Mécia Lopes de Haro or Mencía López de Haro (c. 1215–1270) was a Castilian noblewoman, the wife successively of count Álvaro Pérez de Castro and of King Sancho II of Portugal. The subsequent annulment of her marriage by Pope Innocent IV has led to disagreement over whether she should be counted among the queens consort of Portugal. She played a central role in the Portuguese political crisis of 1245.
Birth
Mécia Lopes was born in Biscay, the daughter of Lope Díaz II de Haro, lord of Biscay, and of Urraca Alfonso of León. Her mother was an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso IX of León. She was thus niece of the reigning king, Ferdinand III of Castile.
First Marriage
Mécia was married on 29 September 1234 to Álvaro Pérez de Castro, a magnate involved in the expansion of the Castilian kingdom into the region of Cordoba, whose first marriage to Aurembiaix, Countess of Urgell had been annulled in 1228, while Mécia's sister Teresa married Nuño, Count of Rousillon, a kinsman of the powerful House of Lara.
These consanguineous marriages were the cause of a dispute between Ferdinand III and Mecia's father Lope Diaz II Haro and husband, the monarch confiscating some of the groom's lands. It was peacefully resolved through the mediation of Queens Berengaria of Castile and Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, Ferdinand's mother and wife, respectively.
While the marriage proved childless, it did place Mécia in the midst of the struggles on the Cordoban frontier. After taking Cordoba, the king returned to Toledo, leaving Álvaro in charge of the stronghold of Martos. The abandonment of agriculture due to the conflict led to a localized famine, and Álvaro was forced to journey to the royal court to plead for assistance. The king granted him the equivalent of viceregal powers, as well as monetary support. However, in his absence his nephew, Tello, and the troops left behind decided to launch a military incursion into the territory of the enemy, Mécia was left virtually unprotected in Martos. The Moorish ruler of Arjona took advantage of this opportunity to invade the recently captured lands. In response, Mécia sent word to the missing troops, and according to Spanish historian Lafuente she then dressed in soldiers' arms and paraded around the battlements. Having anticipated facing women and not armed men, the Moors slowed their approach and took defensive measures, allowing the missing Christian troops under Tello to return. They then launched a directed attack under the command of Diego Perez de Vargas which broke through the center of the enemy lines, dispersing them. On hearing of the danger under which his wife had been placed, Álvaro made to return, but became ill and died of an unnamed disease at Orgaz in 1239, or as some have it, 1240.
Second Marriage
Mecía married again to King Sancho II of Portugal, son of Afonso II of Portugal and his wife, Queen Urraca of Castile. The legitimacy of this union has been contested, first by Portuguese historian António Brandão, who has been followed by several subsequent scholars in considering her a mistress, but that they married is documented by the papal bull Sua nobis of Pope Innocent IV, and is accepted by most historians. The date and place of the marriage is uncertain. It does not appear in the work of Rodrigo of Toledo, completed in March 1243 but also omitting Portuguese royal marriages from the year before, while the papal bull mentions it in 1245, suggesting it should be placed between these dates.
Life at the Portuguese court
From the start, there were several reasons for the marriage to be portrayed in a bad light. She brought with her from her foreign land the specter of domination by the powerful neighboring Kingdom of Castile. Further, since she was a widow and the king was her mother's first cousin, she deviated from the ideal of a virgin bride and tainted the marriage with consanguinity. She was not a royal princess and had no direct connections in either Portugal or Castile, whose king abandoned her after the death of her husband. She exacerbated her political isolation by surrounding herself with Castilian-raised servants and maids, making it difficult for Portuguese courtiers to use Mécia as an avenue for approaching the king. She was thus quickly rejected by nobility and populace. The degree of the discontent can be seen in the oft-repeated claim that the king was "bewitched by the arts of D. Mécia de Haro."