Sancha of Castile (21 September 1154/5 – 9 November 1208) was the only surviving child of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile by his second wife, Richeza of Poland. Alfonso VII had also given the same name, Sancha, to his daughter by his first wife, Berengaria of Barcelona. This half-sister married King Sancho VI of Navarre in 1153.
On January 18, 1174, Sancha married King Alfonso II of Aragon at Zaragoza; they had at least eight children who survived into adulthood.
Sancha's role extended beyond that of simply a ceremonial consort. Reading from her royal charters demonstrates that she actively participated in governance alongside her husband. Surviving documents record a joint grant issued by Alfonso II and Sancha, indicating her formal involvement in royal decision.
A patroness of troubadours such as Giraud de Calanson and Peire Raymond, the queen became involved in a legal dispute with her husband concerning properties which formed part of her dower estates. In 1177, she entered the County of Ribagorza and took forcible possession of various castles and fortresses that belonged to the crown there.
After her husband died at Perpignan in 1196, Sancha was relegated to the background of political affairs by her son, Peter II. She retired from court, withdrawing to the Hospitaller convent for noble ladies, the Royal Monastery of Santa MarÃÂa de Sigena, which she had founded. There she assumed the cross of the Knights Hospitaller, which she wore until the end of her life. The queen mother entertained her widowed daughter, Queen Constance, at Sigena before Constance married Emperor Frederick II in 1208. Sancha died soon afterwards, aged fifty-four, and was interred in front of the high altar of her foundation at the Sigena monastery; her tomb is still there to be seen.
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