Alfonso VIII “el Noble”, king of Castile, Toledo, and Extremadura

King of Castile, Toledo, and Extremadura.

Events

Date of Birth: 11 November 1155.

(possible) Place of Birth: Soria.

The date and place are given by Martínez Diez (p. 17) and by González (1:144).

Date of Death: 6 October 1214.

Place of Death: Gutiérre Múñoz near Arévalol.

The date and place are given by Martínez Diez (p. 294). González (1:213) gives the night of 5-6 October 1214.

Place of Burial: Burgos, el Real Monasterio de las Huelgas.

The place is given by Martínez Diez (p. 296) and by González (1:215).

Relationships

Father: Sancho III “el Deseado”, king of Castile.

This relationship is given by Martínez Diez (p. 17), by González (1:144-147), by Barton (p. 13), and by Sáez.

Mother: Blanca de Navarra.

This relationship is given by Martínez Diez (p. 17), by González (1:144-147), and by Sáez.

Spouse: Eleanor of England. Married September 1170 in Burgos.

This relationship is given by Cerda, by Martínez Diez (pp. 43-46), by González (1:188), and by Sáez.

Children:

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)

Berenguela (1180 - 8 November 1246) married (1) Konrad von Staufen, duke of Swabia; married (2) Alfonso IX, king of León.

Sancho (5 April 1181 - July 1181).

Sancha (March 1182 - 1184 or 1185).

Urraca (about 1186 - 3 November 1220) married Afonso II “o Gordo”, king of Portugal.

Blanca (4 March 1188 - 27 November 1252) married Louis VIII, king of France.

Fernando (29 November 1189 - 14 October 1211).

Mafalda (1191 - 1204).

Constanza (1 May 1200 - 1243), nun, later abbess.

Enrique I (14 April 1204 - 6 June 1217), king of Castile, married Mafalda de Portugal.

Leonor (1208 - 1244) married Jaime I “el Conquistador”, king of Aragon.

References

Barton, Simon. The Aristocracy in Twelfth-Century León and Castile, (Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Cerda, José Manuel. “The Marriage of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonor Plantagenet: the First Bond between Spain and England in the Middle Ages” in Les Stratégies Matrimoniales (IX^e - XIII^e siècle) (Martin Aurell, ed.). Brepols, 2013.

Cokayne, G.E., and G.W. Watson. The Seize Quartiers of the Kings and Queens of England. (1896).

González, Julio. El reino de Castilla en la época de Alfonso VIII (Madrid, 1960).

Martínez Diez, Gonzalo. Alfonso VIII, Rey de Castilla y Toledo (Burgos: Editorial la Olmeda, S.L., 1995).

Martínez Díez, Gonzalo. "Alfonso VIII," in Diccionario Biográfico electrónico (Real Academia de la Historia).

Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. Las dinastías reales de España en la Edad Media. (Real Academia de la Historia, 2021).

Sáez, E.. "Alfons VIII." in Lexikon des Mittelalters Band 1 (Stuttgart 1980).

Vones-Liebenstein, Ursula. Kastilien-Leon genealogical table in volume 9 of Lexikon des Mittelalters. Munich: LexMA-Verlag, 1980-1998.

Online Biographies

Alfonso VIII (Diccionario Biográfico electrónico; Real Academia de la Historia)

Alfonso VIII of Castile (Wikipedia)