Background
Eleanor of Arborea was born at Molins de Rei, Catalonia in 1347. She was the daughter of Marianus IV of Arborea and his wife Timbora de Rocabertí. During her childhood, she was raised with a natural tendency towards war and weapons.
Eleanor of Arborea was born at Molins de Rei, Catalonia in 1347. She was the daughter of Marianus IV of Arborea and his wife Timbora de Rocabertí. During her childhood, she was raised with a natural tendency towards war and weapons.
Eleanor of Arborea was given a very diverse education that included war strategy, politics, cartography, the sciences, and more.
Eleanor obtained her judgeship in 1383 when her brother Hugh III of Arborea and his daughter were killed in a conspiracy.
In 1392 Eleanor granted for the first time in history the protection of bird nests against illegal hunters under the jurisdiction later conferred by the Carta de Logu.
She enacted the code of laws known as the Carta de Logu (meaning Charter of Law), which was in effect in Sardinia from 1395 until 1827. In that code, there is the modernizing of certain norms and the juridical wisdom that contains elements of the Roman-canonical tradition, the Byzantine one, the Bolognese jurisprudence and the thought of the glossators of the Catalan court culture, but above all the local juridical elaboration of the Sardinian customs made by Sardinian municipal law. One notable provision of the Code is that it gave daughters and sons the same inheritance rights. As well, it also declared that rape could be recompensed through marriage only if the woman who was raped agreed to marry her rapist, and even if she did the Code declared that the rapist still had to either pay a large fine to the Senate or have his foot cut off (his choice). If she did not agree to marry him, he had to give her a dowry that suited her social status, so that she could marry someone else, and he still had to either pay a large fine to the Senate or have his foot cut off (his choice). As well, these punishments were not affected by whether or not the woman in question was betrothed. The Code also led Eleanor to be remembered as one of the first lawmakers to set up the condition of reciprocity when dealing with foreigners, as well as the crime of misfeasance.
First of all, being a woman ruler in the Middle Ages was already exceptional, Eleanor of Arborea worked and fought to make her father’s dream of uniting Sardinia under one realm come true.
The most famous and precious document she conceived is called “Carta de Logu” (de Logu Constitution), through which she re-organized the judiciary system and local institutions of her time, a paper that now many researchers define a concentration of modernity and wisdom.
There is a statue of Eleanor in the Piazza Eleonora in Oristano.
Eleanora of Arborea was so powerful that many tales were crafted around her, stories describing her as a charmer, an enchantress, the only way they could explain how she could conquer and build so many castles. She was an extraordinary leader indeed, and the fact that she was a woman added to her allure.
Quotes from others about the person
"The most splendid female figure that Italian history ever had, including those of ancient Rome." - Carlo Cattaneo
Eleonora of Arborea was married to Brancaleone Doria, for the sake of an alliance between the Doria and Arborea families. Her children were Marianus V of Arborea, Frederick of Arborea.
