Year: 2023
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: This study takes a renewed look at Urraca of León-Castile (c.1080–1126) through the medium of five different coin types with her ‘portrait’ that were produced over the course of her seventeen-year reign. In the past decade, heretofore unknown coins and new examples of little studied coins have been published by numismatists, and together they shed fresh light on the complex picture of Urraca as reigning queen. The present study assesses the visual and material evidence together with textual sources to understand the reasons behind the minting of multiple portrait-types coins. In doing so, Urraca both broke with the past and established a pattern that would be followed by her successors. I argue that Urraca’s portrait coins allow us more direct access to her ambitions as ruler, without the intermediation of father, son, or consorts, in a way that an examination of the textual sources alone has not been able to achieve.
Source: BRILL eBooks
Author: Therese Martin
Institution: Princeton University
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology (arts and humanities)
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4387841995