Blanche of Portugal (25 February 1259 in Santarém, – 17 April 1321 in Burgos; Branca Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈbɾɐ̃kɐ] in Portuguese and Blanca in Spanish), was an infanta and nun, the firstborn child of King Afonso III of Portugal and his second wife Beatrice of Castile. Named after her great-aunt Blanche of Castile, queen of France, Blanche was the Lady of Las Huelgas, Montemor-o-Velho, Alcocer and Briviesca, the city which she founded.
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Biography
Born in Santarém, when Blanche was two years old, her father gave her, as a perpetual donation, the city of Montemor-o-Velho with the condition that it would revert to the crown upon her death or in the event that she married outside of Portugal. Following the footsteps of her great-aunt, queen Theresa of Portugal, Queen of León and other female members of the royal house and nobility, she went to live at the Monastery of Lorvão in 1277 although at that time she was not a nun and was never the abbess of this religious establishment.
In 1282, she accompanied her mother, Queen Beatrice, to Castile, due to differences with her brother King Denis of Portugal and coinciding with the conflict between her maternal grandfather, King Alfonso X and infante Sancho, the future King Sancho IV. There is documentary proof that mother and daughter were living in 1283 in Seville with the king who in his will mentioned his granddaughter Blanche and left her a substantial sum for her marriage.
In 1295, she became a nun at the Convent of Las Huelgas, as evidenced by a letter dated 15 April 1295 detailing the reasons that led her to become a nun at the recommendation and instructions of her uncle King Sancho IV of Castile, even though at first she had been reluctant to enter the religious order.