Petronilla of Aragon
Overview
Biography
(See also Genealogical Table(s): 3, 6.)
Petronilla was the daughter of Ramiro of Aragon and Agnes of Aquitaine, a marriage not recognized by the papacy because her father was a monk. He was brought out of the monastery to succeed his brother Alfonso by the nobility of Aragon in order to produce an heir from his line. Alfonso had wanted to leave his lands to military orders but the nobility rejected his will and passed the crown to Ramiro in 1134. Ramiro governed for three years and then returned to the monastery in 1137, after he had betrothed his only child and heir, Petronilla, to Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona, rather than to the son of Alfonso VII of Castile-León. Ramiro retained the title of king until his death in 1157 and Ramon never used it, though he administered the land. Ramiro’s document of transmission commends his people as “fideles” to Ramon, but without surrendering their fidelity to him and his daughter (“salva fidelitate mihi et filie mee,” LFM 1.12, #7). The inheritance remained in the family; Petronilla was recognized as queen, and passed the title and land to her son following Aragonese custom, as her three documents (LFM #16, #17, and #18) attest; the last, recorded at her death in 1173, makes it clear that she retained a right to the land well after her son had inherited the title. She would continue to be referred to as queen to the end of her life, as in oaths taken to her son king Alfonso (“filio regine Petronille,” “filius venerabilis domine regine Petronille nomine,” “filius Petronella Aragonis regine et Barchinonis comitissae,” LFM #545, 571, 618, 620, 622, 648, 658, 682, 763) and even after her death (“filio quondam domne Petronile, venerabilis regine Aragonensis,” LFM #857, 2.333).
The marriage was apparently consummated in 1150 and produced three sons and at least one daughter: Ramon (Ildefonso/Alphonse), Peter (Ramon Berengar), Sancho (all named in their father’s will LFM #494, 1.532-34), and Dulcia who became queen of Portugal. Ramon left Besalú and Ribes to the queen in the same will, recorded from his testimony in 1162 and ratified at an assembly at Huesca, in the presence of Petronilla who signed, approved and confirmed the document by her own hand in the first person (“Sig+num P[etronille] regine Aragonis et comitisse Barchinone, uxor iam dicti comitis, que hoc laudo et propia manu mea confirmo et corroboro.” Ramon also named Henry II of England as protector of the land and his sons (“Dimisit omnem suum honorem ac filios in baiulia, tuicione et deffensione domini Enrici, regis Anglie.”) Henry was married to Petronilla’s first cousin, Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Much of the information in this biography comes from William C. Stalls, "Queenship and the Royal Patrimony in Twelfth-Century Iberia: The Example of Petronilla of Aragon", Queens, Regents and Potentates, Women of Power, vol. 1 (Boydell & Brewer, 1995), 49–61. Other sources include the Gran enciclopedia aragonesa; P.E. Schramm, Joan-F. Cabestany, Enric Bagué, Els Primers comtes-reis: Ramon Berenguer IV, Alfons el Cast, Pere el Catòlic, (Barcelona: Vicens-Vives, 1960), who claims that Petronilla was regent for the heirs (“Petronella exercia la regència per ambdós hereus,” 36); the Histoire Générale de Languedoc, which says that Petronilla shared the government of their lands with the count of Provence and that she concluded a truce with the King of Navarre and an alliance with the king of Castile (3.832). Thomas Bisson offers accounts from Catalonian estates in which expenses for cloth and payment in animals and grains is listed for the queen and the count (Fiscal Accounts of Catalonia under the Early Count-Kings, (Berkeley, U Cal., 1984), v.2, #4, Expenditures at Vilamajor).
Letters from Petronilla of Aragon
A letter (1173, October 24)A letter to Alphonse, King of Aragon (1164, June 18)
A letter to Public (1152, April 4)