Sancha of Castile, Queen of Aragon

{{Short description|Queen of Aragon from 1174 to 1196}}

{{infobox royalty

| consort = yes

| name = Sancha of Castile

| succession = Queen consort of Aragon

| image = Alfons Sancha.jpg

| caption = Sancha of Castile and her husband Alfonso II of Aragon in the 12th-century manuscript Liber Feudorum Maior

| reign = 18 January 1174 – 25 April 1196

| spouse = {{marriage|Alfonso II of Aragon|1174|1196|end=died}}

| issue = Constance of Aragon
Peter II of Aragon
Alfonso II, Count of Provence

| issue-link = #Issue

| issue-pipe = among others...

| house = Castilian House of Ivrea

| father = Alfonso VII of León and Castile

| mother = Richeza of Poland

| birth_date = 21 September 1154/5

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{death date|1208|11|9|df=y}} (aged 53/54)

| death_place = Villanueva de Sigena, Kingdom of Aragon

| burial_date =

| burial_place = Monastery of Santa María de Sigena

}}

Sancha of Castile (21 September 1154/5 – 9 November 1208) was the only surviving child of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile by his second wife, Richeza of Poland.{{sfn|Martin|2012|p=1087}} On January 18, 1174, she married King Alfonso II of Aragon at Zaragoza;{{sfn|Doran|Smith|2008|p=88}} they had at least eight children who survived into adulthood.

A patroness of troubadours such as Giraud de Calanson and Peire Raymond, the queen became involved in a legal dispute with her husband concerning properties which formed part of her dower estates. In 1177, she entered the County of Ribagorza and took forcible possession of various castles and fortresses that belonged to the crown there.

After her husband died at Perpignan in 1196, Sancha was relegated to the background of political affairs by her son, Peter II. She retired from court, withdrawing to the Hospitaller convent for noble ladies, the Royal Monastery of Santa María de Sigena, which she had founded.{{sfn|Kedar|Phillips|Riley-Smith|2005|p=15}} There she assumed the cross of the Knights Hospitaller, which she wore until the end of her life. The queen mother entertained her widowed daughter, Queen Constance, at Sigena before Constance married Emperor Frederick II in 1208. Sancha died soon afterwards, aged fifty-four, and was interred in front of the high altar of her foundation at the Sigena monastery; her tomb is still there to be seen.