Landscape in La Alcarria where Mayor received several properties from King Alfonso X of Castile
Her name is registered in contemporary chronicles and documents as the lover of prince Alfonso de Castilla, future king
Alfonso X of Castile, son of
Ferdinand III of Castile and
Beatriz de Suabia. In 1255, Alfonso gave her lands in
La Alcarria which included
Cifuentes, Viana de Mondéjar,
Palazuelos,
Salmerón, Vadesliras and
Alcocer. With the collaboration of King Alfonso, she founded the Monastery of Santa Clara de Alcocer in an unpopulated village called San Miguel del Monte within the jurisdiction of Alcocer. The foundational charter dated September 22, 1260 was confirmed by her brothers Pedro and Nuño Rodríguez de Guzmán.[2]
Issue
Del Monte gate at the walls of the medieval city of Palazuelos
From her relationship with Infante Alfonso she had one daughter:
Beatrice (1242–1303), the sole beneficiary of her mother's estates, married
Afonso III of Portugal and was the mother of
Denis I of Portugal.[3] On December 31, 1244, Alfonso with the consent of his father, donated the village of
Elche to his daughter Beatrice, most probably born around that date, which would seem to indicate that the relationship was stable and accepted.[4]
Death and burial
She died in early 1262 in
Alcocer and was buried in the monastery of the
Poor Clares that she had founded at San Miguel del Monte. Years later, on July 24, 1276, King Alfonso executed an agreement with Juan González who made a walnut-wood sepulchre with a
bas-relief image of Mayor. The parchment document was auctioned at
Christie's in 2009.[5][6] The convent, as well as her sepulcher were moved to Alcocer years later. Her body, which remained intact until the beginning of the 20th-century, disappeared in 1936 along with a
polychromed sculpture considered among the best funerary art from the
Middle Ages in
Guadalajara.[3][7]
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de (1989). "Los descendientes del conde Ero Fernández, fundador de Monasterio de Santa María de Ferreira de Pallares". El Museo de Pontevedra (in Spanish) (43): 67–86.
ISSN0210-7791.