Sancho married
Dulce of Aragon, daughter of
Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and
Petronilla, Queen of Aragon. Eleven children were born from this marriage, eight of whom reached adulthood: •
Theresa (1175/117618 June 1250), married
Alfonso IX of León and was beatified in 1705; •
Sancha (118013 March 1229), founded the Monastery of Celas near Coimbra where she lived until her death. Her sister Theresa arranged for her burial at the
Monastery of Lorvão. She was beatified by
Pope Clement XI in 1705, the same year as Theresa; • Constanza (May 1182before 1186 or August 1202). According to Rodrigues Oliveira, she must have died before 1186 since her name is not registered in any of the documents of the chancellery of Sancho I which begins in that year. However, the necrology of São Salvador de Moreira records the death "
III Nonas Augusti" in 1202 of "
Domna Constantia Infantula filia regis domni Sancii et reginæ domnæ Dulciæ"; •
Afonso (23 April 118625 March 1223), succeeded his father as the third king of Portugal; • Raimundo (1187/889 March bef. 1188/89), died in infancy; •
Peter (23 February 11872 June 1258), married
Aurembiaix,
Countess of Urgell; •
Ferdinand (24 March 118827 July 1233), married
Joan, Countess of Flanders; • Henry (aft. March 11898 Dec aft. 1189), died in infancy; •
Mafalda (1195/11961 May 1256), married
Henry I of Castile and was beatified in 1793; •
Branca (119817 November 1240), probably the twin sister of Berengaria, was raised in the court with her father and his mistress "a Ribeirinha" and, when she was eight or ten years old, was sent to live with her sisters at the Monastery of Lorvão. She was a nun at a convent in
Guadalajara and was buried at the same monastery as her mother; •
Berengaria (119827 March 1221), probably the twin sister of Branca, married
Valdemar II of Denmark in 1214.
Illegitimate Children With
Maria Aires de Fornelos, daughter of Aires Nunes de Fornelos and Maior Pais, who was buried at the
Monastery of Santo Tirso in accordance with her last will, Sancho had two children, both born before his marriage to Dulce of Aragon: •
Martim Sanches (born before 1175)
Count of Trastámara. Martim married Elo Pérez de Castro, daughter of
Pedro Fernández de Castro, with no issue from this marriage; • Urraca Sanches (born before 1175), was married to Lourenço Soares, son of Soeiro Viegas and Sancha Bermúdez de Traba. After Dulce's death, he had an affair with
María Pais de Ribeira "a Ribeiriña" for whom he is often said to have written and dedicated a
cantiga de amigo,
A Ribeirinha, composed in 1199, the oldest text known in Portuguese poetry. That is contested nowadays by the Portuguese historian António de Resende Oliveira, who claims this cantiga was composed by
Alfonso X of Castile or perhaps
Sancho II of Portugal. At least six children were born of this relationship: • Rodrigo Sanches (died 1245), had a bastard son with Constança Afonso de Cambra called Afonso Rodrigues, a
Franciscan friar and the "Guardian of the Convent of Lisbon"; • Gil Sanches (died on 14 September 1236), a cleric and
troubadour, his father left him 8,000
morabetinos in his will. Gil granted
fueros to the settlers of Sardezas in 1213; • Nuno Sanches, died during childhood on a 16 December in an unknown year. He could have been the son of Maria Aires de Fornelos; • Maior Sanches, also died at an early age on 27 August of an unknown year; • Teresa Sanches, her father left her 7,000 morabetinos in his will. She was the second wife of
Alfonso Téllez de Meneses whom she married before 1220 and with whom she had issue; • Constança Sanches (12048 August 1269). Her father left her 7,000 morabetinos in his will. She was the godmother of her grand-niece Infanta
Sancha and left her half of
Vila do Conde, Avelaneda, Pousadela, Parada and Maçãs. She also owned estates in
Torres Vedras. Sancho had a son with Maria Moniz de Ribeira, daughter of Munio Osorio,
tenente of the
comarca of
Cabreira and Ribera, and of Maria Nunes of Grijó: • Pedro Moniz, who married a woman whose name is not recorded, and was the father of Maria Peres de Cabreira, the wife of Martim Peres Machado, the first to use the last name Machado. ==See also==