Family of Raymond + of BURGUNDY and Urraca + of LEON AND CASTILE

Husband:	Raymond + of BURGUNDY (1070-1107)
Wife:	Urraca + of LEON AND CASTILE (1082-1126)
Children:	Alfonso VII + (1105-1157)
Marriage	1095

Husband: Raymond + of BURGUNDY

Name:	Raymond + of BURGUNDY1
Sex:	Male
Father:	William I + (1020-1087)
Mother:	Stephanie + of BERENGUER (1036-1109)
Birth	1070	Dijon, Cote-D'or, Burgundy,France
Occupation		Count of Galacia and Burgundy
Death	26 May 1107 (age 36-37)	Grajal de Campos, Leon
Burial		Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Caruna, Spain

Wife: Urraca + of LEON AND CASTILE

Child 1: Alfonso VII +

Note on Husband: Raymond + of BURGUNDY

Raymond of Burgundy was the fourth son of William I, Count of Burgundy, and was Count of Amous. He came to the Iberian Peninsula for the first time during the period 1086–1087 with Odo I, Duke of Burgundy. He came for the second time (1090) to marry Urraca of Castile, eventual heiress of Alfonso VI, King of León and Castile.

 

He came with his cousin Henry of Burgundy, who married another daughter of Alfonso VI, Teresa of León (or Portugal). By his marriage Raymond received the government of the Kingdom of Galicia (which included the County of Portugal and the County of Coimbra), with the title of count and under the govern of Alfonso VI. Shortly after, Alfonso VI gave the County of Portugal and the County of Coimbra to Henry of Burgundy, father of the first Portuguese King Afonso Henriques of Portugal.

 

He was father of Alfonso VII of León and Castile (1104/1105–1157).

 

His brother later became Pope Callixtus II

 

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Raymond of Burgundy ( in 1059 - 1107 ) Count of Galicia in Spain , son of Count William I of Burgundy , brother of Count Renaud II de Bourgogne , Etienne I de Bourgogne and Pope Callistus II , with whom he favors the Pilgrimage of Saint-Jacques Compostela

 

Biography [ edit ]Born in 1059 and son of Count William I of Burgundy and Etiennette .

 

His father William I of Burgundy and his brother Renaud II of Burgundy and Stephen I of Burgundy are the Counts of Burgundy very powerful, ruling over lands far beyond the limits of the County of Burgundy .

 

1093 he married Urraca First León , daughter of King of Leon Alfonso VI of Castile and became son by this marriage of the king of Leon and Count of Galicia .

 

1097 his brother Count Renaud II of Burgundy died during the First Crusade ( 1096 - 1099 ) at the age of 41 years.

 

1102 his brother, Count Stephen I of Burgundy died in the Crusades at the age of 37 years.

 

1104 he was a son Alfonso VII of Castile future king of León , of Galicia and Castile in Spain .

 

In 1107 he succumbed to illness, Grajal near Sahagún, in September at age 48.

 

1109 his step-father, King Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon dies. Urraca of Castile marries King Alfonso I of Aragon and succeeded his father.

 

1119 his brother Guy of Burgundy , Archbishop of Vienna , was elected 160th pope under the name of Calixtus II in the Abbey of Cluny in the County of Burgundy , his pontificate lasted five years.

 

Calixtus II made ??St. Jacques de Compostela , capital of the county of Galicia, an archbishopric. We will assign to the writing of the 1140-1160 Codex Calixtinus for devotion to the Apostle of Christ St. Jacques le Majeur and promotion of pilgrimage to St. Jacques de Compostela in Galicia and the Kingdom of Castile Leon throughout the Europe .

 

1126 his son Alfonso VII of Castile King of Castile , León and Galicia succeeds Urraca of Castile .

Note on Wife: Urraca + of LEON AND CASTILE

Urraca (April 1079 – 8 March 1126) was Queen regnant of León, Castile, and Galicia, and claimed the imperial title as suo jure Empress of All the Spains[1] from 1109 until her death in childbirth, as well as Empress of All Galicia.[2]

Urraca was the eldest surviving child of Alfonso VI of León with his second wife Constance of Burgundy, and as eldest legitimate child of her father was heiress presumptive from her birth until 1107, when Alfonso recognized his illegitimate son Sancho as his heir. Urraca became heiress presumptive again after Sancho’s death the following year, when he was killed after the Battle of Uclés.

[edit] First marriage and widowhood

 

Urraca’s place in the line of succession made her the focus of dynastic politics, and she became a child bride at age eight to Raymond of Burgundy, a mercenary adventurer.[3] Author Bernard F. Reilly suggest that rather than a betrothal, the eight-year-old Urraca was fully wedded to Raymond of Burgundy as he almost immediately appears in protocol documents as Alfonso VI's son-in-law, a distinction that would not have been made without the marriage. Reilly doubts that the marriage was consummated until Urraca was 13, as she was placed under the protective guardianship of a trusted magnate. However, Urraca's pregnancy and stillbirth at age 14 suggests the marriage was consummated when she was 13 or 14 years old.

 

Urraca's marriage to Raymond was part of Alfonso VI's diplomatic strategy to attract cross-Pyrenees alliances, and in 1105 she gave birth to a son, who would become Alfonso VII. However, after Raymond died in 1107, Urraca’s father contracted with Alfonso I of Aragon, known as the Battler, for a dynastic marriage with Urraca, opening the opportunity for uniting León-Castile with Aragón.

[edit] Reign

 

Marriage negotiations were still underway when Alfonso VI died and Urraca became queen. Many of Alfonso VI’s advisers and leading magnates in the kingdom formed a “quiet opposition” to the marriage of the Queen to the King of Aragon. According to Bernard F. Reilly, these magnates feared the influence the King of Aragon might attempt to wield over Urraca and over Leonese politics.

 

Urraca protested against the marriage but honoured her late father’s wishes (and the Royal Council's advice) and continued with the marriage negotiations, though she and her father’s closest advisers were growing weary of Alfonso I's demands. Despite the advisers' initial opposition, the prospect of Count Henry of Portugal filling any power vacuum led them to go ahead with the marriage. As events would unfold, these advisers underestimated Urraca's political prowess, and later advised her to end the marriage.

[edit] Second marriage

Statue of Queen Urraca in Madrid, sculpted by Juan Pascual de Mena

 

The marriage of Urraca and Alfonso I almost immediately sparked rebellions in Galicia[4] and scheming by her illegitimate half-sister Theresa and brother-in-law Henry, the Countess and Count of Portugal.

 

As their relationship soured, Urraca accused Alfonso of physical abuse, and by May 1110 Urraca separated from Alfonso. In addition to her objections to Alfonso's handling of rebels, the couple had a falling-out over his execution of one of the rebels who had surrendered to the queen, to whom the queen was inclined to be merciful. Additionally, as Urraca was married to someone many in the kingdom objected to, the queen's son and heir became a rallying point for opponents to the marriage.

 

Estrangement between husband and wife escalated from discrete and simmering hostilities into open armed warfare between the Leonese-Castilians and the Aragonese. An alliance between Alfonso of Aragon and Henry of Portugal culminated in the 1111 Battle of Candespina in which Urraca's lover and chief supporter Gómez González was killed. He was soon replaced in both roles by another count, Pedro González de Lara, who took up the fight and would father of two of Urraca's children. By the fall of 1112 a truce was brokered between Urraca and Alfonso with their marriage annulled. Though Urraca recovered Asturias, Leon, and Galicia, Alfonso occupied a significant portion of Castile (where Urraca enjoyed large support), while her half-sister Theresa and her husband Count Henry of Portugal occupied Zamora and Extremadura. Recovering these regions and expanding into Muslim lands would occupy much of Urraca's foreign policy.

 

According to author Bernard F. Reilly, the measure of success for Urraca’s rule was her ability to restore and protect the integrity of her inheritance - that is, the kingdom of her father - and transmit that inheritance in full to her own heir. Policies and events pursued by Alfonso VI - namely legitimizing her brother and thereby providing an opportunity for her illegitimate half-sister to claim a portion of the patrimony, as well as the forced marriage with Alfonso I of Aragon - contributed in large part to the challenges Urraca faced upon her succession. Additionally, the circumstance of Urraca’s gender added a distinctive role-reversal dimension to diplomacy and politics, which Urraca used to her advantage.

[edit] Character

 

Urraca is characterized in the Historia Compostelana as prudent, modest, and with good sense. According to Reilly, the Historia Compostelana also attributes her "failings" to her gender, "the weakness and changeability of women, feminine perversity, and calls her a Jezebel" for her liaisons with her leading magnates, with at least one relationship producing an illegitimate son. These observations were hardly neutral or dispassionate, according to Reilly, who wrote: "[T]here is no question that the queen is in control, perhaps all too much in control, of events." Urraca's use of sex in politics should be viewed more as a strategy that provided the queen with allies but without any masters.

[edit] Death and legacy

 

As queen, Urraca rose to the challenges presented to her and her solutions were pragmatic ones, according to Reilly, and laid the foundation for the reign of her son Alfonso VII, who in spite of the opposition of Urraca's lover Pedro González de Lara succeeded to the throne of a kingdom whole and at peace at Urraca’s death in 1126.

Sources

1	"Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendents".