Abstract
Maria Ferrench de Luna was the firstborn child and heiress of Count Lope of Luna. As such, she was destined to become the head of the principle branch of one of Aragon’s most venerable noble houses, the Lunas, and to inherit one of the most substantial seigniorial patrimonies of contemporary medieval Iberia. Both her marriage contract and her father’s testament suggest that she was born in 1358, which would make Maria almost forty by the time she became queen of the Crown of Aragon in 1396.1 During this long interval she was raised and educated in the court of Elionor de Sicilia, married King Pere the Ceremonious’s second son, the infant (“prince”) Martí, gave birth to four children, and managed her own and Martí’s extensive feudal patrimony.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Josep Rius Serra, “L’arquebisbe de Saragossa, canceller de Pere III,” Analecta Sacra Tarraconensis 8 (1932): 1–62.
Ramon Muntaner, Crónica in Les quatre grans cròniques, ed. F. Soldevila (Barcelona: Selecta, 1971), 936
Pere described Lope’s death as follows: “While We were in this city, [Zaragoza] the noble En Lop, Count of Luna, passed from this life, at which We felt sorrow, as he was an outstanding servant of Ours, vigorous and powerful.” [Mary and J. N. Hillgarth eds., Pere III of Catalonia, Chronicle, 2 vols. (Toronto: Pontifical Institute, 1980), 11:529
Francisco de Bofarull Sans, “Documentos para escribir una monografía de la villa de Montblanch,” MRABLB 6 (1898): 509–14[57]. Ten years earlier, on 2 January 1377, in his capacity as lieutenant-general of the Crown of Aragon, the infant Joan had given Martí the castle and hamlets of the Vall d’Uxó and the village of Alfondeguilla, which had been embargoed from Pere de Centelles. [ARV,Real,perg:13 (1-22-1377).] For Martí’s letter, see ACA,C,reg:2075,f:82v, ed.: Jaume Riera, “El del-finat de Girona (1387–1388),” Annals de l’Institut d’Estudis Gironins 29 (1987): 110.
Federico’s will was dated 19 July 1377. See Alberto Boscolo, La política italiana di Martino il Vecchio, Re d’Aragona (Padova: Cedam, 1962), p. 11.
MNA, I (1): 26 (2-17-1392). For the extensive roll of nobles and knights who accompanied the two Martí’s, see Pere Tomich, Historias e conquestas dels excellentissims e catholics rehys de Aragó e de lurs antecessors, los comtes de Barcelona (Barcelona: Renaixança, 1886), pp. 233–6.
Bernat Metge, Lo Somni, ed. S. Cingolani (Barcelona: Barcino, 2006), p. 245
There is a growing body of studies that address the importance of noble women in the administration of the patrimony, including Theodore Evergates, ed., Aristocratic Women in Medieval France (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1999).
Nuria Silleras-Fernández, “La connexió franciscana: franciscanisme i monarquia en temps de Martí I,” Jornades d’estudisfranciscans (Barcelona: Facultat de Teología de Catalunya, 2001), p. 162
Copyright information
© 2008 Nuria Silleras-Fernandez
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Silleras-Fernandez, N. (2008). A Noble Heiress (ca. 1358–96). In: Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612969_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612969_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-7759-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-61296-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)