, Agnes Of Aquitaine, Queen Of Aragon

Agnes (French: Agnès, Spanish: Inés; c.1105–c.1159)[1] was the daughterof William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, and Philippa, Countess of Toulouse. Herfirst marriage, around 1117, was to Aimery V, Viscount of Thouars, whomshe bore three sons. After his death she married a second time in 1135 tothe childless Ramiro II, King of Aragon, a former monk. She bore him anheiress and in 1137 she retired to the Abbey of Fontevraud, from whereshe continued to take part in the affairs of her sons until her death.

Agnes was the namesake of her aunt Agnes, queen of King Peter I of Aragonand Navarre. She was also the aunt of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Petronillaof Aquitaine.

Agnes married Aimery, the viscount of Thouars, some time prior to 9January 1117, when the couple confirmed the possessions of the abbey ofSaint-Laon de Thouars.[2] Before Aimery''s death in 1127, Agnes bore himthree sons:[3]
William I (died 1151), succeeded his father[1]
Guy (died c. 1149), lord of Oiron[1]
Geoffrey IV (died 1173), succeeded William[1]

On 13 November 1135 in the cathedral of Jaca, the ancient capital of theKingdom of Aragon, Agnes married Ramiro, a monk who had resigned thebishopric of Roda in order to assume the crown.[3] The anonymouscontemporary author of the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris attributes theinitiative in Ramiro''s marriage to the Aragonese:

They elected Alfonso''s brother King. This man was a monk, and his namewas Ramiro. They gave him the sister of the Count of Poitiers for a wife.Even though this was a great sin, the Aragonese did it, for they had losttheir king and hoped that there would be an offspring from the royalfamily. . . King Ramiro went to his wife, and she conceived and gavebirth to a daughter. . . He transferred the kingdom to his daughter andacknowledged his sins. He then did penance.[4]

In a document from the same month as his marriage, Ramiro declares thathe "took a wife not out of carnal lust, but for the restoration of theblood and the lineage" (uxorem quoque non carnis libidine, set sanguinisac proienici restauratione duxi).[1] Later medieval and early modernhistorians, embarrassed by the disregard for canon law, inventedexplanations to reconcile the marriage of a bishop with what was currentin their own day. The fourteenth-century Chronicle of San Juan de la Peñarecords that messengers were sent to the Pope to obtain the properdispensation.[1] The Aragonese translation of the same chronicle placesRamiro''s religious status in doubt ("some chronicles say that he was notin holy orders", algunas cronónicas dizen que no era en sacresórdenes).[1] At the Second Lateran Council in 1139, the church, perhapsinfluenced by the case of Ramiro and Agnes, declared the marriages ofclerics to be null and void. Prior to this, they were legitimate, butillegal, marriages.[1]

Agnes'' young age (approximately thirty) proven fertility in her priormarriage were probably the main reasons the Aragonese sought her out.[5]Agnes'' brother, Duke William X was also one of the few regionalsupporters of Antipope Anacletus II, who, as the weaker claimant, mightbe persuaded to support Ramiro''s irregular (and uncanonical)accession.[3]

The first known royal diploma in which Agnes appears as queen is anoriginal dated 29 January 1136.[3] By August Agnes had born a daughter,Petronilla. Her brother, Duke William, went on a pilgrimage to Santiagode Compostela and died there on 3 April 1137. It was probably during hispassage through Spain that his consent to the proposed marriage of theinfant Petronilla was obtained.[6] In a series of acts between 11 Augustand 13 November 1137 Ramiro betrothed his daughter to the powerful CountRaymond Berengar IV of Barcelona, made his subjects swear an oath ofallegiance to the count and then handed over the royal power toRaymond.[6] The transfer of power done, Ramiro returned to religious lifeand Agnes retired to the Abbey of Fontevraud, where her mother had lived.She died there around 1159.[7]