Sancha of Castile, Queen of Aragon

Sancha of Castile
Sancha of Castile and her husband Alfonso II of Aragon in the 12th-century manuscript Liber Feudorum Maior
Queen consort of Aragon
Tenure	18 January 1174 – 25 April 1196
Born	21 September 1154/5
Died	(1208-11-09)9 November 1208 (aged 53/54) Villanueva de Sigena, Kingdom of Aragon
Burial	Monastery of Santa María de Sigena
Spouse	Alfonso II of Aragon ​ ​ (m. 1174; died 1196)​
Issue among others...	Constance of Aragon Peter II of Aragon Alfonso II, Count of Provence
House	Castilian House of Ivrea
Father	Alfonso VII of León and Castile
Mother	Richeza of Poland

Sancha of Castile (21 September 1154/5 – 9 November 1208) was the only surviving child of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile by his second wife, Richeza of Poland.^[1] On January 18, 1174, she married King Alfonso II of Aragon at Zaragoza;^[2] they had at least eight children who survived into adulthood.

A patroness of troubadours such as Giraud de Calanson and Peire Raymond, the queen became involved in a legal dispute with her husband concerning properties which formed part of her dower estates. In 1177, she entered the County of Ribagorza and took forcible possession of various castles and fortresses that belonged to the crown there.

After her husband died at Perpignan in 1196, Sancha was relegated to the background of political affairs by her son, Peter II. She retired from court, withdrawing to the Hospitaller convent for noble ladies, the Royal Monastery of Santa María de Sigena, which she had founded.^[3] There she assumed the cross of the Knights Hospitaller, which she wore until the end of her life. The queen mother entertained her widowed daughter, Queen Constance, at Sigena before Constance married Emperor Frederick II in 1208. Sancha died soon afterwards, aged fifty-four, and was interred in front of the high altar of her foundation at the Sigena monastery; her tomb is still there to be seen.

• Peter II (1174/76 – 14 September 1213), King of Aragon and Lord of Montpellier.^[4]
• Constance (1179 – 23 June 1222), married firstly Emeric, King of Hungary and secondly Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
• Alfonso II (1180 – February 1209), Count of Provence, Millau and Razès.
• Eleanor (1182 – February 1226), married Count Raymond VI of Toulouse.
• Ramon Berenguer (ca. 1183/85 – died young).
• Sancha (1186 – aft. 1241), married Count Raymond VII of Toulouse, in March 1211
• Ferdinand (1190 – 1249), cistercian monk, Abbot of Montearagón.
• Dulcia (1192 – ?), a nun at Sijena.

• Doran, John; Smith, Damian J. (2008). Pope Celestine III (1191-1198): Diplomat and Pastor. Ashgate.
• Kedar, Benjamin Z.; Phillips, Jonathan; Riley-Smith, Jonathan, eds. (2005). Crusades. Vol. 4. Ashgate Publishing.
• Luscombe, David; Riley-Smith, Jonathan, eds. (2004). The New Cambridge Medieval History, C.1024-c.1198. Vol. IV. Cambridge University Press.
• Martin, Therese, ed. (2012). Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture. Brill.