Queen Berengaria Navarre ENGLAND

   Other names for Berengaria were Berenguela and ENGLAND Queen.

   Ancestral File Number: 8WKQ-4L.

   General Notes:

Queen of ENGLAND 1191- 1199.

No issue.

BOOKS
Kings and Queens of Europe, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1989: "Berenguela, Daughter of Sancho VI King of Navarre and Sancha Castilla, Mar Richard I King of England, Died 1231."

Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Berengaria Daughter of Sancho VI King of Navarre, Married Richard I, Died c1231."

The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams, Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch XVII, p366:
"...Towards the end of the winter Queen Eleanor came to Sicily, bringing with her Berengaria, the daughter of the king of Navarre, whom Richard had earlier known and admired, and whom he had now decided to marry. Naturally Philip objected, since Richard had definitely promised to marry his sister Adela; but now he flatly refused to marry one of whose relations withhis father evil stories were told..."
p367: "It was only on April 10, 1191, that Richard at last set sail on the real crusade. He sent on a little before him his intended bride, Berengaria, with his sister Joanna, the widowed queen of Sicily...In Cyprus Richard was married to Berengaria, and on June 5 he set sail for Acre, where he arrived on the 8th..."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol I, The Conquering Family, Thomas B Costain, 1949, Doubleday & Co, p136:
"...Richardhad decided to select his own wife. His choice, he told Eleanor, was Princess Berengaria of Navarre.
"His mother must have been shocked at this announcement. The new head of the Angevin empire could have any wife he desired. Why should hebe content with the daughter of a third-rate king? What advantage would there be in an alliance with Navarre? But Richard's mind was made up, and Eleanor loved him too well to stand in the way of his happiness. It was agreed that she would go to Pampeluna, the capital of Navarre, and see to the necessary arrangements.
p158: "It was while attending a tournament in Pampeluna that Richard first saw Berengaria. He was a guest at the royal palace and took an immediate interest in the young princess, who could not conceal the very great interest she took in him. The information available about Berengaria is quite meager, but it seems that she was small and dark. She had dusky hair which she parted in the middle so that itlay smoothly on her head, and her eyes were full of intelligence as well as gentleness. She read poetry and was more likely to be found alone in one of the palace gardens than gossiping with the young ladies of the court. The impression left ofher is of a slender figure flitting about quickly and unobtrusively. She was diffident and even perhaps a triffle fey; the very opposite of the earthy and magnificent Richard, although they shared one interest in common, a love of music. "No reports have come down of this particular tournament, but only one assumption is possible about it: that Richard was the winner and it became his privilege, therefore, to select the Queen of Love...No other result is thinkable in view of what came about later.
"It is almost certain that he saw her once only. He did not correspond with her, not being a scholar, and being committed, moreover, to marry Princess Alice of France. But clearly he had taken away the impression that,as it was his duty to marry the daughter of some royal family, he would find this reserved and oddly pretty little creature less objectionable than any other..."
p192: "It would be pleasant if it could be recorded that Berengaria's life flowed in easy courses after Richard's death, but unfortunately she continued the victim of fate's buffeting. Within a few weeks she lost her only sister Blanche and the friend who had stood by her in all her trials, the King's sister Joanna..."
"For more than tirty years thereafter Berengaria lived quietly at the city of Mans, where she founded the abbey of L'Espan...She died in 1230 and was buried in the abbey she had founded. It is said she was glad to be rid of the cares of this life...
"Of all the royal ladies of the island kingdom, she shared one distinction with none- she never saw England!"

The Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes, Elizabeth Longford, 1991, Oxford Univ Press, pxix: "Normans and Plantagenets Genealogy: Berengaria of Navarre, mar Richard I The Lion Heart, died 1230."

A History of the English Speaking People Winston S Churchill Vol I The Birth of Britain Dodd Mead & Co 1956 p133 "...[Richard] had promised Philip of France to marry hissister Alice, about whom, except for her looks, the tales were none too good. Philip claimed that Richard had tried to seduce her, and there was bad feeling between the monarchs. However that may be, after he rested for the winter, his motherbrought out to him Berengaria, daughter of the King of Navarre, whom he had known and admired, and now resolved to marry. It was fitting that the `Lion-heart' should marry for love and not for policy, but the rejection of Alice prevented a tiebetween the Kings of France and England which had been deemed essential to their comradship in the Crusade..."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p25: "Richard I Coeur de Lion 1157-99 mar Berengaria of Navarre 1163-1230..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Macropaedia, Vol XV, p827, Richard I the Lion-Heart of England: "...Richard joined the other crusaders at Acre on 8 Jun 1191, having conquered Cyprus on his way there. While at Limassol in Cyprus, Richard married (May 12) Berengaria of Navarre...
"In striking contast with his father, and with King John, he was, there seems no doubt, a homosexual. He had no children by Queen Berengaria, with whom his relations seem to have been merely formal."

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.10 8XJ4-H0 8WKQ-4L NAVARRA, EB CF NAVARRE.

   Marriage Information:

Berengaria married King Richard ENGLAND, I, son of King Henry ENGLAND, II and Queen Eleanor Aquitaine ENGLAND, on 12 May 1191 in Limassol, Limassol, Cyprus. (King Richard ENGLAND, I was born about 8 Sep 1157 in Palace, Beaumont, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, died on 6 Apr 1199 in Chalus, Haute-Vienne, France and was buried in Abbey, Fontevrault, Maine-Et-Loire, France.)