Berengaria of Navarre
| Berengaria of Navarre | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of the English | |
| |
| Consort | 12 May 1191 – 6 April 1199 |
| Consort to | Richard I of England |
| Titles | |
| The Queen Dowager The Queen Infanta Berengaria of Navarre | |
| Royal House | House of Plantagenet House of Jiménez |
| Father | Sancho VI of Navarre |
| Mother | Sancha of Castile |
| Born | c. 1165-1170 |
| Died | 23 December 1230 (aged 59–65) |
Berengaria (Spanish: Berenguela, French: Bérengère; c. 1165-1170 – 23 December 1230), was the eldest daughter of Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Castile. Her maternal grandparents were Alfonso VII of León and Berenguela of Barcelona. She was a descendant fourth generation descendant of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid).
Marriage
Berengaria married Richard I of England on 12 May 1191. As is the case with many of the medieval queens consort of the Kingdom of England, relatively little is known of her life. It seems that she and Richard did in fact meet once, years before their marriage, and writers of the time liked to claim that there was an attraction between them at that time. A few twentieth-century historians, however, have claimed that Richard was romantically involved with Berengaria's brother, the future Sancho VII.
Richard had been betrothed many years earlier to Princess Alys, sister of King Philip II of France. Alys, however, became the mistress of Richard's own father, King Henry II, and allegedly the mother of Henry's illegitimate child; a marriage between Richard and Alys was therefore technically impossible for religious reasons of affinity. Richard terminated his betrothal to Alys in 1190 while at Messina.
He had Berengaria brought to him by his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Since Richard was already on the Third Crusade, having wasted no time in setting off after his coronation, the two women had a long and difficult journey to catch up with him. They arrived in Sicily during Lent (when the marriage could not take place) in 1191 and were joined by Richard's sister Joan, the widowed Queen of Sicily. En route to the Holy Land, the ship carrying Berengaria and Joan went aground off the coast of Cyprus, and they were threatened by the island's ruler, Isaac Comnenus. Richard came to their rescue, captured the island, overthrew Comnenus, and married Berengaria in the Chapel of St. George at Limassol.
Queen consort
Whether the marriage was ever even consummated is a matter for conjecture. Richard's sexual orientation is hotly debated amongst revisionist historians; some claim homosexuality via phenomenon theory, while others present him as a notorious womanizer. Unreliable sources have recorded him having one bastard son, Philip of Cognac (d. c. 1211), and perhaps another. In any case, he certainly took his new wife with him for the first part of the crusade. They returned separately, but Richard was captured and imprisoned. Berengaria remained in Europe, attempting to raise money for his ransom. After his release, Richard returned to England and was not joined by his wife. The marriage was childless, and Berengaria was thought to be barren.
When Richard returned to England, he had to regain all the territory that had either been lost by his brother John or taken by King Philip of France. His focus was on his kingdom, not his queen. Richard was ordered by Pope Celestine III to reunite with Berengaria and to show fidelity to her in future. Richard obeyed and took Berengaria to church every week thereafter. When he died in 1199, she was greatly distressed, perhaps more so at being deliberately overlooked as Queen of England and Cyprus. Some historians believe that Berengaria honestly loved her husband, while Richard's feelings for her were merely formal, as the marriage was a political rather than a romantic union.
Queen dowager
Berengaria never visited England during King Richard's lifetime; during the entirety of their marriage, Richard spent just three months in England. There is evidence, however, that she may have done so in the years following his death. The traditional description of her as "the only English queen never to set foot in the country" would still be literally true, as she did not visit England during the time she was Richard's consort. However, she certainly sent envoys to England several times, mainly to inquire about the pension she was due as Dowager Queen and Richard's widow, which King John was not paying her. Although Queen Eleanor intervened, and Pope Innocent III threatened him with an interdict if he did not pay Berengaria what was due, King John still owed her more than £4000 when he died. However, during the reign of his son Henry III of England, her payments were made as they were supposed to be.
Berengaria eventually settled in Le Mans, one of her dower properties. She was a benefactress of the abbey of L'Epau, entered the conventual life, and was buried in the abbey. A skeleton thought to be hers was discovered in 1960 during the restoration of the abbey.
In fiction
The story of Richard and Berengaria's marriage is fictionalized in the 1935 film The Crusades starring Loretta Young and Henry Wilcoxon, and was a prominent feature of the 1960s British television series, Richard the Lionheart, but both versions were highly romanticised and are not reliable sources of information about the queen.
Ancestry
| 16. Sancho Garcés (son of García Sánchez III of Navarre) | ||||||||||||||||
| 8. Ramiro Sánchez, Lord of Monzón | ||||||||||||||||
| 17. Constance | ||||||||||||||||
| 4. García Ramírez of Navarre | ||||||||||||||||
| 18. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid) | ||||||||||||||||
| 9. Cristina Rodríguez Díaz de Vivar | ||||||||||||||||
| 19. Jimena Diaz | ||||||||||||||||
| 2. Sancho VI of Navarre | ||||||||||||||||
| 20. Richer de l'Aigle, Seigneur de l'Aigle | ||||||||||||||||
| 10. Gilbert de l'Aigle, Seigneur de l'Aigle | ||||||||||||||||
| 21. Judith d'Avranches | ||||||||||||||||
| 5. Marguerite de l'Aigle | ||||||||||||||||
| 22. Geoffrey II, Comte de Perche et Mortagne | ||||||||||||||||
| 11. Juliana de Perche | ||||||||||||||||
| 23. Beatrix de Montdidier | ||||||||||||||||
| 1. Berengaria of Navarre | ||||||||||||||||
| 24. William I, Count of Burgundy | ||||||||||||||||
| 12. Raymond of Burgundy | ||||||||||||||||
| 25. Etiennette | ||||||||||||||||
| 6. Alfonso VII of León | ||||||||||||||||
| 26. Alfonso VI of Castile | ||||||||||||||||
| 13. Urraca of León and Castile | ||||||||||||||||
| 27. Constance of Burgundy | ||||||||||||||||
| 3. Sancha of Castile | ||||||||||||||||
| 28. Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona | ||||||||||||||||
| 14. Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona | ||||||||||||||||
| 29. Mahalta (Maud) Guiscard of Apulia | ||||||||||||||||
| 7. Berenguela of Barcelona | ||||||||||||||||
| 30. Gilbert I of Gévaudan | ||||||||||||||||
| 15. Douce I of Provence | ||||||||||||||||
| 31. Gerberga of Provence | ||||||||||||||||
Berengaria in Fiction
Novels featuring Berengaria include:
- The Passionate Brood by Margaret Campbell Barnes
- The Heart Of The Lion by Jean Plaidy
- Queen Without a Country by Rachel Bard
- My Lord Brother the Lionheart by Molly Costain Haycraft
- Shield of Three Lions and Banners of Gold, by Pamela Kaufman
- The Lute Player by Norah Lofts
- Standard of Honor by Jack Whyte
- Wyrd by Sue Gough
- The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott
| English royalty | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Eleanor of Aquitaine |
Queen consort of the English 12 May 1191 – 6 April 1199 |
Succeeded by: Isabella of Angoulême |
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Bloss, C. A. Heroines of the crusades, Rochester, Wanzer, Beardsley & co., 1853. OCLC 4567877
- Lofts, Norah. Queens of England, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977. ISBN 9780385127806
- Sauers, Victoria. Lionhearted queen : Berengaria of Navarre, Philadelphia: Blue Bear Press, 2000. ISBN 9780966629422
- Strickland, Agnes. Lives of the queens of England from the Norman conquest: With anecdotes of their courts (Published from official records and other authentic documents, private as well as public), Philadelphia : Lea & Blanchard, 1841. OCLC 8830518
- Trindade, Ann. Berengaria: In Search of Richard's Queen, 1999. ISBN 1851824340
- Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Families: A Complete Genealogy, London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999. ISBN 9780370313108
External links
George, Duke of Cumberland (1702-1707) · Mary of Modena (1685-1688) · Catherine of Braganza (1662-1685) · Henrietta Maria of France (1625-1649) · Anne of Denmark (1603-1619) · Philip II of Spain (1554-1558) · Lord Guildford Dudley (1553) · Catherine Parr (1543-1547) · Catherine Howard (1540-1542) · Anne of Cleves (1540) · Jane Seymour (1536-1537) · Anne Boleyn (1533-1536) · Catherine of Aragon (1509-1533) · Elizabeth of York (1486-1503) · Anne Neville (1483-1485) · Elizabeth Woodville (1464-1483) · Margaret of Anjou (1445-1471) · Catherine of Valois (1420-1422) · Joanna of Navarre (1403-1413) · Isabella of Valois (1396-1399) · Anne of Bohemia (1383-1394) · Philippa of Hainault (1328-1369) · Isabella of France (1308-1327) · Marguerite of France (1299-1307) · Eleanor of Castile (1272-1290) · Eleanor of Provence (1236-1272) · Isabella of Angoulême (1200-1216) · Berengaria of Navarre (1191-1199) · Eleanor of Aquitaine (1154-1189) · Matilda of Boulogne (1135-1152) · Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou (1141) · Adeliza of Louvain (1121-1135) · Matilda of Scotland (1100-1118) · Matilda of Flanders (1066-1083)
| English Royalty |
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| Matilda |
| Henry II |
| Geoffrey, Count of Nantes |
| William, Count of Poitou |
| Henry II |
| William, Count of Poitiers |
| Henry, Count of Anjou |
| Richard I the Lionheart |
| Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany |
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| Elizabeth, Baroness Fanhope and Milbroke |
| Henry IV |
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| Constance of York |
| Anne, Countess of Eu |
| Richard II |
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