Gaudiosa
Gaudiosa | |
|---|---|
| Queen of Asturias | |
 Image from the Genealogia dos Reis de Portugal | |
| Spouse(s) | Pelagius of Asturias |
| Issue | 2, Favila of Asturias and Ermesinda |
Gaudiosa (born c. 695) was, according to late sources, an 8th-century queen of Asturias.
Biography
[edit]According to the 16th-century Spanish historian Ambrosio de Morales, Gaudiosa was born about 695 AD in Cosgaya, Cantabria, in modern day Spain. Her family origins are obscure and she is not thought to have been born into a royal family,[1] although she may have had been of half Asturian and half Visigothic descent. She is known to have been a Christian.
Gaudiosa married Pelagius of Asturias[2] after they met at an annual fair for the buying and selling of cattle and horses. Pelagius founded the Kingdom of Asturias in 718, which was the first independent nucleus of Andalusian power.[3]
At the Battle of Covadonga, the opening battle of the Reconquista of Spain, the Muslim army of the Al-Andalus was defeated by her husband Pelagius's Christian forces amidst a vision of the Virgin Mary and the Cross. Some of the Muslim soldiers fled the battlefield to Liébana, where Gaudiosa was residing, and legend claims that she rallied the townspeople to defend the town.[4]
After her husband died in 737, Gaudiosa became a nun at the Church of Santa Cruz, Cangas de Onis, which had been founded by her son.[4]
Issue
[edit]Gaudiosa and her husband had two children:[4]
Favila of Asturias inherited the throne from his father. He married a Visigothic woman named Froiluba, but died in 739 without issue.[citation needed]
Ermesinda[5] married Alfonso I of Asturias ("Alfonso the Catholic"), son of Duke Peter of Cantabria, and he claimed his inheritance and right to the throne of Asturias through his marriage to her.[6] Ermesinda's children were King Fruela I of Asturias (The Cruel), who killed his brother Vimarano, and was himself assassinated in revenge for the murder, after adopting his dead brother's son.[7] Their sister Adosinda was Queen consort of King Silo of Asturias, who inherited her family's throne after the death of King Aurelius, her cousin.[8]
Death and burial
[edit]Gaudiosa's remains were transferred by King Alfonso X of Castile to the Santa Cueva de Covadonga (Holy Cave of Covadonga), Asturias,[9][10] along with her husband's remains and those of her sister-in-law Adonsina.
References
[edit]- ^ "Gaudiosa, esposa de don Pelayo". José Ignacio Gracia Noriega. 23 May 2005. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ "María Luisa Castellanos, Doña Gaudiosa / La Alhambra / 1918". www.filosofia.org. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ García, Dolores Carolina Molina; Palacios, Ana Morilla; Hierro, María Pilar Queralt del (2025-01-29). Guerreras: españolas que empuñaron las armas (in Arabic). Editorial Almuzara. ISBN 978-84-1052-728-7.
- ^ a b c "Gaudiosa of Asturias, the warrior Queen". Albion & Iberia: Catholic history of Britain and Spain. 2015-03-05. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ Aparicio, Zoltan Gergely (2020). "Christian States of Iberia/Hispania between 711-1212". Jura: A Pecsi Tudomanyegyetem Allam- Es Jogtudomanyi Karanak Tudomanyos Lapja. 2020: 5.
- ^ Grieve, Patricia E. (2020-03-03). The Eve of Spain: Myths of Origins in the History of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Conflict. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-2914-4.
- ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1906). Primera crónica general : estoria de España que mandó componer Alfonso el Sabio y se continuaba bajo Sancho IV en 1289. Madrid : Bailly/Bailliére. p. 343.
{{cite book}}: More than one of|author=and|last=specified (help) - ^ Aparicio, Javier Iglesia (2015-10-08). "Biografía de Adosinda, reina consorte de Asturias". Historia del Condado de Castilla (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-18.
- ^ "LEON". www.royaltombs.dk. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ Byfield, Ted; Project, Christian History; Stanway, Paul (2004). The Sword of Islam: A.D. 565 to 740 : the Muslim Onslaught All But Destroys Christendom. Christian History Project. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-9689873-4-6.