Sancia of Barcelona
Overview
Biography
(See also Genealogical Table(s): 3, 6.)
Sancia/Sancha was the daughter of Ramon/Raymond Berenguer I, count of Barcelona, and his third wife, Almodis of La Marche. She was the second wife of Guillermo Ramón (William Raymond), count of Cerdanya (1068-95), who had rejected his first wife, Adelaide, Sancia’s first cousin, after a brief marriage in 1067. Sancia and Guillermo married in 1079, and had two sons, William-Jordan and Bernard William. Sancia was still alive in 1102, when her older son named her in his will. She died between 1109 and 1117, if we can rely on the dating in the Liber Feudorum Maior of oaths to Bernard William, who succeeded William Jordan, that name her sometimes in the present, sometimes in the past. The LFM confuses her with Adelaide, William Raymond’s first wife, the daughter of Peter Raymond, viscount of Béziers, and Rangard, a sister of Almodis. But Cheyette distinguishes clearly between the two wives (Frederic L. Cheyette, “The `Sale’ of Carcassonne to the Counts of Barcelona (1067-1070) and the Rise of the Trencavels,” Speculum 63 (1988), 843). Adam Kosto dates the marriage of Sancia and Wiilliam Ramon to 1079 (Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia: Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000-1200 (Cambridge UP, 2001) 224).
Sancia’s father, Ramon Berenguer, left her ten thousand mancusos (gold coins of Barcelona) in his will, but put her and the money in the care of one of his magnates, Geral Alaman of Cervelló, who was to give them to her when he married her to the best available husband: “decem milia mancusos in uno pense … ut ipse donet ad eam cum ipsos mancusos qualem meliorem maritum potuerit dare” (Liber Feudorum Maior, 1.525, 526, #492, dated November 12, 1076). He also names her as the heir to the honor of Barcelona, if her two brothers die without issue, “si ambo predicti filii sui moriantur sine filio vel filiis de legitimo coniugio, revertatur iam dictus suus honor ad filiam suam Sanciam” (1.526).
Sancia’s son, William Jordan, in the will he made before he went to the Holy Land, leaves a bequest to his mother, countess Sancia: “Dimitto matri mee Sancie, comitisse, ipsam villam de Hisogal, cum suis omnibus pertinenciis et que ad baiuliam pertinent, et Maiolam de Corneliano; et habeat de baiulia de Livia porcos XXV et pernas XL et brebices VII et VII paria gallinarum; et ipsum ortum, qui est subtus villa, dimitto ei ex sua vita.” I leave to my mother, countess Sancia, that town of Hisogal, with all its appurtenances and what pertain to that district, and Maiola of Corneliano; and let her have from that district 25 pigs and 40 hams and 7 sheep and 7 pairs of chickens; and that orchard which is below the town, I leave to her for her lifetime (LFM, 2.207-09, #695, dated April 13, 1102)..
Letters to Sancia of Barcelona
A letter from Berengar ArnalA letter from Bertrand
A letter from Gerall Pons
A letter from Peter Raymond