Petronilla of Aragon

  General Notes:

Queen regnant of Aragon from 1137 until 1164.

Petronilla came to the throne through special circumstances. Her father, Ramiro, was bishop of Barbastro-Roda when his brother, Alfonso I, died without an heir in 1134, and left the crown to the three religious military orders. The nobility of Aragon, however, raised Ramiro to the throne. As king, he received a papal dispensation to abdicate from his monastic vows in order to secure the succession to the throne. King Ramiro the Monk, as he is known, married Agnes, daughter of Duke William IX of Aquitaine and Gascony, and through her produced an heiress, Petronilla. When she was just a little over one year old, Petronilla was married in Barbastro on 11 August 1137 to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona. Immediately thereafter, Ramiro abdicated in favour of Petronilla and Ramon Berenguer and returned to monastic life.

Shortly after his death in 1162, Petronilla renounced the crown of Aragon in favour of her eldest son, Ramon Berenguer, who, as a compliment to the Aragonese, changed his name to Alfonso. Her son was the first ruler of both Aragon and Catalonia (where he is known as Alfons I) thereby establishing the dynastic union between the two countries that lasted until the Crown of Aragon was dissolved in 1707. The two kingdoms remained largely separate in a federal state in which each had its own system of laws and government. The ruler used both titles of King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona. Alfonso II was seven years old when on 18 July 1164 Petronilla abdicated on his behalf. She was buried at Barcelona Cathedral. Her tomb has been lost.

Petronilla married Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona, son of Count Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona, the Great and Countess Douce of Gévaudan I of Provence, on 11 Aug 1137. (Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona was born circa 1113 and died on 6 Aug 1162.)