Chapter Twenty Three The Treasures and Foundations of Isabel, Beatriz, Elisenda, and Leonor. The Art Patronage of Four Iberian Queens in the Fourteenth Century

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of Leonor of Portugal (1328–1348), Queen of Aragón; Isabel was also

the sister-in-law of Elisenda of Montcada (1292–1364), Queen of Aragón

as well.4

An important feature of all these queens’ histories is that when they

married, they received both dowries from their parents and dowers from

their husbands, as was customary in the Iberian kingdoms after the reintroduction of Roman law in the thirteenth century.5 The dowers were usually composed of royal estates, rights, and rents that not only made these

queens very rich women but also conferred on them seigniorial powers

over the inhabitants of those territories: they could appoint local judges,

governors of the castles, notaries, tax collectors, and other officials, and

the queens themselves were the last resort of appeal.6 Immediately after

consummating their marriage, the queens could dispose of their dowers,

which constituted without doubt the bulk of their revenue.

During their lifetimes, some queens would receive more donations of

royal estates, rights, and rents either from their husbands or from their

sons, increasing their wealth.7 All this secured their financial independence and well-being, thus allowing them to maintain and reward a large

court of ladies-in-waiting and officials, to extend their patronage to religious houses and charitable institutions, and to project a visibly royal status by sustaining a high level of consumption of luxury goods.

As to the dowry, it consisted of a considerable amount of money that

could be furnished either by the father and/or the mother of the bride, or

by her brother if their father had already died. It was paid in several installments whose frequency was established by the matrimonial contracts, but

delays were common and sometimes a sum remained unpaid even at the

moment of the queen’s death.8 The amounts paid were frequently used by

the kings to cover urgent expenses9 and their wives could only claim the

restitution of the dower in case of widowhood. This explains at least in

4 See the Genealogical Table at the end of this article.

5 Ana Maria S.A. Rodrigues, “For the Honor of Her Lineage and Body: The Dowers and

Dowries of Some Late Medieval Queens of Portugal,” e-Journal of Portuguese History, 5/1

(2007), pp. 1–13, esp. 3.

6 Ana Maria S.A. Rodrigues and Manuela Silva, “Private Properties, Seignioral Tributes,

and Jurisdictional Rents: The Income of the Queens of Portugal in the Late Middle Ages,”

in Women and Wealth in Late Medieval Europe, ed. Theresa Earenfight (New York, 2010),

pp. 209–28, esp. 218–19.

7 For Isabel and Beatriz, see Rodrigues and Silva, “Private Properties,” pp. 211–12.

8 Rodrigues, “For the Honor,” pp. 3–4.

9 Pere IV used part of Leonor’s dowry to recruit troops to fight the “unions” that opposed

his rule. Vicente Ángel Álvarez Palenzuela, “Esfuerzos reconquistadores de Castilla y







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part the greater financial ease some queens seem to have had after their

husband’s death, as we shall see.

Apart from the dowry, queens usually also brought with them a trousseau composed of luxurious clothes, wardrobe accessories, religious

objects, silverware, and jewels.10 For the fourteenth century, we do not

possess the inventories that become frequent in later periods. Yet, there

are sometimes other sources that allow us to have a glimpse at what the

brides received from their parents at the time of the wedding. It could be

jewels and other objects that had been in the family for several generations but it could also be new objects commissioned for the occasion or

bought in the market. Leonor, for instance, became queen of Aragón when

she married Pere IV (1319–1387) by proxy in June 1347. In July, she received

from her father King Afonso IV of Portugal (1291–1357) all the personal

objects that the infanta Maria of Aragón (1299–1316) had left as security for

a loan when Maria lived in Portugal with her daughter Blanca (1315–1375).11

These objects were worth two thousand, one hundred pounds (libras) and

consisted of a gold crown with four emeralds, three rubies, six sapphires,

and seed pearls (aljôfar); several cups made of gold, silver, nacre, or crystal, either plain, inlaid with precious stones, or enameled; small cups and

pitchers made of crystal with gilded silver bases; silver spoons; a silver

bowl adorned with castles and eagles; a silver censer with its chains; and

several wardrobe accessories: an enameled belt embroidered with silver

thread, another belt made of silk and gold thread, and a red hat whose

ties were decorated with seed pearls and colored stones.12 Unfortunately,

these pieces no longer exist.

Isabel, daughter of Pere III of Aragón (1239–1285) and Constanza

Hohenstaufen (1247–1302), almost certainly received a trousseau from her

parents, though there is no more documentary evidence of it other than



expansión mediterránea en Aragón,” in Historia General de España y América, vol. 4, La

España de los cinco reinos (1085–1369), 2nd ed. (Madrid, 1990), pp. 637–729, esp. 721.

10 Luis Vicente Diaz Martín and Roberto Ruiz Capellan, “El ajuar de Da Blanca de

Borbón, mujer de Pedro I de Castilla, en las cuentas de Étienne de la Fontaine,” Boletín de

la Real Academia de la Historia, 197 (2000), pp. 267–305.

11 Blanca was the fiancée of the crown prince of Portugal, Pedro, who later repudiated her. On this episode, see Ana Maria S.A. Rodrigues, “Infantas e rainhas: garantes de

paz, pretexto para guerras,” in A guerra e a sociedade na Idade Média. VI Jornadas LusoEspanholas de Estudos Medievais. Actas (Campo Militar de S. Jorge [CIBA], Porto de Mús,

Alcobaỗa, and Batalha, 2009), vol. 2, pp. 39–59, esp. 48–49.

12 António Caetano de Sousa, Provas da História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa,

2nd ed. (Coimbra, 1946 [1739]), vol. 1, L. II, pp. 380–82.



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what is said in her Vita:13 that they gave her “many silver vessels.”14 Several

of the devotional objects bequeathed by Isabel to the monastery of Santa

Clara in Coimbra still exist today, and a few are reputed to be of foreign

origin: one of them is a cross made of crystal, probably manufactured in

Venice, with enameled miniatures that Joan Domenge and Anna Molina

consider inspired by a Byzantine model (Fig. 1; Color Plate 28). This cross

had a particular iconography that Domenge and Molina see as especially

suitable for a woman: the Crucifixion on one side and, on the other, not a

Maiestas Domini as was usual, but the Dormition of the Virgin.15 The other

objects are a cross of jasper with the coats of arms of Aragón and Portugal

(Fig. 2), similar to those that existed in the treasure of Isabel’s brother,

Jaume II of Aragón (1267–1327), which he presented to his wife Blanche of

Anjou (1280–1310); and a reliquary of the Holy Cross made of silver and coral,

also with the coats of arms of Aragón and Portugal (Fig. 3; Color Plate 29),

which is probably an assemblage of various pieces.16 If there is no doubt

that these three objects reached Portugal through Aragón—though they

might have been manufactured elsewhere—it is impossible to know

exactly when it happened: Isabel could have received them as a young

bride from her parents, but she could also have commissioned them herself or received them as a gift from her brother at a later period in her life.17

In face of her activity as a patron in her widowhood, however, it seems

13 This hagiography was written shortly after the queen’s death by an unknown author

which is believed to be her confessor, the bishop of Lamego, Salvador Martins. Together

with a compilation of Isabel’s miracles, it was intended to be used in a canonization process that, nevertheless, only took place almost three centuries later, as we shall see further

on. Giulia Rossi Vairo, “Le origini del processo di canonizzazione di Isabella d’Aragóna,

Rainha Santa de Portugal, in un atto notarile del 27 Luglio 1336,” Collectanea Franciscana,

74/1–2 (2004), pp. 147–93, esp. 161–62.

14 “gram vasilha de prata,” as it is stated in the Relaỗam da vida da gloriosa Santa Isabel Rainha de Portugal, tresladada de hum liuro escrito de maõ, que esta no Conuento de

S. Clara de Coimbra, & que serue para varios capitulos desta historia, & da subsequente.”

Frei Francisco Brandão, Monarquia Lusitana, vol. 6, appendix, 3rd ed. (facsimile, Lisbon,

1980; 1st ed., Lisbon, 1672), p. 498.

15 Joan Domenge and Anna Molina, “Les ‘nobles i riques ofrenes’ d’Isabel de Portugal.

Orfebreries de la reina santa,” in Princeses de terres llunyanes. Catalunya i Hongria a l’edat

mitjana (Barcelona, 2009), pp. 307–23.

16 Domenge and Molina, “Les ‘nobles y riques ofrenes’,” pp. 313–19. However, the authors

also recognize (p. 310) that it is difficult to be sure that these pieces were foreign, as so little

is known about Portuguese goldsmiths.

17 For instance, she and King Dinis joined Jaume II and other royalty in 1304, in Tarazona, and he presented them with several precious objects. J. Ernesto Martínez Ferrando,

“La Cámara Real en el reinado de Jaime II (1291–1327). Relaciones de entradas y salidas de

objetos artísticos,” Anales y Boletín de los Museos de Arte de Barcelona, 11 (1953–1954), doc.

8, pp. 14–15.







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Figure 1 Processional cross, 14th c. (Photo: J. Pessoa, Divisóo de Documentaỗóo

Fotogrỏfica/Museu Nacional Machado de Castro, Instituto dos Museus e da Conservaỗóo, I.P.). See color plate 28.



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Figure 2 Processional cross, 14th c. (Photo: J. Pessoa, Divisóo de Documentaỗóo Fotogrỏfica/Museu Nacional Machado de Castro, Instituto dos Museus e da

Conservaỗóo, I.P.).







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Figure 3 Reliquary of the Holy Cross, 14th c. (Photo: J. Pessoa, Divisóo de Documentaỗóo Fotogrỏfica/Museu Nacional Machado de Castro, Instituto dos Museus

e da Conservaỗóo, I.P.). See color plate 29.



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most likely that she commissioned them herself to present them to the

nuns of Santa Clara.

There were many occasions for queens to receive jewels, relics, and

other precious gifts during their lifetimes, though. At their arrival in their

new kingdoms, their husbands would deliver them the crown insignia for

them to wear on solemn occasions and transmit to their successors in

the office; but they could also offer them jewels that would become their

personal property. For instance, shortly after their marriage in December,

1322, Jaume II of Aragón ordered his chamberlain to transfer to his new

wife Elisenda a great many artifacts, such as liturgical vestments, riding

paraphernalia, bed linen, luxurious cloth, silverware, jewels, and so forth.

At the same time, he presented her with a crown that he had bought from

her very own brother Ot de Montcada (1290–1341). The queen was happy

to use this family jewel until her death; then, having no children, she

ordered it to be sold for the benefit of the monastery of Pedralbes.18

Queens also offered sumptuous items to each other, as a sign of consideration and friendship. In her last will and testament, dated September 13,

1348,19 Leonor of Portugal left to her husband Pere IV a silver jar that she

had received as a gift from the dowager queen Elisenda; at the same time,

she bequeathed to her stepdaughters20 the crowns and garlands she had

been presented with by her husband. She did not forget to leave a little coffer and a gold jar to her father Afonso IV, and the best piece of

jewelry in her treasury to her mother Beatriz, either. In fact, jewels and

devotional objects circulated very often among mothers, daughters, and

grand-daughters, without excluding other relatives by blood or alliance.

In Queen Isabel’s last will and testament dated 22 December 1327,21 she

bequeathed her crown with emeralds to her daughter-in-law Beatriz with

the condition that in due time she would leave it to her own daughter,

Maria (1313–1357), queen of Castile. This same Maria, no doubt Isabel’s

favorite grand-daughter,22 would also receive Isabel’s small crown with



18 Anna Castellano i Tresserra, “Orígen i formació d’un monestir femení. Pedralbes

al segle XIV (1327–1411),” Ph.D. dissertation, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, 1996,

pp. 585–88 and 630.

19 Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (ACA), Cancillería, Reg. 2256, fols. 1r–4v. I thank

Maria Antonieta Moreira da Costa for her assistance in transcribing and translating this

document.

20 Constanza, Juana, and María, daughters of Maria of Navarre, the first wife of Pere

IV of Aragón.

21 Sousa, Provas da Historia, vol. 1, L. 2, p. 149.

22 “Whom I brought up” (“que eu criei”), as she testified in her will.







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pierced gems, her round brooch, her relic of the Holy Cross (at that time

mounted with three pierced sapphires), the relics that were encased in a

gold crown under the jasper, the relics of St. Bartholomew that were set

under a crystal and in a chain, and finally a pair of ear rings (teixéis)23 with

eagles. To her other grand-daughter, Leonor of Castile (1307–1359)24 Isabel

bequeathed only her crown with pink rubies (balaches) and a pair of ear

rings with figures and stones. All these bequests are listed by the author

of the sainted queen’s Vita, who presents us with “an image of one queen

passing on her wealth and prestige to others.”25

In Beatriz of Castile’s last will and testament set down in 1358,26 after

the deaths of both her daughters Leonor (in 1348) and Maria (in 1357),

plus her daughter-in-law Constanza Manuel (1318–1349) and her husband

Afonso IV (in 1357), we find traces of some of these family jewels that went

from mother to daughter to grand-daughter, and sometimes back again

because of the intense mortality of that period. From her own mother,

Maria de Molina (1265–1321), Beatriz had received a huge emerald, and

another emerald possessed of healing powers (she calls it “of virtue” and

“of blessing”), which she bequeathed to her son King Pedro I (1320–1367)

with the condition that at his death it should go to the crown prince and,

after that, always to the heir to the throne. From her brother Felipe of

Castile (1292–1327), she had received a belt in enameled silver. From her

mother-in-law Isabel, she was given several gold beads, but there is no

sign of the crown that Queen Isabel had bequeathed her in her last will

and testament. Gold beads were also bestowed on Beatriz by her daughter-in-law Constanza Manuel, who had additionally left her a gold cross

with a ruby and four sapphires.27

23As translated by Antúnio Nogueira Gonỗalves, O tesouro de D. Isabel de Aragão rainha

de Portugal (Coimbra, 1983), p. 9.

24 This Leonor was the daughter of Isabels daughter Constanỗa and Fernando IV of

Castile. She became queen in 1329 as the second wife of Alfons IV of Aragón, but she was

widowed in 1336 and had a long conflict with her stepson Pere IV concerning her children’s

heritage. Having returned to Castile, she became involved in local intrigues and was murdered by order of her nephew Pedro I el Cruel in 1359. See Thomas N. Bisson, The Medieval

Crown of Aragón (Oxford, 1991), pp. 104–20.

25 Iona McCleery, “Isabel of Aragón (d. 1336): Model Queen or Model Saint?” Journal of

Ecclesiastical History, 57/4 (2006), pp. 668–92, esp. 689.

26 Sousa, Provas da Historia, vol. 1, L. 2, pp. 343–55.

27 The Castilian infanta Constanza Manuel, who had already been repudiated by her

cousin Alfonso XI of Castile in 1327, married Prince Pedro of Portugal (son of Afonso IV of

Portugal and Beatriz of Castile) in 1336, by proxy. However, her former “husband” prevented

her from reaching Portugal, and this led to a war between the two kingdoms. Only in 1339,

when peace was reestablished, was she allowed to join Pedro. Alas, she had taken with her



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From her husband Afonso IV, Beatriz had acquired an enameled silver

cup, a gold cup with its cover embellished with a sapphire, a cameo with

a lion, another cameo with “chubby-faced” men, several rings with precious stones, and a gold belt. From her daughter Leonor, she had inherited

several coral beads; a cup with its cover surmounted by a figure representing the Knight of the Swan;28 a small enameled jar; two rings, one with a

ruby and the other with an emerald; a figurine of a serpent with scorpions

made of silver and coral; and a small coffer (probably the one that Leonor

had bequeathed to her father). From her other daughter, Maria, the queen

had received an enameled gold coin and a sculptural piece in the form

of a miniature castle decorated with small stones, seed pearls, and two

cameos with lions. All these treasures were bequeathed by Beatriz either

to her son King Pedro I or to her grand-children: Fernando (1345–1383) and

Maria (1342–?), born from Constanza Manuel;29 João (1352–1397), Dinis

(1353–1403), and Beatriz (1354–1382), born from Inês of Castro (1325?–1355).

So, queens did offer and bequeath silverworks, relics, and jewels to

other members of their families either by blood or alliance. Many of these

precious objects had been inherited or received as gifts from relatives and

friends, but some were probably bought from merchants or commissioned

from craftsmen. No account books for our queens survive that can elucidate for us their consumption of luxurious objects although they do exist

for their male counterparts. Nevertheless, there is evidence that queens

had craftsmen working directly for them: from a letter she wrote to her

brother Jaume II, we know that Isabel had a “moro argentero” (Muslim silversmith) who had fled from her court and whom she was eager to recover.30 Stylistic evidence indicates that he was probably not the creator of

the beautiful silver reliquary of the Madonna and Child that Isabel also



in her suite Inês of Castro, a Galician lady with whom the crown prince immediately fell

in love. In the following years, Constanza gave birth to two sons (one of whom died) and

a daughter, and eventually died either of plague or as a consequence of childbirth, in 1349,

without having ever gained her husband’s affection. She never became queen.

28 The Knight of the Swan is the hero of the Old French Crusade Cycle concerning

the origins and life of Godfrey of Bouillon and of his successors as rulers of the Crusader

Kingdom of Jerusalem. The first poems of this cycle appeared at the end of the 12th century; the cycle was completed during the 13th century, but it gained new versions either in

verse or in prose at the end of the Middle Ages. See Catherine Gaullier-Bourgass, “Le Chevalier au Cygne à la fin du Moyen Age. Renouvellements, en vers et en prose, de l’épopée

romanesque des origines de Godefroy de Bouillon,” Cahiers de recherches médiévales et

humanistes, 12 (2005), pp. 115–46.

29 Her other child, Luís, died shortly after birth.

30 Domenge and Molina, “Les ‘nobles y riques ofrenes’,” p. 319.







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bequeathed to the monastery of Santa Clara in Coimbra, which seems

to have been used as a fertility charm31 (Fig. 4); it has recently been suggested that the queen might have commissioned it during the eight years

of marriage during which she did not bear a child.32 Another commission

from Isabel was a belt or a chain that was transformed into a necklace

in the sixteenth century (Fig. 5), and whose original floral pieces of gold

plate and precious stones resemble the brooch on the Madonna;33 this

item kept being used by midwives long after the queen’s death because it

was believed that it helped childbirth, as it had been used by a saint.34

We also have evidence that these queens often had pieces of silver,

jewelry, and clothing disassembled to create new works.35 For instance,

in her first testament, dated 19 April 1314, Isabel bequeathed to the monastery of Odivelas a cross to be made out of the gold that would be found

in her treasury, and of nine good stones that should be taken from her

clothes, if she had not had that cross manufactured before her death.36

Leonor’s treasure included a significant quantity of gems, pearls, and both

small pieces and whole branches of coral waiting to be encased in new

jewels; similarly, her wardrobe held countless seed pearls, buttons, and

small adornments in silver and gold that belonged to old clothes and

awaited reuse in new garments.37 Unfortunately, the queen did not live

long enough to have them remade to her liking. As for Beatriz, she asked

for her catafalque to be covered with the mortuary cloth she had ordered

to be made with the textile her daughter Leonor had sent her; this was

adorned with castles and lions, the heraldic symbols of her natal family.38

These queens did not only buy or order pieces of jewellery and precious clothing. They were also involved in commissioning works of art

such as tombs and altarpieces, and in supplying the resources for building bridges, palaces, hospitals, convents, or providing these with new



31 In her last will, the queen refers to this Madonna as “the saint that I used to put to

the brides that married from my household” (“a Sancta que eu mandava poer às noivas

que casavaõ de minha casa”) and she requests that the abbess continue to lend it to the

brides after her death. Sousa, Provas da Historia, vol. 1, L. 2, p. 151.

32 Domenge and Molina, “Les ‘nobles y riques ofrenes’,” p. 311.

33 Domenge and Molina, “Les ‘nobles y riques ofrenes, p. 312.

34Gonỗalves, O tesouro de D. Isabel de Aragão, p. 15.

35 As did their husbands; for Jaume II, see Martínez Ferrando, “La Cámara Real,”

pp. xiv–xv.

36 Sousa, Provas da Historia, vol. 1, L. 2, p. 145.

37 ACA, Cancillería, Reg. 2256, 2257, 2258, passim.

38Vanda Lourenỗo, O testamento da rainha D. Beatriz, Promontoria, 3/3 (2005),

pp. 81–107, esp. 85.



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Figure 4 Reliquary of the Madonna and Child, 14th c. (Photo: J. Pessoa, Divisóo

de Documentaỗóo Fotogrỏfica/Museu Nacional Machado de Castro, Instituto dos

Museus e da Conservaỗóo, I.P.).