Agnes of Aquitaine, Queen of León and Castile

Agnes or Ines of Aquitaine or Poitou was an 11th-century Queen of Leon and Castile by her marriage to Alfonso VI of León and Castile.

Family

Contemporary records show Agnes to have been daughter of William VIII, Duke of Aquitaine and his second wife Matilda, whose origins are uncertain. She has been confused with a half-sister of the same name who was also an Iberian Queen, Agnes, wife of Peter I of Aragon and Navarre.

Marriage

In 1069, Agnes married Alfonso VI, king of León. His father divided the kingdom into three realms upon his death. Alfonso and his brother Sancho would first join forces to supplant their brother García in Kingdom of Galicia, before turning on each other. In January 1072, Alfonso (and presumably Agnes) was forced to flee and Sancho took the entire realm of their father. Sancho was assassinated later that year and Alfonso returned, being crowned king of the reunited kingdom of their father in October 1072. At that time he also claimed to be "Emperor of all Spain".

They last appear together in May 1077, and then Alfonso appears alone. This suggests that Agnes had died, although Orderic Vitalis reports that in 1109 Alfonso's 'relict' Agnes remarried to Elias I of Maine. Though this has led to the speculation that Alfonso and Agnes had divorced due to consanguinity, it seems more likely that Orderic referred to Alfonso's final wife and widow, Beatrice, who is known to have returned to France at this time, and that Orderic erred in naming her. Agnes and Alfonso had no children, nor did Elias by his wife, Alfonso's 'relict'.^[1]

Death and burial

Several alternative accounts are given for the death of Agnes. Some sources place it in 1078, which would be consistent with her disappearance from the records. However, a surviving obituary notice has been interpreted as placing her death in 1097. This record, though, simply refers to Queen Ínes, and probably intended her half-sister Agnes, who died in that year. Likewise, the report of her marriage to Elias would, if accurate, require her survival at least to that date.

Agnes is said to have been buried in the royal monastery of Sahagún, near Alfonso's second wife, Constance of Burgundy.^[2] However, given that the surviving monuments at Sahagún are not contemporary and errors have been found in the reported inscriptions, this may be apocryphal.

References