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____ Zaida (Isabel)
Birth:          1075 of Denia, Alicante
Death:          ABT 1110 Spain

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_VI_of_Le%C3%B3n_and_Castile
Zaida[edit]

Bishop Pelagius of Oviedo mentions Zaida as one of the king's two concubines and 
says that she was the daughter of Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, ruler of the Taifa of Seville. 
In fact, she was his daughter-in-law, married to his son Abu Nasr Al-Fath al-Ma'mun, 
ruler of the Taifa of Córdoba.[83][84] In March 1091, the Almoravid army besieged the 
city of Córdoba. Zaida's husband, who died during the siege on 26–27 March, sent his 
wife and children to Almodóvar del Río as a precautionary measure. After becoming a 
widow, Zaida sought protection at the court of the Leonese king and she and her 
children converted to Christianity; she was baptized with the name "Isabel" and 
became the king's concubine.[85] She bore him one son:
Sancho Alfónsez (c. 1094 – 29 May 1108),[86][87] Alfonso VI's only son and heir. His 
premature death in the Battle of Uclés so grieved his father that he too soon died.

In the chronicle De rebus Hispaniae, by the Archbishop of Toledo Rodrigo Jiménez de 
Rada, Zaida is counted among the wives of Alfonso VI. But the Chronica Naierensis 
and the Chronicon mundi indicate that Zaida was a concubine and not the wife of 
Alfonso VI.[88]

According to Jaime de Salazar y Acha, followed by other authors, among them, 
Gonzalo Martínez Diez, they married in 1100, and with this ceremony their son was 
legitimized and declared heir of the Kingdoms of León and Castile.[89][90][91] For 
Salazar y Acha, Zaida and the fourth wife of Alfonso VI, Isabel, are the same person, 
"despite of the impotent efforts of later historians to try to prove that she was not the 
Moor Zaida",[92] and, accordingly, she would also be the mother of Elvira and Sancha 
Alfónsez.[93] Another reason the author mentions to support this hypotheis was that 
shortly after the marriage of the king with Isabel, his son Sancho begins to confirm 
royal charters and, if Isabel and Zaida were not the same person, the new queen 
would not have allowed the new protagonism of Sancho in detriment of her possible 
future sons.[94] He also cites a charter from the cathedral of Astorga dated 14 April 
1107 where Alfonso VI grants some fueros and acts cum uxore mea Elisabet et filio 
nostro Sancio (with my wife Isabel and our son Sancho).[94] This is the only document 
where Sancho is referred to as "our son", since in others he only appears as the 
king's son even though Queen Isabel also confirms the charters.

Reilly accepts that there were two Isabels: the Moor Zaida (baptized Isabel) and the 
other Isabel, but argues that to reinforce the position of Sancho Alfónsez, the king 
annulled his marriage to Isabel in March 1106 and married Zaida.[91][95] The 
hypothesis that Alfonso VI had married Zaida was rejected by Menéndez Pidal and 
Lévi-Provençal.[96]

On 27 March 1106, Alfonso VI confirmed a donation to the monastery of Lorenzana: 
(...) eiusdemque Helisabeth regina sub maritali copula legaliter aderente, an unusual 
formula that confirms a legitimate marriage.[97] Salazar y Acha and Reilly interpret this 
quote as proof that the king had married Zaida, thus legitimizing their son and the 
relationship of concubinage.[98][99] Gambra, however, disagrees and says that it is 
"an extremely weak argument, starting with the documentary reference, which is 
scarcely significant. Its character is rather ornamental and literary".[98] Montaner 
Frutos also says that this hypothesis is "unlikely and problematic" since it was not 
necessary for the king to marry Zaida to legitimize his son and that, furthermore, the 
French Isabel died in 1107 according to her epitaph.[100] Montaner Frutos also 
mentions a donation from Queen Urraca years later, in 1115, when she donated 
properties to Toledo Cathedral and only mentions one Isabel as the king's wife.[g]

Parents
AL-MU'TAMID Muhammed III be Abbad (Abdul-Kasim) (1040 - 1095)
____ I'tamid ()

Siblings
____ Zaida (Isabel) (1075 - ABT 1110)

Marriage To ____ Alfonso VI "The Valiant" (BEF Jun 1040 - 1 Jul 1109) m. Notes Parents ____ Fernando I "the Great" (ABT 1016 - 27 Dec 1065) OF LEON Sancha (ABT 1016 - 27 Nov 1067) Children by ____ Alfonso VI "The Valiant" BEF Jun 1040 - 1 Jul 1109
ALFONSEZ Sancha (ABT 1101 - )
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