Blanca of Castile was the daughter of the Castilian King Alfonso VIII and Eleanor Plantagenet. Her mother was in turn the daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and sister of the English kings Richard the Lionheart and John the Landless.
Leonor of Aquitaine traveled to Castile at the beginning of the year 1200 to pick up one of her granddaughters born from the marriage between Alfonso VIII and his daughter Eleanor and accompany her to France so that she could marry the heir to the French crown, Louis. Initially it seemed that the chosen one would be her sister Urraca, but finally it was Blanca, who was twelve years old at the time (the reason that was argued to dismiss Urraca, that her name would be difficult to pronounce for the French, does not seem more than an excuse). /P>
The link with the dauphin Louis took place on May 23, 1200. At that time, France was under papal interdict due to the unspeakable attitude of Philip Augustus towards his Danish wife Ingeborg , reason why the wedding was celebrated in the abbey of Port-Mort, in Normandy (English dominion). From there, the couple went to settle in Paris, where their union was celebrated with great pomp and the presence of the kings of France and England.
The young Blanca's first shock from the harsh realities of life and politics was the death, on an indeterminate date in 1203, of Arthur of Brittany, her companion and her husband Luis, by order of the king of England Juan sin Tierra. This was followed, almost immediately, by the death of her grandmother and mentor, the great Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1204.
In 1205 Blanca gave birth to a girl, who however was stillborn. In 1209, when she was pregnant again, her husband Louis was knighted by her father at Compiègne in a strange ceremony; Louis was not only far above the usual age for this ritual (he was twenty-five years old), but King Philip imposed a harsh oath on him that required him to ask his permission for virtually any action the prince wished to perform and even forbade him to take any action. part in jousts and tournaments. He also did not allow him to join the Crusade against the Cathars blessed by the pope, as the rest of the young men ordained knights did that day.
That same year Blanca gave birth to a son named Felipe, and he also became a key player in his father-in-law's plans to invade England, for as the granddaughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor Plantagenet, she could discuss the right to the throne with her uncle John the Landless. Two issues helped Philip Augustus consider the invasion of England:first, Juan sin Tierra was excommunicated by the pope, which meant that any Christian monarch had the pontiff's blessing to invade his kingdom and depose him from the throne.; second, an old ally of John's named William de Braose, now persecuted by the English, came to France and told all who would listen how the English king had murdered his nephew Arthur of Brittany with his own hands, throwing the body of the young man to the river. Felipe had Juan tried and found him guilty of the murder.
All the preparations for the invasion were made, in which Blanca probably had some kind of participation, but when it was ready in 1213 the news arrived that Juan had solved his problems. differences with the pope and that he had even declared England a vassal kingdom of Rome, which gave it papal protection and prevented any invasion of the islands by the French. The tables turned against the French when the Dukes of Boulogne and Flanders allied with Juan sin Tierra against him and when the French fleet anchored in the port of Bruges was attacked and destroyed by an English expedition.
Meanwhile, Blanca received good and bad news:she lost two twin sons in childbirth (although she still had her four-year-old son Felipe), but she received news from the great victory of his father and other peninsular Christian monarchs against the Almohads in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Blanca learned of this great victory through a letter from her older sister Berenguela, who between 1214 and 1217 served as queen regent of Castile upon the death of their father, Alfonso VIII, and during the minority of her son, the future Fernando III of Castile and León. Some Castilian nobles came to offer the crown of Castile to Blanca and her husband Luis de ella, but she refused to enter into conflict with her sister and her nephew. It is curious that both Berenguela and Blanca were destined to be the mothers of two kings, Fernando III and Luis IX respectively, who would end up rising to the altars as saints,
Blanca's husband, Luis, played a leading role in the conflicts that pitted France against her continental enemies during the years 1213 and 1214; The already mentioned Dukes of Boulogne and Flanders were joined first by the powerful Holy Roman Emperor, Otto of Brunswick, nephew of the King of England. And the situation became even more complicated for the French when in the spring of 1214 John the Landless himself invaded France, landing in La Rochelle while his half-brother William de Longespée landed in Flanders to join the coalition against Philip. However, the English were stopped in their advance by Prince Louis and returned to La Rochelle, so they did not join their allies, who were defeated by France in one of those battles that are marked as decisive in the history of a country:Bouvines (July 27, 1214). That month there was more good news for France, since Blanca de Castilla gave birth to another son, whom she named Luis and who helped ensure the succession to the throne.
In September 1214, at Chinon, Philip Augustus and John Landless signed a five-year peace treaty; but nobody had the panorama that the English king was going to find when he returned to his country. More than fifteen years of disastrous reign that culminated in the last defeat at Bouvines and the king's flight from the harassment of Prince Louis had exhausted the patience of the nobles of England who not only rose up in arms against their sovereign and imposed the signature of a historic document known as the Magna Carta, but they sent messengers to France offering the English crown to the French crown prince and his wife Blanca de Castilla, after all, the granddaughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Pope Innocent III's attempt to stop the invasion of what was his vassal kingdom stumbled upon the French refusal, which added to the argument of the request of the English nobles the condemnation of Juan sin Tierra for the murder of Arthur of Brittany.
Louis landed unopposed in England and, after taking Canterbury and reconquering Rochester, he headed for London, where he was greeted with open arms and joy. From there he went on to Winchester and back to Dover, to lay siege to the formidable castle built there by Henry II.
In October 1216, without the situation turning in favor of either side, John the Landless died. He inherited the crown his son, Henry III, who was only nine years old. But the nobles who supported the new king met and defeated the rebels and the French in a decisive battle at Lincoln.
Then in August, the army loyal to Henry III won another resounding victory against the French, this time at sea at Sandwich against a fleet of 80 ships sailing from Calais and that had been gathered by Blanca de Castilla. In order to obtain the necessary funds, the princess had to threaten King Philip Augustus, who no longer wanted to have anything to do with his son's English adventure, with asking for a loan whose fulfillment would be served as collateral by his own children. /p>
Prince Louis realized that his chances of taking the English crown might be lost and he returned humiliated to France, later recognizing Henry as King of England in the treaty from Kingston. To make matters worse for the couple, in 1218 their eldest son Felipe died, in whom they had placed their hopes that he would wear the French and English crowns. However, the succession was assured, because over the years four other children of the marriage joined the eldest son Luis:Roberto, Juan, Alfonso and a last one who was named the same as that of his deceased brother, Felipe .
On July 14, 1223, Philip Augustus died, and three weeks later King Louis VIII and Queen Blanche of France were crowned in Reims. They then undertook a tour of all his domains (including those recovered by the deceased king from his enemies) and obtained the traditional oath of fidelity from all of them without problems. Blanca de Castilla, first as queen consort and then as regent for her son, would play a decisive role in the history of France... but that's another story.
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