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Signs, seals and signatures of queens in the Crown of Aragon
We keep signs of validation of documents of queens and other women of the royal family from Petronila, both in those that were issued in their exclusive name, and in those who signed with their husbands or children, kings. It does not seem to be a Aragonese tradition but Catalan, because the wives of the Ramirez do not appear in the diplomas, but the wives of the counts of Barcelona do.
Despite the prejudice about the limited public role of the queens of Aragon, the reality is that both they and other women of the Aragonese royal family used signs, signatures and seals of their own. These are those of the queens between the union of kingdoms and the dynastic union.
Bibliography
Rafael Conde y Delgado de Molina, Signos, sellos y firmas de las reinas de Aragón, in "Acta historica et archaeologica mediaevalia", 25 (2003), pgs. 925-948 (CCBAE);
Marta Serrano Coll, Iconografía de género: los sellos de las reinas de Aragón en la Edad Media (siglos XII-XVI), in "Emblemata", 12 (2006), pgs. 15-52 (CCBAE).
She used a dotted cross sign (during her husband Ramon Berenguer IV's life) and another with a cross inscribed in a circle (in the reign of his son Alfonso II).
The first queen of the Crown of Aragon had its own sign in the form of a cross with small crosses at the corners. And a singular seal for being the only one of the Crown of Aragon with the seated figure on the obverse and equestrian on the back.
Eleanor of Castile (1208? -1251)
She had a sign and seal. The sign, quadrilobed.
Violant of Hungary (1214-1251)
She used a sign derived from the real, with two diamonds, and inside a quadrilobulated cross.
Constance of Sicily (1248-1302)
We do not know its sign but its seal: circular with the figure of the queen standing under a canopy on the obverse and the heraldic weapons on the back or counter.Salto de línea We also preserve a minor circular seal with the bars of Aragón.
She had no sign and used that of her husband King James II.
Elisenda of Montcada (1292-1364)
She used a heraldic seal quadrilobed with a shield pointed with the bars of Aragon and on the sides scutes with the arms of Montcada.
Eleanor of Castile (1309-1358)
She also used the same sign as her husband King Alfonso IV. But had her own seal of Castilian heraldic tradition: quadrilobulated form, in the inner lobe the arms of Aragon and Sicily, outside castles and lions.
She used a heraldic sign with the shield of the bars in the form of a horizontal rhombus and with the eagles of Sicily at the outer corners of the rhombus.
Her seal with her image under canopy with escutcheons with the arms of Aragon and Sicily on the obverse and a counter with the broken emblems of Aragon and Sicily.
Sibila of Fortià (1350? -1406)
We know his shield sign with the sticks of Aragon divided by the arms of Fortià.
A large number of documents are kept with her sign: part the arms of Aragon with those of Bar and with crosses at the corners of the shield, as in the signs of the kings.Salto de línea She also signed many documents in a handwritten manner: sometimes as "La Reyna", sometimes, when he was already a widow, as "La Reyna Yolant" or "L Reyna Y", to distinguish herself from the reigning one.Salto de línea And we also know her common and secret seals: the queen under the Gothic canopy with scutes of Aragon and Bar and these same weapons split in the counter.
She is changing the sign according to the changes in status of her husband, the infant Martin. As Infanta, Countess of Jérica and Luna and lady of Segorbe uses a shield with the arms of her husband (Aragon) match by their own. As Duchess of Montblanc part Martin's new weapons (Aragon and Sicily) with his own. As queen part Aragon with Luna.Salto de línea In addition, María is the first woman of the Aragonese royal house to sign with her hand plenty of documents: as infanta, "Maria"; as a duchess, "The Duchess"; and as queen, "La Reyna".Salto de línea And to this we add the seals that we keep of her as queen, with a counter with her arms surrounded by an angel and two pheasants with the head of a woman.
She used a sign, seal and signed, in the Castilian way, "I the Queen".Salto de línea In addition, for many years she was the Lieutenant for Catalonia of her absent husband, King Alfonso V. She used three seals: the common one, the secret and that of Lieutenant.Salto de línea Her sign is equal to that of the king in her activity as Lieutenant.
We keep a seal of 1462.
Her sign has the same shape as that of the king but with prolonged perpendiculars.
Germaine of Foix (1488? -1536)
We keep a seal and her signature. The seal has a shield crowned with the arms of Castile, Leon, Granada, Aragon, Sicily, Jerusalem, Foix, Bearn, Navarre, Evreux and Bigorre.