Exotic queens and mistresses of the Kings of Spain

[umigon]

I should be working now, but I'm fed up of it, so I've decided to start this new thread!

In it, I'd like to discuss several "exotic" or "rare" consorts of some of the Spanish kings. With this adjectives I refer to women that had been born in far away countries or whose culture was much different to that of the kings they married or with whom they had an affair. I can think of these women:

1. Zaida (Isabel)(1070-1091): She was a Moorish princess, widow of the prince of Seville. She became the mistress of King Alfonso VI of Castile and converted to Catholicism, receiveng the name of Isabel upon her baptism. She gave the king an only son, Sancho (1091-1107), who was declared heir to the throne but died young at battle and couldn't inherit his father's kingdom. It would have interesting to have a mixed blood king!

2. Richza of Poland (1139-1185): She was the second wife of King Alfonso VII and she bore him a son (died in childhood) and a daughter, Sancha, who became Queen of Portugal.

3. Isabel of Portugal (1797-1818): Although she was Portuguese, she was transferred with her family to Brazil in 1806 upon Napoleon's invasion. She was there until 1816, when she married King Ferdinand VII. As she spent more time living in Brazil than in Portugal or Spain, I think she can be considered an exotic queen.


Then we had a couple of princesses whose marriages were also strange, considering Spain's political marriages: Christina of Norway, wife of infante Felipe, a son of King Ferdinand III the Saint of Castile; Katherine of Constantinopla, wife of infante Fadrique, another son of Ferdinand the Saint; and Charlotte de Lusignan, Queen of Cyprus, wife if infante Juan of Aragón in the 15 th century.

What do you think of these women? Can you think of any more?

[Yseult]

Mnnn...yes! Jolanta of Hungary, wife of Jaime I The Conqueror, or Maria of Lusignan, a princess from Cyprus who became the third wife of James II of Aragon. 

[umigon]

Thank you, Yseult! I had completely forgotten about them!

[Yseult]

*The exotic wives of Alfonso VI:

Alfonso VI had five wives. The first was Agnes of Poitou. After eight years of marriage, Alfonso divorced Agnes...and before, he was trying to arrange a marriage with Agathe of Normandy, but the projected marriage failed because Agathe died unexpectly. The second wife was Constanza of Burgundy, mother of the famous queen Urraca. The third wife was Berta of Burgundy-Maçon. The fourth wife was Zaida, widow of Al-Mamun, king of Toledo, mother of Elvira, by marriage with Roger II queen of Sicily. And the fifth queen was Beatrice, with unknown origin.

*The wives of Alfonso VII:

He married firstly Berenguela of Barcelona. After her death, he married Ryksa or Richild of Poland, a daughter from Wladislaw II Jagiello, king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Agnes of Babenberg. When Alfonso VII died, his widow Richild married, secondly, Ramon Berenguer II count of Provence. She became widow again after a few years and she remarried count Raymond V of Toulouse.

[umigon]

By the way, Richza's daughter by Alfonso VII, Sancha, was not Queen of Portugal, but Queen of Aragon, through her marriage to King Alfonso II.


About Zaida, today is generally accepted by many that she wasn't his queen but some sort of official concubine, similar to what Moorish kings did. His fourth wife, Isabel, has been described by chronicles to be of Italian origin and she was certainly Elvira's mother (I mean that Elvira's mother was the fourth wife independently of whom this was!). About his fifth wife, some think that she might have belonged to the family of the dukes of Aquitaine.

[cimbrio]

OK, she isn't a consort/lover of a King of Spain...but I recently read that Princess Anna of Kiev (Rurik dynasty), who married Henri I of France, was the responsible of bringing the Eastern Orthodox name of Philip (Philippe, Philippos) into the Western World... OK, not of Spain, but seemed an quasi-exotic story Give me a break, it's late PS-Otro Borboncito!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Grand_Duke]

I think we can put the english Katherine of Lancaster (1372/1373 – 2 June 1418) wife of Enrique III of Castile as an "exotic" queen. She was daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and his second wife, Constance of Castile.

She was from England and I think that England and Castile had different cultures. But her mother was from Castile, maybe there was not a BIG diffrence afterall.

Do you know if Katherine spoke only English or knew some Castellano when she married with Enrique? How did they talk with each other? Maybe in French, the international language of the time?

 

[cimbrio]

I know Mary I Tudor spoke Spanish.. it's not the same case but it's very similar, though of course Mary had Spanish tutors, didn't she? Usually Queens brought their maids and laundrywomen from their native lands, maybe their language rubbed off on the next generation...

[Grand_Duke]

As a matter of fact, was not Mary I Tudor Queen consort of Spain between 1556-1558 ?

[cimbrio]

Yes exactly My contribution

[ilyala]

By the way, Richza's daughter by Alfonso VII, Sancha, was not Queen of Portugal, but Queen of Aragon, through her marriage to King Alfonso II.


About Zaida, today is generally accepted by many that she wasn't his queen but some sort of official concubine, similar to what Moorish kings did. His fourth wife, Isabel, has been described by chronicles to be of Italian origin and she was certainly Elvira's mother (I mean that Elvira's mother was the fourth wife independently of whom this was!). About his fifth wife, some think that she might have belonged to the family of the dukes of Aquitaine.

an interesting piece of fact: i was building up the genealogy of the european monarchs and i reached zaida... and on one genealogy page i found that she supposedly was a descendent of the profet muhammad! 

[umigon]

She was a daughter of a prince and isn't there a rule in the Muslim world stating that every Muslim prince or king must be descended from profet muhammad?


I hadn't considered English as exotic because, although its culture is very different to that of Spain, it has been common practice between our conutries to marry their princes and princesses so I didn't thought they were exotic. But we can include them if you want!!

[YaBB_Jose]

Given the previous examples, i guess one of the most exotic queens(to be) of Spain will undoubtly be ... Letizia  .

Divorced, apparently non-religious, without any royal ascendance... 

[cimbrio]

 ;DI think what Umigon means is exotic as in foreign, a totally different culture, even skin colour (I mean, think of Zaida), religion... I suppose there's a limited number on them and probably there isn't much about them given the times they lived...

I should imagine that Yolande Árpád, daughter of Andras II of Hungary and wife of Jaime I the Conqueror would be fairly "exotic"...

I wonder how "exotic" we all are and how many of us have Moorish, Hun or other type of blood... Wouldn't I like to make the family tree of the world and find the common ancestor!!! 

[Grand_Duke]

I hadn't considered English as exotic because, although its culture is very different to that of Spain, it has been common practice between our conutries to marry their princes and princesses so I didn't thought they were exotic. But we can include them if you want!!

We also can include the beautiful Victoria Eugenia, wife of Alfonso XIII, as an "exotic" Queen: English, Protestant and not sufficiently royal!