Petronilla of Aragon

Petronilla of Aragon (Huesca, 29 June 1136 – Barcelona, 15 October 1173),^[1] whose name is also spelled Petronila or Petronella (Aragonese Peyronela or Payronella,^[2] and Catalan: Peronella), was Queen regnant of Aragon from 1137 until 1164. She was the daughter and successor of Ramiro II by Agnes of Aquitaine. By right of her marriage, she was also styled Countess of Barcelona.

Petronilla came to the throne through special circumstances. Her father, Ramiro, was bishop of Barbastro-Roda when his brother, Alfonso I, died without an heir in 1134, and left the crown to the three religious military orders. The nobility of Aragon, however, raised Ramiro to the throne. As king, he received a papal dispensation to abdicate from his monastic vows in order to secure the succession to the throne. King Ramiro the Monk, as he is known, married Agnes, daughter of Duke William IX of Aquitaine and Gascony, and through her produced an heiress, Petronilla. When she was just a little over one year old, Petronilla was married in Barbastro on 11 August 1137 to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona.^[3] Immediately thereafter, Ramiro abdicated in favour of Petronilla and Ramon Berenguer and returned to monastic life.

Petronilla consummated her marriage to Ramon Berenguer in the early part of 1151,^[3] when she reached the age of 15. The marriage produced five children:

• Peter of Aragon (b.4 May 1152- died young)
• King Alfonso II of Aragon (March 1157- 25 April 1196), Married Sancha of Castile, by whom he had issue.
• Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Provence (1158- 5 April 1181), died unmarried.
• Dulce of Aragon (1160- 1 September 1198), married King Sancho I of Portugal, by whom she had issue.
• Sancho, Count of Provence (1161–1223), married firstly Ermensinda of Rocabertí; and secondly Sancha Núñez de Lara, by whom he had a son and a daughter.

Shortly after his death in 1162, Petronilla renounced the crown of Aragon in favour of her eldest son, Ramon Berenguer, who, as a compliment to the Aragonese, changed his name to Alfonso. Her son was the first ruler of both Aragon and Catalonia (where he is known as Alfons I) thereby establishing the dynastic union between the two countries that lasted until the Crown of Aragon was dissolved in 1707. The two kingdoms remained largely separate in a federal state in which each had its own system of laws and government. The ruler used both titles of King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona. Alfonso II was seven years old when on 18 July 1164 Petronilla abdicated on his behalf. She died in Barcelona in October 1173 and was buried at Barcelona Cathedral. Her tomb has been lost.

Notes

References

• Bisson, Thomas N. The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000.
• Chaytor, Henry John. A History of Aragon and Catalonia. London: Methuan, 1933.
• Stalls, William C. "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.