Urraca of Castile (1186/28 May 1187 – 3 November 1220) was Queen of Portugal by marriage to Afonso II of Portugal. A daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England, her maternal grandparents were Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Urraca, born in 1187, was the second-born daughter of King Alfonso VIII of Castile (1155–1214) and Leonor of England (1161–1214). Alfonso and Leonor are believed to have had at least a dozen pregnancies, with only six children surviving into adulthood. Urraca's siblings who survived into adulthood were Berengaria, Blanche, Eleanor, Ferdinand and Constance. Urraca had two brothers, Ferdinand and Henry who died before being able to take the throne. Following Castilian aristocratic custom, Alfonso and Leonor named their male children after male ancestors and female children after female ancestors. The first few children were named after Alfonso's ancestors and the final four children were named after Eleanor's ancestors. All of them were named after ancestors who were rulers. Urraca was named after Alfonso's great-grandmother, who was the queen of Leon-Castile.
There is little documented evidence of Urraca's birth and early life. Unlike some of her contemporaries, she was rarely mentioned in charters or chronicles. In part, this was due to her gender and her not being the eldest daughter. She was never fated to rule and therefore played a different yet incredibly important role within the royal family. Royal succession gave preference to male heirs over female heirs. Since Urraca was neither a male heir nor the eldest daughter, she would never take the Castilian throne and therefore her life was not documented in as much detail as some of her siblings. Women in the Castilian kingdom were given the same rights to inheritance as males. This gave the surviving daughters of Alfonso and Leonor the potential to hold and exercise political power.
Urraca is first mentioned in the foundation charter of the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos, issued in 1187. In the 1188 Treaty of Seligenstadt, Urraca was betrothed to the future King Alfonso IX of León, despite the fact that both were young children at the time. Alfonso IX was born in 1185, making him about three years old, while Urraca was still an infant. The Treaty is significant in two ways. First, it confirmed Berenguela as the heir of Castile. It also highlights the rising tensions between the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal. This marriage was designed to bring prestige to Urraca's father as well as his kingdom. Urraca and Alfonso IX were betrothed for a limited amount of time. They never married and Alfonso VII went on to marry Teresa of Portugal (the sister of Urraca's husband Afonso II), and when that marriage was annulled due to consanguinity he married Urraca's sister Berenguela. Despite not being able to rule themselves, the daughters held unique power because they were the only way for their husbands to legitimate their claims to the Castilian throne if there were no surviving male heirs. In this same treaty, Berenguela, Urraca's eldest sibling, was designated as Alfonso's heir so long as no living male offspring survived. While this position was surrendered when her brothers, Ferdinand (1189–1211) and Henry (1204–1217), were born Berenguela was the presumed heir to the kingdom of Castile for most of Urraca's childhood, and their parents only had daughters to continue their legacy. Berenguela was heir for eight years before she was married off to the king of Leon.
Christian mothers were encouraged to nurse their children to pass on their faith and piety. It seems that Leonor only breastfed her sons while her daughters were fed by nursemaids. The nursemaids and tutors for the daughters of Alfonso VIII and Leonor were documented and named in royal charters - for instance, Urraca's tutor was a woman named Sancha - but there is no mention of nursemaids or tutors for their sons. If nursemaids had not been mentioned at all, this would suggest that Leonor nursed all of the children, but the lack of nurses for her male children suggests that she herself nursed them. It seems that Alfonso VIII and Leonor took a more active role in raising their sons than was usually seen with royal parents. This emphasizes Alfonso VIII and Leonor's dedication to not only having male heirs to one day take the throne, but to properly nurture them into people of sound moral character.
The daughter's nurses acted as foster mothers of sorts. Since Alfonso and Leonor had to travel a lot for their royal duties, the nurses would make sure the children were taken care of during their trips. Once Urraca was two years old, she was already making tough journeys with her parents accompanied by her nurse. Before this it is presumed that she remained in court with her nurse taking care of her. While the roles of mothers and women in court politics make it clear that they were recognized as important, they still played an active role in the upbringing of their children, especially their sons.
The importance of male heirs to Alfonso and Leonor is shown through their early incorporation of them into court politics. Alfonso typically co-issued his charters with his wife. After Ferdinand was born, he was immediately included as a co-issuer despite being an infant. There was also no stress put onto finding him a wife, unlike his sisters who were betrothed very young. Alfonso and Leonor tried to secure Ferdinand a foreign bride, but were unable to do so. Three years after the death of Ferdinand (d. 1211), his younger brother Henry, who was only seven years old at the time, became king. His older sister, Berenguela, had been trained to be the ruler of Castile, therefore, it was she who took the role of regent for her younger brother until he was ready to take the throne. Henry was only seven when his older brother, Ferdinand, died making him heir. Henry would have just started his knightly education when he became heir. King Alfonso VIII and Queen Leonor died in October 1214. Unfortunately, in 1217 Henry died while playing a game at court, so he never ended up taking the throne. After the death of their parents, Berenguela stepped up to defend the Castilian dynasty. She strategically married off family members to other courts to either prevent unwanted alliances or to strengthen bonds between Castile and the other kingdom.
Urraca was married to the King of Portugal, Afonso II, to keep the peace between the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile. They got married in 1205 and from that point forward Urraca lived in the Portuguese kingdom. Afonso II, the son of Sancho I of Portugal, was the heir to the throne of Portugal that succeeded his father in 1211 CE. Urraca's sisters, Blanca and Leonor, also had strategic marriages. They were married to the heirs to the kingdoms of France and Aragon. During Urraca's lifetime it was customary to have an arras agreement when one got married. Arras is an agreement or contract made between a couple in which a bride price is paid to the groom. Unfortunately, if there was an arras made for her marriage, it has been lost. While her role was as prominent as her eldest sisters, Urraca played an important role as a representative of the Castilian dynasty in the Portuguese kingdom. She was sought out as a bride for many kingdoms, which gave her family the power of making the decision of whom to marry her off too. She did not have to look for a possible husband, they came to her.
Her marriage to the Portuguese king was incredibly favorable for the Castile dynasty because it extended their influence in the Iberian peninsula. It provided for a rare time of peace between Castile and Portugal. Afonso I was the first King of Portugal. He declared himself king and during his lifetime fought many battles to keep Portugal's autonomy. Portugal had only been independent for one generation before the union of Urraca and Afonso II. Therefore, the marriage of Sancho I's son, Afonso II, was incredibly important for Portugal's future. The kingdoms of Castile and Portugal were both located in the Iberian peninsula. This marriage united the kingdoms both symbolically and literally.