Madragana
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Madragana Ben Aloandro, later Maior Afonso - (Portugal, Algarve, Faro, c. 1230 - ?) was a famous algarvian mistress to Dom Afonso III of Portugal, the Brave, in the 13th century, when he ended the Reconquista in Portugal by taking Faro in 1249. Faro was at that time the last part of the Kingdom of the Algarve still in Muslim hands, and there her father was the Alcaide (title derived from the Andalusi Arabic al-qadi ( قاضي,), meaning "the judge" or from al caïd, Arab word for the chief, or Military Governor of the Castle (al caïda, Arab word for the castle or the base [1]). Madragana happened to be genearch to most of the royal families, Portuguese and European aristocracies, and even many common people.
She was christened in time [2], receiving her new Christian name as Maior Afonso, or Mor Afonso, Mor being short for Maior, a common female name in medieval Portuguese (Maior meaning "the bigger", and not "the moor", even if she really was a Moor). Afonso was given her in baptism as her new patronymic, meaning "the daughter of" Afonso - and that suggests that her elderly royal lover was also her godfather, that she took his spiritual fatherhood when christening. Her father's name was Aloandro Ben Bekar or Ben Bakr (also known in Portuguese as Aloandro or Aldroando Gil after his christening). Aloandro and Bekar are the only known Portuguese forms of his original Arab name. Some suppose him a Mozarab: but he could be an Arab or at least a Muslim Jew, a Christian Jew or a Muslim Moor, as documents lack information on that respect.
Aloandro is said now by some authors to had been son of Bakr Ben Yahia and grandson of Yahia Ben Bakr, of Sephardi Jewish origin. Madragana was also called in ancient Portuguese chronicles Mouroana [3], Mouroana Gil and Madraganil - all of which are Christian names.
There is, however, some controversy regarding the fact that she might have been a Moor even though it seems from the facts above that she was not one, at least not entirely. Duarte Nunes de Leão, a Portuguese royal chronicler of the 16th century, tells us that Madragana was a Moor. That is denied by António Caetano de Sousa, in the 18th century, in the História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa. But António Caetano was paid by King Dom João V of Portugal to write the genealogical history of the Portuguese Royal House, and the Sousa family, issue of Maior Afonso, was of royal malehood line, linked with the more important aristocratic families in Court at the time, and they would then consider that drop of moor blood as non exequator.
When passion with the King vaned, she was married to Fernão Rei, and they had documented issue, at least one daughter of her, Sancha Fernandes, married and perpetuated the Rei family. Note that Rei means King, in Portuguese, and so Fernão Rei is supposed to have been originally a servant of the king (Fernão do Rei - Ferdinand of the King), his issue bearing Rei afterwards as a surname to glory with.
Madragana beared two of several other legitimated bastard royal children:
- (Dom) Martim Afonso Chichorro (circa 1250 - after 1313), married to Dona Inês Lourenço de Sousa (or Dona Inês Lourenço de Valadares) (circa 1250 - ?), they had issue (the Sousa Lords of Prado family, etc).
- Dona Urraca Afonso (circa 1260 - ?), she married twice: 1st in 1265 to Pedro Anes Gago de Riba Vizela (circa 1240 - 1286) (twice her cousin, descendant both from a daughter of King Dom Afonso I of Portugal by his mistress Elvira Guálter, and from Dom Sancho Nunes de Celanova and his wife infanta Dona Sancha Henriques de Portugal, sister of that King), they had issue now extinct; 2nd circa 1275 to Dom João Mendes de Briteiros (circa 1250 - ?), they had large issue (in female line families as Figueiredo, Loureiro, Bandeira, Cota, etc).
One could say of Maior Afonso that she is a great-grandmother to almost all European aristocracy and royal families, by the noble House of Sousa - afterwards Counts of Miranda, Marquesses of Arronches and Dukes of Lafões - and the Portuguese Royal Family. But certainly her most ilustrious descendant in universal History was the ambassador Dom Rui de Sousa, 1st Lord of Sagres and Beringel, a Portuguese Fidalgo who in 1494 skillfully negotiated, wrote and signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, on behalf of his master, John II of Portugal, the Perfect Prince. Dom Rui was accompanied at the Castilian court by his son, Dom João de Sousa, who also signed the treaty.
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[edit] Proposed hebraic Madragana's genealogy
[edit] Notes
- ^ See Al Qaeda.
- ^ Most probably because she had been previously christened according to the Mozarabic Rite, the re-christening being done in the Roman Rite.
- ^ Sometimes spelled Mourana (also in the variety Mourana Gil). Notice that the origin of the name Mourana is not the Portuguese for Moor, Mouro, but the Portuguese traditional name Ouroana, or Aureana.
[edit] References
- Anselmo Braamcamp Freire, Brasões da Sala de Sintra, 3 vols., Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional-Casa de Moeda, 1973.
- António Caetano de Sousa, História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa, Coimbra, Atlântida-Livraria Editora, 1946.
- Felgueiras Gayo & Carvalhos de Basto, Nobiliário das Famílias de Portugal, Braga, 1989.
- José Augusto de Sotto Mayor Pizarro, Linhagens Medievais Portuguesas, 3 vols., Porto, Universidade Moderna, 1999.
- Manuel Abranches de Soveral, "Origem dos Souza ditos do Prado", in Machado de Vila Pouca de Aguiar. Ascendências e parentescos da Casa do Couto d'Além em Soutelo de Aguiar, Porto, 2000.
