Estefania de Requesens i Roís de Liori was the only daughter of Hipòlita Roís de Liori (Valencia, 1479 - Madrid, 1546), also known as the Sad countess of Palamós; both of them maintained an intense and extensive correspondence, mostly written in Catalan, on family subjects, court life and heritage management. These letters show us history through the smallest and most everyday things from the point of view of a woman who is the protagonist and the person that comments it. These letters must be placed in the epistolary tradition that can be followed from the Middle Ages, with the queens Violant of Bar, Margaret of Prades and Maria of Castile, or the correspondence between Beatriu and Joana de Pinós, who were also a mother and her daughter, respectively (15th century). There are also letters from other nobles and ladies of that time, such as those sent by Guiomar d'Hostalric to her husband Francesc de Gralla between 1535 and 1536 or those that Serena de Tous (c. 1350-c. 1400), exchanged with her husband, the merchant Ramon de Tous. On the other hand, there is the short collected letters, literary and loving, made up by three letters, between the intellectual writer Isabel de Suaris and the poet Bernat Fenollar at the end of the 15th century.
Estefania de Requesens i Roís de Liori
Molins de Rei c. 1504 ‖ Barcelona 1549
Period of activity: From 1533 until 1540
Geographical classification: Europe > Spain
Socio-cultural movements
Early modern period > Humanism
Groups by dedication
Rulers > Empresses / Queens / Noblewomen
Writers > Epistolographers
Educators > Pedagogues
Context of feminine creation
Review
Estefania de Requesens was the daughter of LLuís de Requesens i Joan Soler and Hipòlita Roís de Liori, as well as the heiress of a great heritage. She was so renowned that, when she married Juan de Zúñiga, it was agreed that the heir had to be surnamed as Requesens and live in Catalonia. She took care of her family, apart from the labours required as a lady of the court. When her husband was appointed to be tutor of prince Philip, they had to move from Barcelona to Madrid with their children. From then on, correspondence with her mother started. A huge number of letters signed by her and written mainly in Catalan, between 1533 and 1540, are preserved. Estefania de Requesens also wrote moral recommendations for her eldest son, Lluís de Requesens.
Justifications
Biography
Estefania de Requesens i Roís de Liori (Molins de Rei c. 1504 - Barcelona 1549) was the daughter of Lluís de Requesens i Joan Soler, count of Palamós, and of Hipòlita Roís de Liori i de Montcada. In 1509, when her father died, she was the heiress of a great heritage, since her siblings had not survived.
She was educated to be a perfect lady of the court. Indeed, she got engaged with Juan de Zúñiga in 1526. In the pre-nuptial agreements, it was convened that their heir had to be surnamed Requesens, and her fiancé was obliged to live in Catalonia. In 1533, they had to leave Barcelona with their children (they had eleven children, but only Lluís, Joan, Dídac and Hipòlita survived), and went to Madrid, where Zúñiga was appointed to be tutor of prince Philip two years later.
When she and her mother, Hipòlita Roís de Liori, were separated, they started to write letters. 102 letters are preserved, written between 1533 and 1540 in Catalan and generally about familiar topics, such as health during pregnancy and her children’s birth and growth. But there are also daily anecdotes, for example, anecdotes about her husband or about parties, as well as about the pressure received by her husband to learn Spanish helped by a service of this language. She spoke Spanish with him, and with their children who were not born in Catalonia. Nevertheless, she spoke Catalan with her mother and her grandmother. She also wrote some moral recommendations for her son Lluís de Requesens when he went to Flanders being young and inexperienced.
In 1546, her husband died, and immediately her mother, who lived in Madrid at that time, died too. This death made Estefania de Requesens come back to Catalonia until she died. In the will that she did with her husband, their grandson had to be surnamed Requesens.
Works
Epistles (102 letters written between 1533 and 1540 in Catalan and generally about familiar topics are preserved, among eight hundred collected letters of her family).
Manual of education for her eldest son, Lluís de Requesens.
Bibliography
Ahumada Batlle, Eulàlia (ed.) (2003). Epistolaris d’Hipòlita Roís de Liori i d’Estefania de Requesens (segle XVI). València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València.
Sanmartí Roset, Montserrat (2010). “Estefania de Requesens”, dins Diccionari Biogràfic de Dones, (retrieved on 15-01-2022).
Didactic approach
She can be used for the subjects Valencian language and literature or Spanish language and literature. It can also be useful for history, because reading her letters offers an outlook of how society was at the beginning of the 16th century.
In Valencian language and literature, her texts can be used for studying letters, narration and description (types of texts), as well as linguistic issues (grammatical categories, morphology, etc.) in all the years of ESO, and in literature of 3rd of ESO and 1st of Bachillerato.