Sancho Alfónsez

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Sancho Alfónsez (or Adefónsez) (ca. 1093 – 29 May 1108) was the only son of King

Aragon, to the throne of Kingdom of Castile-León
.

Childhood, to 1103

According to

Count of Galicia and son-in-law of the king, who, according to the Chronicon Compostellanum, had been promised the kingdom.[5]

There exists a charter of a grant made to the church at

Count of Portugal, both aspirants to the throne.[9]

Early public life, 1103–1107

In early January 1103 a church council was held in the royal presence at

bishop of Oviedo that is the first known appearance of his half-sisters Sancha and Elvira, the daughters of Alfonso's new queen, a Frenchwoman named Isabel.[15]

On 5 January 1105 a large group of

cathedral of Astorga, witnessed by Sancho and Raymond.[17] Sancho does not reappear until 19 March 1106, when he confirmed his father's grant to the church of Oviedo, made at Sahagún, the court's favourite resting place.[18] He then confirmed a private charter at Sahagún on 18 January 1107. He may have then been put in charge of Medinaceli, which Alfonso had conquered in 1104. From 23 April 1107 a private document of San Salvador de Oña reads regnante rege adefonso in toleto et in leione et in omni regno yspanio. Santius filius. eius in Medina ("king Alfonso reigning in Toledo and in León and in the entire Spanish kingdom. Sancho, his son, [reigning] in Medinaceli").[19] On 14 April he joined in a grant of his father and queen Isabel, recorded at Astorga, to the people of Riba de Tera and Valverde, cum uxore mea Elisabet et filio nostro Sancho ("with my [Alfonso's] wife and our son Sancho").[20]

Responsibility and death, 1107–1108

At León in early May 1107 Alfonso held a great court at which he declared Sancho his heir.

Bishop of Salamanca, by Raymond. Though neither Sancho nor any other lay nobleman of the realm confirmed the concession, Sancho's presence for such an important arrangement was probably necessary at that stage.[25]

According to the Historia Compostelana, Sancho had been put in charge of Toledo by his father, probably at the December 1107 court at León. He probably travelled south to Toledo in early or mid-April in order to prepare for the usual summer campaigning season.[26] The army which he brought with him is not estimated as very large, based on figures from the Chronica Naierensis. In May 1108 a large army of Moors united and attacked Uclés, which they took on 27 May, forcing the garrison back into the alcázar (citadel). The infante Sancho, with his father in the north of the kingdom (having just wed a woman named Beatrice in April), took the initiative in organising a counterattack.[26] The result was the Battle of Uclés, in which the Christians were surrounded and slaughtered, though Sancho and his bodyguard of retainers managed to escape the mêlée. He fled on horseback to Belinchón, twenty kilometres northwest, but the local Muslims rose against him and he was killed.[27] García Álvarez, Alfonso's alférez from 1100 to 1107 and Sancho's appointed guardian may be the García who according to Rodrigo Jiménez's De rebus Hispaniae was cut down while defending the infante.[28] He died without issue.

Notes

  1. ^ Reilly 1988, 234.
  2. Chronicon regum Legionensium
    refers to Zaida as "the daughter of King Abenabeth of Seville, who was baptised ... Elisabeth" and the second concubine of Alfonso VI, calling Sancho their son.
  3. ^ Salazar y Acha 1992, 322, suggesting 1094. The argument is that an illegitimate heir would have been unacceptable if conceived in adultery, but not if simply in fornication.
  4. ^ This cannot be assumed to be Sancho's birth, particularly in light of scholarly speculation that the later queen Isabel is identical to Zaida, e.g. Salazar y Acha 1992 and Salazar y Acha 2007. Of the two weekdays based on alternative transcripts of Zaida's epitaph, a Monday would fit with the theorized 1093 birth of Sancho, while Thursday could place her death in 1107 when Queen Isabel disappears from the records.
  5. ^ Reilly 1988, 248.
  6. ^ Reilly 1988, 289. A document mentioning Sancho from 22 April 1099 is also a forgery, cf. Reilly 1988, 271n.
  7. ^ Reilly 1988, 309–10n.
  8. ^ Reilly 1988, 333, argues that this age was typical for a boy of the time to leave the tutelage of women for more masculine influences.
  9. Archbishop of Toledo, to the pope. Probably these acts of defiance of metropolitan of Toledo, who laid claim to Coimbra and the primacy
    of Spain, were encouraged by counts Henry and Raymond.
  10. ^ Reilly 1988, 313, citing Torquato de Sousa Soares (1974), "O governo de Portugal pelo Conde Henrique de Borgonha: Sus relações com as monarquias Leonesa-Castelhana e Aragonesa," Revista Portuguesa de História, 14:378.
  11. ^ Reilly 1988, 314.
  12. ^ He confirmed thirteen of sixteen charters between his first public appearance and his death, and eight in the year 1103 alone, cf. Reilly 1988, 333.
  13. ^ This charter is dated to 23 March 1103 by Juan del Álamo (Salazar y Acha 1992, 321). Sancius infans Toletani imperatoris filius ("the infante Sancho of Toledo, son of the emperor") witnessed the donation of Adefonsus totius Ispanie imperator ("Alfonso, emperor of all Spain") with the consent of uxoris mee Helisabet regine ("my [Alfonso's] wife, queen Elisabeth [Isabel]").
  14. ^ Reilly 1988, 316–17.
  15. ^ Reilly 1988, 318.
  16. ^ Reilly 1988, 320.
  17. ^ Reilly 1988, 321.
  18. ^ Reilly 1988, 322.
  19. ^ Reilly 1982, 39.
  20. ^ Salazar y Acha 2007, 241. The use of the collective pronown, "our" son, has been used by Salazar y Acha to support the hypothesis that queen Isabel was identical to Sancho's mother, Zaida, baptised Isabel.
  21. ^ Reilly 1988, 324.
  22. ^ Reilly 1988, 325.
  23. ^ Reilly 1988, 325 n104.
  24. ^ Reilly 1988, 328.
  25. ^ Reilly 1988, 343.
  26. ^ a b Reilly 1988, 349.
  27. ^ Reilly 1988, 350.
  28. ^ Reilly 1988, 224.

References

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