Treaty of Benavente
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The Treaty of Benavente, signed on 11 December 1230, was the agreement by which Sancha and Dulce, the heiresses of the Kingdom of León, renounced their throne to their brother, King Ferdinand III of Castile, thus uniting the kingdoms of León and Castile into the Crown of Castile.
The infantas (princesses) Sancha and Dulce were the daughters of Alfonso IX of León by his marriage to Theresa of Portugal. Ferdinand was his son by his marriage to Berenguela of Castile, which was annulled in 1204.[1] The Treaty of Cabreros of 1206 confirmed Ferdinand's right to inherit the Leonese throne.[2] In 1217, Berenguela inherited the Castilian throne and promptly abdicated in favour of her son. On 26 November 1217, a peace treaty was signed between Castile and León whereby Alfonso IX recognized his son as king of Castile but excluded him from the Leonese succession in favour of his uncle, Alfonso IX's younger brother, Sancho Fernández, or in the event of the latter's premature death, Sancha and Dulce.[3]
By 1221—Sancho having died in 1220—the princesses were generally recognized as co-heiresses of Alfonso IX, although a faction within the kingdom preferred to see Ferdinand succeed his father.[2] Alfonso IX died on 24 September 1230. The princesses reached the city of León first, but "were not received as they wished", in the words of the Chronica latina regum Castellae. Ferdinand lifted the siege of Jaén and returned to Castile to prepare to take León.[4] He was acclaimed the capital of León and by early November was styling himself "king of Castile and León".[5]
Negotiations
Realizing the weakness of her daughters' position, Theresa of Portugal sent envoys to Berenguela offering to negotiate in Berenguela's own town of Valencia.[5] Theresa, Sancha, Dulce and Berenguela met in Valencia, while Ferdinand remained in León. According to Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada's De rebus Hispaniae:
. . . the noble queen [Berenguela] so greatly feared the ravaging of the kingdom and the poor that she arranged for the king to stay in León while she went to Valencia to negotiate an agreement with Queen Teresa. When the two queens had met in Valencia, the great acuity of the noble Queen Berenguela arranged things so that the king's sisters returned everything that they held to the king and were satisfied with the provisions that the king and the noble queen assigned to them. And if they had ever had any right to the kingdom, they renounced it absolutely. Once this agreement had been confirmed, the king came, and thereupon we all went to Benavente, to which place the infantas, daughters of Queen Teresa, also came.[6]
The treaty was sealed in Benavente on 11 December 1230[7] "between don Fernando, king of Castile and Toledo, of León and Galicia, and the infantas his sisters, doña Sancha and doña Dulce" in the presence of Theresa and Berenguela.[6][8]