Catalina de Medrano y Bravo de Lagunas

Catalina de Medrano y Bravo de Lagunas lived in Atienza and was the daughter of the ricohombre Diego López de Medrano y Vergara, Lord of San Gregorio and Cañaveruelas, and Magdalena Bravo de Lagunas. Her father Diego was a member of His Majesty's Council. Her parents were among the high nobility from the Kingdom of Castile under the protection of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain.^[1]

Catalina's parents married in 1476. Nine children were born from the marriage, including Catalina de Medrano on 31 October 1479. The family trees of Diego López de Medrano and Magdalena Bravo de Lagunas also contain the relationship of the birth of their children through the will of Magdalena Bravo, dictated in 1531 in Atienza, and buried at her death in the convent of San Francisco, together with her husband Diego, the Lord of San Gregorio.^[2]

This branch of the Medrano family in Soria were known as the Lords of San Gregorio, Almarza de Cameros, Cañaveruelas, Cabanillas, the Counts of Torrubia, etc.^[3]

Catalina de Medrano became a lady-in-waiting for Queen Isabella I of Castile for six years. Catalina is considered a person of high culture for her time, she began to serve Isabella of Castile in 1497, remaining with her until the death of the Queen herself, receiving 27,000 maravedís per year for her services (a total of 162,000 maravedís).^[4][5]

Catalina served alongside other ladies of the court, including Isabel de Ávila; Constanza de Bazan, daughter of the Count of Lemos; Isabel de Ribera; Juana de Villena; Juana Zapata; Leonor Manrique; Maria de Luna; Maria de Mendoza; Maria de Osorio; Marina de Aragón, daughter of the Duke of Villahermosa; Teresa Vanegas; Mencia de Quiñones; and many others.^[5]

Catalina de Medrano formed part of a generation of noblewomen shaped by the educational environment fostered at the court of Isabella I of Castile. Within this setting, the instruction of women extended beyond conventional religious and courtly training. Alongside the cultivation of virtue and etiquette, emphasis was placed on music, languages, history, and the formal disciplines of court life, including ceremonial conduct and social relations.^[6]

Her education was entrusted to noted tutors, among them Antonio and Alejandro Giraldino and Friar Pedro de Ampudia, later followed by Friar Andrés de Miranda as a teacher of Latin. This level of instruction, though not widespread, provided a broader movement encouraged by the queen, who promoted more rigorous intellectual formation for women. Figures such as her sister Luisa de Medrano, and Beatriz Galindo, known as "La Latina," exemplified this milieu, within which Catalina de Medrano stands alongside other educated noblewomen of the period, including María Pacheco.^[6]

Catalina de Medrano married Hernando de Sandoval y Rojas, commander of Huélamo in the Order of Santiago, brother of Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas, II Marquis of Denia, count of Lerma, great seneschal of Sicily, mayordomo of Kings Fernando the Catholic and Juana la Loca.^[4] Her husband's brother was the great-grandfather of Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, V Marquis of Dénia, 1st Duke of Lerma, a close relative of Tomás Fernández de Medrano through his wife Isabel Ibáñez de Sandoval and their children Maria and Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval.

A notable Book of Hours, believed to have been produced in Toledo around 1475, has been linked to Catalina de Medrano and her husband Hernando de Rojas Sandoval. This manuscript, written in a rounded Gothic script typical of Castilian scriptoria and featuring a calendar with numerous Toledan and Franciscan saints, recently resurfaced on the art market (Paris, Les Enluminures) and is thought to be the work of a disciple of the painter and miniaturist Jorge Inglés.^[7]

On folio 88r, it bears a halved coat of arms: on the left, the heraldry of the Sandoval family; on the right, that of the Medrano family. This heraldic pairing suggests the manuscript may have belonged to Catalina and her husband, who died in 1541 and 1538 respectively. The manuscript's illustrations are executed in grisaille, a monochromatic painting technique that imitates early copperplate engravings—particularly those of Martin Schongauer, widely copied in late medieval Castile.^[7]

Although some figures in the manuscript exhibit less refined draftsmanship, stylistic elements connect the work to the circle of Jorge Inglés, whose illumination of several manuscripts is preserved in Spain’s Biblioteca Nacional. The Toledo-specific content of the calendar further supports the manuscript’s origin in a region where Inglés was active during the 15th century.^[7]

Catalina de Medrano, together with her husband, Hernando de Sandoval y Rojas, participated in the custody, or care, of Queen Juana I in Tordesillas.^[4] Catalina de Medrano's role in overseeing Queen Juana I in Tordesillas was necessitated by the tumultuous circumstances surrounding Juana's life. Juana, also known as Juana la Loca (Joanna the Mad), inherited the throne of Castile in 1504 following her mother's death, but her reign was marred by her mental instability. Juana's struggles with mental health, likely exacerbated by personal tragedies and political pressures, raised concerns about her ability to govern effectively.^[8] Consequently, her father Ferdinand II and later her son Charles I took charge of the government, effectively ruling on her behalf. In 1509, Juana was confined to the Royal Palace of Tordesillas for the remainder of her life, placed under the guardianship of her father and later her son, alongside trusted individuals like Catalina de Medrano and her husband Hernando de Sandoval y Rojas.^[4]

The Medrano family's association with the Franciscan Order originates in a foundational episode of spiritual and dynastic significance. According to early sources, in the year 1211, Saint Francis of Assisi passed through the lordship of Agoncillo, held at the time by a captain of the Medrano lineage.^[9] During this visit, the saint entered the castle of Agoncillo and healed the lord's son of a severe and incurable illness.^[9] This event not only preserved the continuity of the Medrano house in La Rioja but also established a privileged relationship between the family and the emerging Franciscan movement.^[10]

In recognition of this grace, the Medranos donated lands near the Ebro River in Logroño, where Saint Francis established the first Franciscan convent in Spain.^[9] The convent, later sustained through hereditary patronage by Diego López de Medrano, Lord of Agoncillo, lawyer, ambassador to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and mayordomo mayor of King John I of Castile, became a site of enduring religious, legal, and dynastic importance.^[11]

Diego López de Medrano's royal intervention culminated in the dynastic settlement reached with the Duke of Lancaster, by which Catherine, daughter of the Duke and Constanza, married the Infante Enrique and received several towns as part of her dowry, including Atienza.^[12] The town formed part of the territorial settlement that resolved the succession dispute over the Crown of Castile and later became the site of sustained Franciscan patronage under the Medrano family.^[13][11]

This legacy informed the actions of Catalina de Medrano y Bravo Lagunas in the early sixteenth century. Drawing upon the established Franciscan ties of her house, Catalina, together with her husband Hernando de Sandoval y Rojas, financed the construction and embellishment of several chapels in the Franciscan friary of Atienza.^[13] Chapels are a long-standing integration of religious devotion and familial responsibility within the House of Medrano.^[11]

Contemporary accounts of Franciscan devotion in Castile record the use of relics associated with Peter of Alcántara among noble households connected to the Medrano lineage.^[14] In one such case, the wife of Bernardino de Medrano is described as possessing a cord of the saint, to which were attributed healings and protection in times of danger.^[14] These reports illustrate the circulation of Franciscan devotional objects within the same aristocratic milieu to which Catalina de Medrano belonged.^[14] Therefore, the chapels of Logroño and Atienza extend an established tradition of Franciscan support that spans generations, rooted in an act of healing and sustained through acts of institutional and spiritual benefaction.^[13]

The National Historical Archive in Spain holds a document referring to the completion of the construction of a conventual temple, which began in the 14th century and was still unfinished in the 16th century. The friars in Atienza lived in precarious conditions until the end of the 14th century, when the lady of the town, at that time Catherine of Lancaster, wife of King Enrique III of Trastamara, built a new conventual building at her own expense, and also undertook the construction of a new church, which, in any case, was left unfinished.^[13]

In the early 16th century, Catalina de Medrano y Bravo Lagunas and Hernando de Sandoval y Rojas emerged as the benefactors, financing the construction of two transept chapels dedicated to the Immaculate Conception (on the Gospel side) and to saints Sebastian, Fabian, and Roque (on the Epistle side). Shortly thereafter, the couple funded the establishment of a new chapel in the transept devoted to Saint Anthony.^[13]

This endeavor involved commissioning chasubles and a vestment, contributing tapestries, an altar frontal, sheets, a chalice, and wine jugs. Catalina de Medrano and her husband orchestrated the installation of an ornate wrought-iron gate at the chapel's entrance and commissioned the carving of two recumbent statues, presumably designed to house their remains eternally in white alabaster material within the confines of the Saint Anthony chapel. The existence of these funerary statues remains uncertain, although strong indications suggest their creation.^[13]

During the zenith of the 14th and 15th centuries, the town of Atienza thrived as a significant hub for communication and commerce. At the heart of this locale stood a Franciscan friary established in the mid-13th century. Demonstrating a commendable initiative to enhance the religious edifice of San Francisco in Atienza, Doña Catalina de Medrano, in 1507, instigated the construction of a main entrance, the restructuring of the choir, and numerous other intricate embellishments, marking a noteworthy chapter in the history of the friary.^[13]

Her brother, Garcí Bravo de Medrano, alcaide and governor of the castle of Atienza, assumed the patronage of the newly renovated temple's main chapel. That was the pinnacle moment of the Franciscan monastery. Shortly before, in 1507, while Regent of Castile was Friar Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros, Catalina de Medrano's convent was declared a Royal Convent of Atienza, and its Guardian or Superior was appointed as Dean Regidor of the town, with two votes in the Councils, a designated person to replace him in the council position whenever he deemed it appropriate, and some other preeminences that demonstrated the high power that the friars had in the government of the high town of Atienza.^[13]

Noteworthy visits from Spanish monarchs, including Philip II in 1592, Philip III, and Philip IV in 1660, as well as Philip V in 1706, attest to the monastery's prominence. However, the zenith of the monastery waned drastically on the night of January 7, 1811, when Napoleonic forces ravaged the residence of the religious and the temple, leading to the near-total destruction of this cultural and religious heritage. It was during this calamitous event that the artistic treasures bequeathed to posterity by Catalina de Medrano were tragically lost.^[13]