Madragana
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Madragana, later known as Maior Afonso or Mor Afonso, was born circa 1230 in Faro, Portugal to Aloandro Ben Bekar (or Bakr; also known as Aldroando Gil), Governor of Faro, a Mozarab (an Iberian Christian living under Muslim domination), a son of Bakr Ben Yahia and grandson of Yahia Ben Bakr, of Sephardi Jew origin.
Madragana was mistress to king Afonso III of Portugal after he took Faro from the Moors and Aloandro offered him his daughter. She was re-christened at the time[1], receiving her new name as Maior Afonso, Mor being short for Maior (meaning "the bigger"), a common female name in medieval Portuguese. Afonso was given her in baptism as her new patronymic, meaning "the daughter of" Afonso - and that implies that her elderly royal lover was also her godfather, that she took his spiritual fatherhood when christening. Sometimes, Madragana was also called in ancient Portuguese chronicles Mouroana[2], Mouroana Gil and Madraganil - all of which are Iberian Christian names.
Madragana had two children to the king:
- Martim Afonso Chichorro (of Portugal) (circa 1250 - after 1313), married Inês Lourenço de Valadares (or de Sousa) (circa 1250 -), had issue.
- Urraca Afonso of Portugal (circa 1260 -?), married twice: 1st in 1265 to Pedro Anes Gago de Riba Vizela (circa 1240 - 1286) (twice her cousin, descendant both from a daughter of King Afonso I of Portugal by his mistress Elvira Gálter, and from Sancho Nunes de Celanova and his wife Sancha Henriques, sister of that King), had issue now extinct, 2nd circa 1275 to João Mendes de Briteiros (circa 1250 -), had issue.
When passion with the king waned, she was married to Fernão Rei, and they had documented issue: at least one daughter, Sancha Fernandes, married and perpetuated the Rei family. Note that Rei means king, in Portuguese, and so Fernão Rei is supposed to have been originally a servant of the king (Fernão do Rei - Ferdinand of the King).
There is, however, some controversy regarding the fact that she might have been a Moor. Duarte Nunes de Leão, a Portuguese royal chronicler of the 16th century, tells us that Madragana was a Moor. That is denied by António Caetano de Sousa, in the 18th century, in the História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa.
Further controversy presents her as African, by that meaning Black, due to the fact that a 15th-generation descendant of hers, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (daughter of Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen), queen consort of George III of the United Kingdom (and grandmother of Queen Victoria, and the great-great-great-great grandmother of the current Queen of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II), supposedly present openly biracial features. This, however, is not backed up by the known historical facts.
One could say of Maior Afonso that she is genetically ancestor to almost all European aristocracy and royal families, by the noble house of Sousa - a 6th-generation descendant of hers, Margarita de Castro e Souza, a Portuguese noblewoman of the 15th century married Jean II, count of Neufchâtel (1414-1489), and their issue propagated throughout Europe.
[edit] Madragana's genealogy
[edit] Notes
- ^ Most probably because she had been previously christened according to the Mozarabic Rite, the re-christening being done in the Roman Rite.
- ^ Sometimes spelled Mourana (also in the variety Mourana Gil).Notice that the origin of the name Mourana is not the Portuguese for Moor, Mouro, but the Iberian traditional Ouroana, a variant of Oriana.
[edit] External links
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