Berenguela of León

Berenguela of Leon (1204 - 12 April, 1237) was the third wife but only Empress consort of John of Brienne, Latin Emperor of Constantinople.

Family

According to the chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Berenguela was a daughter of Alfonso IX of León and his second wife Berenguela of Castile. She was a younger sister of Ferdinand III of Castile and Alfonso of Molina.

Their paternal grandparents were Ferdinand II of León and Urraca of Portugal. Their maternal grandparents were Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonora of England.

Marriage

In 1217, the later Ferdinand III had inherited the throne of the Kingdom of Castile through deeds settled by his mother, Berenguela of Castile, the eldest daughter from the marriage between King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonora of England, both dead in 1214, her youngest and only sibling male boy having been the brief King Enrique I of Castile .

Although she had been legally divorced from Alfonso IX of Leon a long time by the Roman Church , (Pope Innocent III), on the grounds of too a close family blood relationship with her cousin Alfonso IX of Leon, she did not wished her former husband and cousin, father of Fernando, to set claims to the Castilian throne, neither the Castilian nobility either.

Therefore it seems as if her son Fernando with her former husband remaining the heir apparent of the Kingdom of León. Alfonso IX wished to prevent a personal union of the two Kingdoms under his son. He planned to disinherit Ferdinand and leave the throne to Sancha, his eldest daughter from a previous first marriage, to his portuguese cousin Teresa of Portugal, and also declared void by the same Pope on the same grounds than his second to his castilian cousin Berenguela, eldest sibling, moreover, of Alfonso VIII .

In 1223, John of Brienne, aged 53,visited Santiago de Compostela, as a supposed pilgrim. He was by then twice a widower: first, in 1213 of the titular Queen of Jerusalem Maria of Monferrato, (????- titular Queen 1205 - marries Jean de Brienne, described as Jean I in 1210 - 1212) and then of princess Stephanie, daughter of Leo II of Armenia, (1150 - king of Cilicia in Armenia 1199 - 1219).

It is therefore better these days to describe Jean de Brienne, as former Consort King of Jerusalem.

As a consequence of his visit to Santiago de Compostela, Alfonso IX invited him to marry Sancha and, presumably, through her inherit the Leonese throne.

However Berenguela of Castile, long time divorced and an inheritor in her own right of the Castilian throne, main advisor of her son Ferdinand III, (really speaking to be named Ferdinad II of Castile and perhaps Ferdinand III of Leon and Castile when his father died), offered one of her own daughters to John instead.

Aging John chose Berenguela of Leon, from Alfonso IX second doomed marriage, who was a decade younger than her half-sister Sancha, from Alfonso IX first doomed marriage.

The marriage took place at Toledo in 1224.

Empress

In 1229, the throne of the Latin Empire had been inherited by Baldwin II of Courtenay, a twelve-year -old boy. The barons of the Empire decided to secure the safety of the Empire by appointing a regent-Emperor for Baldwin. They chose John who accepted the assignment as ome sort of Senior Tutor. In April 1229, John was proclaimed regent at Perugia. They did not arrive at Constantinople until 1231, when John was officially crowned in his new city.

Baldwin II remained the junior co-emperor and only heir to the throne. By agreement, 12 years old Baldwin had been betrothed to around 4 or 5 years old Marie of Brienne, a daughter of Jean and Berenguela, since 19 April, 1229 to firmly establish the dynastic alliance of the two co-emperors and the Western Land for Crusades also, Spain.

The marriage did not take place until 1234, when Marie was about nine-years-old and Baldwin some 16.

Alberic of Trois-Fontaines records that John died on 27 March, 1237, aged around 61. The "Obituaires de Sens Tome" of the Abbey of Maubuisson record that Berenguela died on 12 April, 1237, aged around 33, surviving her husband by only sixteen days.

She is buried in a beautiful marble coffin in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, but many books and tourist leaflets mention her as if she was Queen Berenguela of Castile, her mother.

Other books however, mention this coffin as being that of another Berenguela, (1228 - 1288) and/or other dates, her niece, daughter of her uncle the King Ferdinand III of Castile, sister of King Alfonso X of Castile. But this niece, Infanta Berenguela was a nun at the Monastery of las Huelgas, Burgos, of Royal patronage, where Berenguela of Leon mother, Queen Berenguela of Castile retired as a Mother Queen.

Further, Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonor of England, grandparents of our Berenguela of Leon are buried there too. Much later, Ferdinand III and Alfonso X bodies at Las Huelgas Monastery, near Burgos, would be translated to conquered Sevilla new Cathedral, where they are today.

Children

Berenguela and John of Brienne had four known children, known to have been residents in Spain with his cousin, King Alfonso X of Castile, signing widely in many documents for many years with other high nobility witnesses, Bishops and Archbishops, Royal legitimate and illegitimate offspring and so on :

# Marie of Brienne (1225-1275), who married Emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople.

# Alphonso of Brienne (c. 1228-1270), who married Marie d'Issoudon, countess of Eu, and became count of Eu in right of his wife, and was also Great Chamberlain of France. Died of a plague while involved in the Eighth Crusade.
# Jean (John) de Brienne (c. 1230-1296), who in 1258 became Grand Butler of France. Married Jeanne, Dame de Chateaudun, daughter of Geoffrey VI, Viscount de Chateaudun, as his first wife. Second wife was Marie de Coucy, widow of King Alexander II of Scotland.

# Louis of Acre (c. 1235-1263), who married Agnes of Beaumont and became Viscount of Beaumont in her right.

When they visited their French and Norman fiefs they paid visit to their aunt, the widower Queen Regent of France , Blanche of Castile, (March 4, 1188 – November 26, 1252) the mother of their French cousin, the later Crusader and Saint, Louis IX of France, (Poissy, near Paris, 25 April 1214 – Tutored King under his mother Blanche, aged 12, on December 1226 - 25 August 1270) .

s-ttl|title=Latin Empress consort of Constantinople|years=1229 - 1237
regent1=Marie of Brienne|years1=1234–1237

External links

* [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/CASTILE.htm#BerenguelaLeondied1237 Her profile in "Medieval Lands" by Charles Cawley]
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p4190.htm#i41898 Her profile in Peerage.com]

References

*Szabolcs de Vajay, "From Alfonso VIII to Alfonso X" in "Studies in Genealogy and Family History in Tribute to Charles Evans on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday", 1989, pp. 366-417.