Sancho III of Castile

Sancho III (1134 – 31 August 1158) was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. During the Reconquista, in which he took an active part, he founded the Order of Calatrava.^[1] He was called el Deseado (the Desired) due to his position as the first child of his parents, born after eight years of childless marriage.

Life

He was the eldest son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and Berengaria of Barcelona.^[2] During his father's reign, he appears as "king of Nájera" as early as 1149. His father's will partitioned the kingdom between his two sons: Sancho inherited the kingdoms of Castile and Toledo, and Ferdinand inherited León.^[3] The two brothers had just signed a treaty when Sancho suddenly died in the summer of 1158, being buried at Toledo.^[4]

He had married, in 1151, Blanche of Navarre, daughter of García Ramírez of Navarre, and had two sons:

• Alfonso VIII of Castile, his successor
• infante García, who died at birth in 1156, apparently also resulting in the death of Queen Blanche.

There may also have been an older son who died in infancy.

Ancestry

Notes

References

• M. M. Busk, The history of Spain and Portugal from B.C. 1000 to A.D. 1814, Baldwin and Cradock, 1833.
• Kenneth John Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 800 to 1200, Yale University Press, 1959.
• Peter Linehan, Spain:A Partible Inheritance 1157-1300, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2011.
• Joseph F. O'Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain, Cornell University Press, 1975.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sancho III of Castile.

• Szabolcs de Vajay, "From Alfonso VIII to Alfonso X" in Studies in Genealogy and Family History in Tribute to Charles Evans on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday, 1989, pp. 366–417.

Monarchs of Castile House of Jiménez Ferdinand I Sancho II Alfonso VI Urraca House of Burgundy Alfonso VII Sancho III Alfonso VIII Henry I Berengaria Ferdinand III Alfonso X Sancho IV Ferdinand IV Alfonso XI Peter House of Trastámara Henry II John I Henry III John II Henry IV Isabella I & Ferdinand V Joanna & Philip I House of Habsburg Philip I & Joanna Charles I Philip II Philip III Philip IV Charles II