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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1998-12 > 0913319353


From: "Todd A. Farmerie" <>
Subject: Re: Zaida, Teresa, and Stuart's RFC 3
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 14:49:13 -0500


wrote:
>
> In a message dated 12/9/98 11:14:30 AM, writes:
>
> <<The only remaining question is whether Zaida/Isabel IS Queen
> Isabel.>>
>
> And what are the arguments for and against this identity.
>

It has been a while since I read the sources for this, but it is
basically a question of the accuracy of the surviving sources. The
near-contemporary writing of Dom Pelayo relates a mistress Zaida/Isabel
(Z/I) mother of Sancho, and a Queen Isabel (QI) mother of Sancha and
Elvira II, but does not explicitly state that they are either different
or the same woman. Both Z/I and QI have surviving memorial stones.
That for Z/I calls her Queen (if I recall correctly), and states that
she died in childbirth. That for QI calls her daughter of Louis, King
of France, which is chronologically impossible. Neither of these
memorials are contemporary, and this being the case, one, the other, or
both could have been fabricated without the benefit of authentic
historical tradition. A decade ago, (at least) three authors
specifically addressed the question, and reached three different
conclusions. (The following is from memory, so don't quote me on it. I
have summarized this before, so you might want to look in the archives.)

Palencia followed (more or less) the traditional interpretation, that
Z/I was only a mistress of Alfonso. She died giving birth to Sancho,
and following the death of Constance, Alfonso married QI sister (since
she can't be daughter) of Louis of France.

Reilly concluded, based on a charter that would seem to show a recent
marriage in the midst of the reign of Isabel, concluded that QI died
following the birth of her two daughters, and then Alfonso married Z/I,
and because both were named Isabel the two consecutive Queens came to be
blured into one. Z/I then died in childbirth, giving birth to an
otherwise unknown child who did not survive to be noticed. He rejects a
french royal origin for QI, and suggests that she was daughter of
William, Count of Burgundy.

Canal presents the view which has come to predominate in Spain, and can
also be seen in ES. This is that Z/I and QI were only a single person,
and that later tradition separated them for the sake of racial purity.

This is clearly not a decided issue. What is certain is that the
descent from Queen Isabel, through her two daughters, is extremely
limited, even if she was Zaida/Isabel. Daughter Sancha married Count
Rodrigo Gonzalez (de Lara), and had two know children, of which the
daughter married the Count of Urgel, having an only daughter, who
married the younger son of the Count of Haro, having (it would seem) an
only son, for whom ES shows just one son. Thus in the fifth generation,
there is just one descendant. The other daughter, Elvira (II) married
Roger II, King of Sicily, and his descendants were recently discussed
here. All of the traditional descents through an invented son Count
Rodrigo Rodriguez de Lara must be rejected.

taf

Palencia, Clemente. Historia y Legendas de las Mujeres de Alfonso VI. in
Estudios Sobre Alfonso VI y la Reconquista de Toledo. 281-90 (1988).

Reilly, Bernard F. The Kingdom of Leon-Castile Under Alfonso VI. (1988).

Canal Sanchez-Pagin, Jose Maria. Jimena Munoz, Amiga de Alfonso VI.
Anuario de Estudios Medievales. 21:11-40 (1991).

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