Dulce of León

Who is Dulce of León?

Dulce or Aldonza was the second daughter of Alfonso IX of León by his first queen, Theresa of Portugal. She was raised with her mother in Portugal after her parents' divorce, along with her brother, Ferdinand, while her elder sister Sancha was raised at the court of the their father in 1195.

After the death of Sancha's brother, Alfonso IX named his second son, also Ferdinand, his heir, bestowing on him the title infante. In 1217, with the support of the aristocracy, Alfonso granted his daughters Sancha and Dulce the villages of Portela de San Juan, Burgo de Ribadavia and Allariz, to be ruled by them until their deaths, after which they would revert to the Crown. In that same year, Ferdinand's mother, Berengaria, inherited the crown of the Kingdom of Castile, but ceded it to her son, who was proclaimed king at Valladolid on 2 July. With his heir out of the kingdom and ruling in another place, Alfonso attempted to make his eldest daughters his joint heirs. In the Treaty of Boronal concluded with Portugal in 1219, Alfonso expressly states that if he should die, Portugal should respect the agreement with his daughters.

On Alfonso's death on 24 September 1230, the people of León, who had pledged for Ferdinand in 1206, refused to recognise his daughters, and they in turn ceded their rights to his kingdom to their half-brother. She was thirty-five years of age at the time. This agreement, negotiated at Valencia de Don Juan by Berengaria, the queen mother, and Theresa, with Sancha and Dulce present, is known as the "pact of the mothers". The treaty was signed Benavente and in compensation Ferdinand promised a yearly stipend of 30,000 maravedíes to each of his half-sisters and the lordship of certain castles.