Predecessor Alfonso VII Name Sancho of Successor Alfonso VIII House Anscarids | Burial Cathedral of Toledo Children Alfonso VIII of Castile Consort Blanche of Navarre | |
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Reign 21 August 1157 – 31 August 1158 Issue Alfonso VIII of Castile
Infante Garcia Died August 31, 1158, Toledo, Spain Spouse Blanche of Navarre, Queen of Castile (m. 1151–1156) Parents Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile, Berengaria of Barcelona Similar People Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile, Alfonso VIII of Castile, Berengaria of Castile, Urraca of Leon and Castile, Eleanor of England - Queen of | ||
Sancho III (1134 – 31 August 1158), called the Desired (el Deseado), was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. He was the son of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and his wife Berengaria of Barcelona, and was succeeded by his son Alfonso VIII. His nickname was due to his position as the first child of his parents, born after eight years of childless marriage.
During his reign, the castle of Calatrava-la-Vieja was conceded to Abbot Raymond Serrat of Fitero, who propposed using the lay brothers of his monastery as knights to defend this castle. These knights would give rise to the Order of Calatrava, which was confirmed in 1164 by Pope Alexander III. It was also in his reign that the Leonese and Castilian spheres of conquest against al-Andalus were decided in the Treaty of Sahagún (May 1158), besides an exclusion of the conquering rights and a possible division of the Portuguese kingdom among the two sons of Alfonso VII, which would come to nothing possibly due to the premature death of Sancho.
Life
Sancho was the eldest son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and Berengaria of Barcelona. He was endowed with the "Kingdom of Nájera" in 1152, and according to Carolina Carl never appears in documents as "king of Nájera". His father's will partitioned the kingdom between his two sons: Sancho inherited the kingdoms of Castile and Toledo, and Ferdinand inherited León. The two brothers had just signed a treaty when Sancho suddenly died in the summer of 1158, being buried at Toledo.
He had married, in 1151, Blanche of Navarre, daughter of García Ramírez of Navarre, and had two sons: