Infante Fernando, Lord of Serpa

Infante Fernando of Portugal (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɨɾˈnɐ̃du]), or Ferdinand in English, was a Portuguese infante (prince), son of King Afonso II of Portugal and his wife Urraca of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile.

Fernando was born in the summer of 1217 and was made Lord of Serpa and Lamego in 1223. It is known that he travelled to Rome around 1239 to beg for a pardon from Pope Gregory IX. He died January 19, 1246.

Marriage and offspring

He married Sancha Fernández de Lara, daughter of Fernando Núñez de Lara, Lord de Jerez, and wife Maior Garcéz de Aza; their only child was Leonor who married an unnamed "Prince of Dacia".

He had, however, a bastard son by an unknown woman named Dom Sancho Fernandes de Serpa, who was a Prior but had illegitimate issue, being the ancestor of the de Serpa family.

Coat of arms

In a study from the Spanish historian F. Menéndez-Pidal de Navascués,^[1] the infante Fernando should have used a Coat of Arms representing a Wyvern (Serpe in Portuguese), the symbol of his Lordship of Serpa, in south Alentejo, with a border where, alternately, are represented the arms of Portugal (paternal ancestry) and those of Castile (maternal ancestry).

Ancestors

Bibliography

• ”Nobreza de Portugal e do Brasil”, Vol. I page 152, published by Representações Zairol Lda., Lisbon, 1989.

Notes and references

External links

• Genealogia of Infante Fernando, Lord of Serpa (in Portuguese)