomatic irregularities, Bernard Reilly urges caution in using this foro. Bernard Reilly, The Kingdom of León-Castilla Under King Alfonso VI 1065–1109 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 357, 9.

  11. 11.

    Reilly, Alfonso VI, 328.

  12. 12.

    DMP-R 40. “Imperante Portugalis regine Tarasie” “Ego Taresie infans… rovoro…”

  13. 13.

    DMP-R 46, “Ego regine Tarasia de Portugal regis Ildefonsis filium [sic]” and Stephen Lay, The Reconquest Kings of Portugal (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 63.

  14. 14.

    DMP-R 49. “ego infant domna Tarasia regina de Portugal…” repeated in the confirmation as well.

  15. 15.

    DMP-R, 2:572, Footnote 10 in Chapter 1. He compared this to an as yet unpublished charter from December 29, 1118, which noted “Regnantes principe nostre regina Tarasia Portugalese.”

  16. 16.

    Lay, Reconquest Kings, 56. DMP-R 31 (undated).

  17. 17.

    DMP-R 32. “Ego Tarasia regina de Portugele filia Adefonsi regis imperator totjus Ispanie…” Reilly, Urraca, 118.

  18. 18.

    “Regnante regina domna Urracha cum filio meo in Legione, Alfonso [sic] et Toletto, et regina domna Tharesia in Portugal.” Irene Ruiz Albi, ed., La reina doña Urraca (1109–1126) Cancillería y colección diplomática (León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro, 2003), 96.

  19. 19.

    DMP-R, 52 “Ego regina Tarsia humilis Christi filia gratia Dei in sublimitatis culmine electa et eius misericordia magna dignitatis gloria et honore sublimate serenissima domini Adefonsi regis magni filia simul cum filiis meis il.”

  20. 20.

    Azevedo cites a charter, noted above, from 1118 in which Teresa was referred to as “principe nostre regina;” an earlier charter from 1105 recording a boundary settlement between the monastery of Lorvão and the inhabitants of Vila Cova noted that the suit was brought before “regina domna Tarasia et el comde Herrici.” DMP-Particulares 181.

  21. 21.

    “Portugalensis regine uel barones eius…” Carl Erdmann, Papsturkunden in Portugal (Berlin, 1927; digitized by Mattias Witzleb, Göttingen, 2009), 18.

  22. 22.

    “T. reginae et baronibus eius…” Erdmann, Papsturkunden, Footnotes 16 and 21 in Chapter 1.

  23. 23.

    “T. venerabili regine Portugalensium,” Erdmann, Papsturkunden, 24. Reilly, Urraca, 159–161.

  24. 24.

    PMH, 363. “domine nostre Regine Tarasie remissionem omnium peccatorum suorum…”

  25. 25.

    Erdmann, Papsturkunden, 26.

  26. 26.

    Erdmann, Papsturkunden, 31. “Tharasia regina, Adefonsi gloriose memorie regis filia.” This charter was reiterated by Celestine III in 1195. Erdman, Papsturkunden 149. See also 47, 28, 26.

  27. 27.

    Lay, Reconquest Kings, 67, identifies one daughter; Amaral identifies four, although two Sanchas, both of whom lived to adulthood, seems unlikely. Luís Carlos Amaral and Mária Jorge Barroca, A Condessa-Rainha Teresa (Lisbon: Círculo de  Leitores, 2012), 73.

  28. 28.

    “Si quis hodie die et tempore aliquis homo rex aut regina vel comes aut potestas vel non potestas hunc factum meum infringere voluerit in primis sit excommunicatus…” DMP-R 86.

  29. 29.

    For example, PMH, Foro for Miranda da Beira (1136), 372: “Ego Alfonsus port. Princeps Comitis Henrici et Regine Tharasie filius magni quoque Alfonsi nepos…”

  30. 30.

    Other sources such as the Crónica de Sahagun and the Historia Compostellana, as well as the thirteenth-century chronicles from León and Castile exist, but do not engage specifically with Teresa’s claim to a throne in Portugal. Maria João Violante Branco and Isabel Barros Dias, “Metamorfoses de Urraca de Castela-Leão e de Teresa de Portugal; construções e desconstruções das imagens,” Actas XI Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval (León, 2007), 341–344.

  31. 31.

    Simon Barton and Richard Fletcher, eds., The World of the Cid (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2000), 155–160. Hereafter CAI.

  32. 32.

    CAI, 148.

  33. 33.

    CAI, 165.

  34. 34.

    CAI, 183.

  35. 35.

    CAI, 195. My emphasis.

  36. 36.

    Lay, Reconquest Kings, 79–81; José Mattoso, Afonso Henriques (Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores, 2007), 167–174.

  37. 37.

    Mariá do Rosário Ferreira, “La reine est morte: la succession politique des filles de roi aux XIe et XIIe siècles,” in e-Spania (February 2014), accessed February 10, 2018, ¶32, https://doi.org/10.4000/e-spania.23433.

  38. 38.

    Mense Junio in festo S. Joanis Baptistae Infans inclytus Donnus Alfonsus Comitio Henrici, & Reginae Donnae Tarasiae filius, magni Imperatoris Hispaniae Domini Alfonsi nepos, Domino auxiliante, & divina clementia propitiante, studio, et labore suo magis quam parentum voluntate, aut juvamine, adeptus est Regnum Portugallis in manu forti. Si quidem mortuo patre suo Comite Domino Henrico, cum adhuc ipse puer esset duorum, aut trium annorum, quidam indigni et alieni genae vendicabant Regnum Portugallis, matre ejus Regina Donna Tarasia eis consentiente, volens et ipsa superba regnare loco mariti sui, amoto filio a negotio Regni…. Quam matrem ejus, vel indignus et exteros natione voleant regnare super se…Chronicon Lusitana, in España Sagrada, ed. Rafael Lazcano (1758: Reprint, Madrid: Editorial Revista Agustiana, 2000), 14:421–422. My emphasis.

  39. 39.

    Ferreira, “La Reine est morte,” ¶18.

  40. 40.

    Pick, Her Father’s Daughter, passim.

  41. 41.

    Afonso Henriques is first referred to as “king” as early as 1131, but only consistently used the title after 1140. The reasons for this are both obscure, and hotly debated. For a general overview, see Lay, Reconquest Kings, 80–81.

  42. 42.

    Miriam Shadis, “The First Queens of Portugal and the Building of the Realm,” in Reassessing the Roles of Women as ‘Makers’ of Medieval Art and Architecture, ed. Therese Martin (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 684–686.

  43. 43.

    DMP-R 254; “Ego Alfonsus Portugalensium rex et uxor mea regina Mahalda una cum filiis nostris rege scilicet Sancio reginaque Orraca et regina Mahalda…”

  44. 44.

    DMP-R 278; “una cum filio meo rege d[omno] Sancio et filia mea regina d[omna] Tarassia regni mi coheredibus…”

  45. 45.

    PMH Leges, v. 1, fasc. III, p. 420; PT/TT/MSCC/A/1DR1/51 and 52.

  46. 46.

    Ariel Castro, “A Rainha Mathilde, Condessa de Flandres, e Princesa de Portugal,” Actas do Quinto Congresso (Oxford: Associaço Internacional de Luistanistas, 1998), 1653–1665.

  47. 47.

    The earliest instance is DMP-R 324: September 1175, Afonso Henriques issued a charter “una cum filio meo rege domno Sancio et uxore eius regina domna Dulcia et filia mea regina domna Tarasia…” Dulce was included in the confirmation and signo rodado as well.

  48. 48.

    Shadis, “The First Queens of Portugal,” 686–687.

  49. 49.

    Shadis, “The Personal and the Political in the Testaments of the Portuguese Royal Family,” Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 43:1 (2017): 83. Documentos de D. Sancho I (1174–1211), ed. Rui de Azevedo de Jesus da Costa and Marcelino Rodrigues Pereira (Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra, 1979), 1:30. Hereafter DS.

  50. 50.

    For example, DS nos. 172, 144, 134, 141.

  51. 51.

    DS 120 (1190).

  52. 52.

    DS 115, for example, marks a donation in 1199 to Mem Goncalves “pro bono servicio quod nobis et filie nostre regine domne Tarasie fecistis et facitis…” See also DS nos. 171 and 217.

  53. 53.

    Shadis, “Personal and Political,” 84–85.

  54. 54.

    DS 203.

  55. 55.

    DS 194, October 1210. Shadis, “The Personal and the Political,” 85 and Lay, Reconquest Kings, 215–216.

  56. 56.

    Julio González, Alfonso IX (Madrid: CSIC, 1944), 1:142–143.

  57. 57.

    Lay, Reconquest Kings, 218.

  58. 58.

    Gregoria Domínguez Cavero, “Teresa of Portugal y el Monasterio Cisterciense de Villabuena (S. XIII)” Cistercium 208 (1997): 379–387.

  59. 59.

    Miriam Shadis, “Founders, Sisters, Neighbors in the Thirteenth Century: Women and Community at Santa Maria de Celas, Coimbra,” in Women and Community in Medieval Iberia, ed. Dana Wessel-Lightfoot et al. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, forthcoming); Maria de Rosário Barbosa Morujão, Um Mosteiro Cisterciense Femenino: Santa Maria de Celas (Coimbra: Biblioteca Geral de Coimbra, 2001), 1–102.

  60. 60.

    “Ihns Pelagius homo regine domine T” and “fratrem Iohanem qui tunc est procurator Regine domine T,” signed one charter in 1234, for example, at Lorvão, referring to Queen Teresa. PT/TT/MSML/CEO9/21. “Suerius Geraldi emit eam ex parte domine regine,” and “domnus Vivax homo regine,” refer to Sancha’s men; Morujão, Celas, Footnotes 46 and 52 in Chapter 2.

  61. 61.

    Pick, Her Father’s Daughter, 78–84, 231–238.

  62. 62.

    Shadis, “Personal and Political,” 81–82 and “First Queens of Portugal,” 687–691.

  63. 63.

    Theresa Earenfight, “Without the Persona of the Prince: Kings, Queens, and the Idea of Monarchy in Late Medieval Europe,” Gender & History 19:1 (2007): 1–21; Lucy K. Pick, “Sacred Queens and Warrior Kings in the Royal Portraits of the Liber Testamentorum of Oviedo,” Viator 42 (2011): 49–82; and Shadis, Berenguela of Castile.

  64. 64.

    Lay, Reconquest Kings, 251–256.

  65. 65.

    “Filho, toda esta terra que te eu lheixo de Estorga ataa alem de Coimbra nom percas ende huum palmo qua eu a gaanhey com gram coita.” Filipe Alves Moreira, Afonso Henriques e a Primeira Crónica Portuguesa (Porto: Estratégias Criativas, 2008), 125–126.

  66. 66.

    “…se lhe levantou co a madre. E a madre cassou-se co conde Fernando de Trastamara que era em aquella sazom o milhor homem d’Espanha que rey nom fosse.” A Primeira Crónica, 127.

  67. 67.

    “Minha hé a terra e minha seera ca meu padre el rey dom Affomso me leixou.”A Primeira Crónica, 127–128.

  68. 68.

    “… vosco quero entra na aaz, … pollo meu amor.”

  69. 69.

    “E Affomso Anrriquiz emtom meteo sa madre em ferros. Ella quando vio que aasi prendia a madre disse: ‘Afomso Anrriquiz, meu filho, prendestes-me e metestes-me em ferros e deserdastes-me da terra que me leixou meu padre e quitastes-me do marido. Rogo a Deus que presso sejades asi como eu sõo. E porque me metestes nos meus pees ferras, quebrantadas sejam as tas pernas com ferros. E mande Deus que se conpra esto.’” A Primeira Crónica, 129.

  70. 70.

    A Primeira Crónica, 129–130.

  71. 71.

    A Primeira Crónica, 45.

  72. 72.

    Manuela Santos Silva, “Os primórdios de casa das rainhas de Portugal,” in Razes Medievais do Brasil Moderno (Lisbon: Academia Portuguesa da História, 2008), 27–41 and Ana Maria S. A. Rodrigues, As tristes rainhas: Leonor de Aragão & Isabel deCoimbra (Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores, 2012).

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  1. Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

    Miriam Shadis

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    Heather J. Tanner

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Shadis, M. (2019). Unexceptional Women: Power, Authority, and Queenship in Early Portugal. In: Tanner, H.J. (eds) Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01346-2_12

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