Teresa of León (1080? – 1130)

Teresa was the natural daughter of Alfonso VI (king of León and Castile) and Ximena Nunes. Little is known of her early life, as references to the Infanta only emerge at the time of her marriage to the French nobleman Henri of Burgundy.

She lived the first years of her marriage in Toledo, later moving to the County of Portucale: a territory that Alfonso VI had donated to the couple by hereditary title. They then settled in Guimarães.

Being an intelligent, ambitious and tenacious woman, she took over the regency of the County without difficulty when her husband died. She took the title of Regina (Queen) in 1117 – assuming unexpected sovereignty – which led to a problematic relationship with her nephew, Alfonso VII, king of León and Castile.

Once in charge of the County, she resumed the strategy of Count Henri towards independence and the expansion of the territory of Portucale. Teresa allied herself with the Galician Count Fernão Peres de Trava, with whom she established a conjugal relationship. This liaison gave a relative supremacy to the Galician-Portuguese alliance policies, causing some discomfort among those who defended a policy of effective independence of the County of Portucale from León and Castile.

After the defeat at the Battle of São Mamede – on June 24, 1128 – where her army fought her son Afonso Henriques, Teresa abandoned the County and took refuge in Galicia.

She died in 1130 – around the age of 50 – and was buried in the Cathedral of Braga next to her first husband, Count Henri.