Agnes OF POITOU & AQUITAINE ( -1157)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

	Charter by which Petronilla abdicated in favour of her son Alfonso II of Aragon.

Individual Note

Agnes of Aquitaine was a daughter of Duke William IX of Aquitaine and his wife Philippa, Countess of Toulouse. She was an aunt of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen consort of France and England.

Agnes was first married in 1117 to Aimery V, Viscomte of Thouars, the marriage produced three sons:

William (d.1151), succeeded his father as Viscomte of Thouars

Guy, did not succeed as Viscomte, died before William

Geoffery (d.1173), succeeded William

Through Geoffery, Agnes was great-grandmother to Alix, Duchess of Brittany.

Aimery was killed in battle in 1127 and Agnes remained a widow for eight years.

Agnes was secondly married to Ramiro II of Aragon,[1] the couple probably wed on November 13 of 1135 in the cathedral of Jaca. The exact reason for the marriage was that Agnes had already borne children; if she could have four surviving children, then she would probably be able to give Ramiro a surviving heir. The couple did have children - they had one daughter, Petronila of Aragon, who later succeeded her father as Queen of Aragon. Ramiro died in 1157.

Petronila was betrothed to Ramon Berenguer IV at the age of two. The marriage contract, signed at Barbastro on 11 August 1137, made Petronila the heiress to the crown of Aragon, which in event of her childless death would pass to Ramon Berenguer and any children he might have by another wife

It is very likely that she went back to Aquitaine after the birth of her daughter, since her name doesn't appear on any Aragonese documents during her daughter's reign.

Agnes retired to the Abbey of Fontevraud, where her mother had lived, and died there around 1159.

NOTE:

1 AQUITAINE, Medieval Lands http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/AQUITAINE.htm#AgnesM2RamiroIIAragon²

Sources