Queen of England as the wife of Richard the Lionheart, married on crusade in Cyprus in 1191. There is no record that she set foot in England during his reign, and she spent thirty years of widowhood securing her rights as lady of Le Mans.
Berengaria of Navarre was the eldest daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre and the wife of Richard the Lionheart, whom she married at Limassol in Cyprus on 12 May 1191, in the middle of the Third Crusade. She was crowned queen of England the same day, but there is no record that she set foot in England while Richard lived, and the couple spent little of his reign together.
Her importance lies in the alliance she brought and in her long widowhood. The marriage made Navarre an ally on the southern flank of Richard's lands in Aquitaine, and after his death in 1199 she spent three decades pursuing her dower from King John and his son before settling at Le Mans, where she governed the city as its lady and founded the Cistercian abbey of L'Épau.
Berengaria was born in Navarre around 1165–1170, to Sancho VI, called the Wise, and Sancha of Castile, and almost nothing is recorded of her childhood. The marriage was arranged while Richard was still formally betrothed to Alys, the sister of Philip II of France, whom he refused to marry. His mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, crossed the Alps in the winter of 1190–1191 to bring Berengaria to him in Sicily, and they reached Messina on 30 March 1191, the day Philip sailed for the Holy Land.
Berengaria is one of the least-described queens of medieval England. Richard of Devizes, writing in the 1190s, called her a young woman more sensible than beautiful, and the chroniclers of the crusade mention her chiefly as the companion of Richard's widowed sister Joan, queen of Sicily, with whom she travelled. The absence of criticism is itself unusual at a time when monastic writers were quick to blame queens, and it probably reflects how small a public role she was given.
Her later letters and lawsuits show a more determined woman. She appealed repeatedly to Pope Innocent III over the dower King John withheld, bargained with Philip II of France over her Norman rights, and as lady of Le Mans quarrelled with the cathedral chapter over jurisdiction. Modern historians have set aside the romantic image of a neglected wife in favour of a widow who used every legal means available to secure her income and her lordship.
Storms scattered Richard's fleet on the way from Sicily, and the ship carrying Berengaria and Joan was driven to Cyprus, where the island's ruler, Isaac Komnenos, tried to lure the women ashore. Richard landed, conquered the island in a few weeks, and married Berengaria in the chapel of St George at Limassol, where the bishop of Évreux crowned her. The couple sailed on to the siege of Acre, and Berengaria stayed with Joan in Acre and Jaffa while Richard campaigned against Saladin.
She left the Holy Land ahead of Richard at the end of September 1192 and waited in Poitou through his captivity in Germany. After his release, Roger of Howden reports, a hermit warned the king to give up his sins and return to his wife, and Richard was reconciled with her; they kept Christmas together at Poitiers in 1195. They had no children.
Richard died at Châlus in April 1199 without Berengaria at his side. His brother John, fighting Philip II for the Angevin lands, withheld the dower in England and Normandy that had been promised to her, and she spent years appealing to Innocent III, who threatened John with ecclesiastical penalties on her behalf. In 1204 she surrendered her Norman dower rights to Philip II in exchange for the city of Le Mans.
Henry III's government finally paid much of her arrears in the 1220s. At Le Mans she heard disputes, managed her revenues and defended her jurisdiction, and in 1229 she received land at L'Épau outside the city from the young Louis IX, where she founded a Cistercian abbey.
Berengaria died at Le Mans, probably on 23 December 1230, and was buried in the abbey church of L'Épau. Her tomb was moved during the abbey's later history, and bones identified as hers, found at the abbey in 1960, were reburied beneath her effigy, which has been returned to L'Épau.