Individual
Go to List of Family Names Go to List of People < Previous Next >
____ 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 - )
Produced by Fzip 1.7 6/20/2017