Urraca López de Haro

Urraca López de Haro (c. 1160 – c. 1230)[a] daughter of Count Lope Díaz de Haro, Lord of Biscay and his wife countess Aldonza, founders of the monastery of Cañas[2] was Queen consort of León (1185/1187–1188) following her marriage to King Ferdinand II (1137–1188).

Urraca was first married with her mother's kinsman the Galician magnate Nuño Meléndez (c. 1180)[3] son of Melendo Núñez and María Fróilaz.

King Fernando died in Benavente on 22 January 1188 and was succeeded by his first-born, Alfonso IX of León after which, Urraca had to seek refuge in the Castile ruled by her former husband's nephew, Alfonso VIII, entrusting the protection of her holdings in León to her brother Diego López II de Haro.

In 1213, count Álvaro Núñez de Lara, married to Queen Urraca's niece, Urraca Díaz de Haro gave her several properties in La Bureba,[6] with which she later founded, in 1222, the Monastery of Santa María la Real in Vileña, entrusting its governance to the Cistercians.

Urraca appears frequently in Medieval sources: She had a daughter with her first husband, Nuño Meléndez:[3] She had three sons with King Fernando:[14] Queen Urraca was buried, dressed as a nun with her hands folded across her chest, in a stone sepulchre which was previously at the Monastery of Santa María la Real in Vileña, Burgos, that she had founded and is now in ruins.