Image: EpitafioJimenaMuñiz MuseoLeón

Description: Jimena Muñiz epitaph. (ca. 1060-1128) Jimena Muñiz was the noble lover of King Alfonso VI (1065-1109), by him having two daughters: Elvira, wife of Raymond IV of Toulouse, and Teresa, who was mother of Alfonso Enriquez, first King of Portugal. Born about 1060 to one of the "most noble" families of the kingdom, her parentage was not specified by contemporary sources, and there have been several competing modern hypotheses regarding her origin. One traditional solution made her descendant of an illegitimate son of King Vermudo II of León. Regarding her death, we have been left this epitaph, written in ‘‘dísticos elegiacos’’, stating that she died in 1128, 19 years after the monarch Alfonso VI. The epitaph today is in the Leon Museum, although originally was in the monastery of San Andrés de Espinareda, where Jimena probably was buried. The text says she was friend of the King when he was a widower and despite of her qualities of beauty, good education and membership of the aristocracy, that is, all of the characteristics of a Queen, fatal destiny prevented it, and adds the date of her death in 1128: QUAM DEUS A PENA DEFENDAT, DICTA SEMENA ALPHONSI VIDUI REGIS AMICA FUI; COPIA, FORMA, GENUS, DOS FORUM, CULTUS AMENUS, ME REGNATORIS PROSTITUERE THORIS, ME SIMUL ET REGEM MORTIS PERSOLVERE LEGEM. FATA COEGERUNT, QUE FERA QUEQUE TERUNT TERDENIS DEMPTIS SUPER HEC DE MILLE DUCENTIS, QUATOR ERIPIES, QUE FUIT ERA, SCIES. Translation: Me, called Jimena, whom God free deserved punishment, was friend of King Alfonso when he was widower. My wealth, my beauty, my lineage, my morality and my good treatment reached me until the King thalamus. The hades that unyielding everything destroyed it, forced me to pay tribute to death while the King. Subtracts thirty years and then four and you will know what was the era.
Title: EpitafioJimenaMuñiz MuseoLeón
Credit: Own work
Author: Valdavia
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