Berengaria

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Berengaria (c.1164/5–c.1230), queen of Richard I. The daughter of Sancho VI of Navarre, Berengaria was married to Richard in an alliance intended to protect his southern frontiers while he was occupied on the Third Crusade. On her journey to the Holy Land, Berengaria was shipwrecked off Cyprus and threatened by the ruler, Isaac Comnenus. Richard captured the island, thus ensuring a strategic supply base for campaigns in Palestine, and married Berengaria, who was also crowned queen, in Limassol in May 1191. Thereafter, she saw her husband only rarely and England never. There were no children. After Richard's death in 1199, Berengaria lived on her dower lands at Le Mans, France, where she was famed for her almsgiving. Denied by King John, she only received her marriage settlement under Henry III. Just before her death, she founded a Cistercian monastery at L'Épau, where she is buried.

June Cochrane

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Berengaria

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