Fabric. Queen Berenguela of Castile.

Fragment of the shroud dress of Queen Berenguela. Berenguela I of Castile was born in Segovia on June 1, 1180, and was buried in the Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos, on November 8, 1246. She was Queen of Castile in 1217 and Queen consort of León between 1197 and 1204. She is the first-born daughter of the Castilian King Alfonso VIII and his wife, Leonor of England, founders of the Monastery of Las Huelgas.here we present four fragments of fabric, belonging to the same piece, some of them of very small size, which were found in the coffin of Queen Berenguela, next to her mummy; possibly it was from the costume (GÓMEZ-MORENO, 1949, p. 30-31). As Gómez-Moreno himself points out, this coffin showed evident signs of alterations, a consequence of the plundering and destruction to which most of the burials at Las Huelgas were subjected by the French during the Napoleonic invasion. As Amparo López points out, it is a liseré taffeta with lacerations, eight-pointed rosettes and epigraphy; it has a single white silk warp with a “Z” twist. Several wefts of lisée taffeta without twist, two shades of green, one blue and one pink and also a tinsel weft. In the band of the epigraphy the construction technique changes and becomes taqueté.The decoration of this piece, in which the green color of the backgrounds predominates, is arranged in horizontal bands, in which different decorative themes alternate: a band of white flowers with eight pointed leaves on a green background with geometric relief; a band of rosettes with a tiny central star, separated by flowers with eight pointed leaves in gold and white on green; again a band of white flowers, before the band of cursive epigraphy that repeats the same spelling, sometimes in gold on a blue background, and other times in white on a gold background. The bands are separated by three plain, white and blue listillas; the central list is a simple two-strand chain or cord, which is especially visible in the framing areas of the epigraphy. The geometric organization of the design underlies both the bands of flowers and the bands of flowers and rosettes, both in their most obvious aspects and in the arrangement of the relief pattern that is organized in their backgrounds.The piece from which these fragments come, preserved in the Museum of Medieval Fabrics of the Monastery of Las Huelgas, was restored and analyzed, showing among the dyes used for its manufacture, dyes such as indigo (blue), and gualda (yellow), and a high percentage of gold (88%), compared to silver (5%), in the twisted threads (HERRERO CARRETERO.This piece is similar and considered to belong to the same series (HERRERO CARRETERO, C, 1988, p. 98) as the coffin of Fernando de la Cerda (1225-1275).more information in the catalog “A la luz de la seda”.