Sibil·la de Fortià, Countess-Queen of the House of Barcelona

From the minor nobility of Empordà, she was the daughter of the knight Berenguer de Fortià and Francesca de Vilamarí, daughter of the mayor of Lleida. She married her first husband, the nobleman Artal de Foces, at which point she moved to the court and became one of the ladies-in-waiting of Queen Eleanor of Sicily, the third wife of Peter the Ceremonious. After the death of Artal de Foces, she became the king’s mistress, obtaining major privileges and exercising great influence over him, especially in terms of favours for the lower nobility, a fact not approved of by the princes John and Martin. They had a daughter, Isabella, and later married (1377). The enmity between the princes and Sibil·la was so great that they did not even attend the queen’s coronation in Saragossa.

When years later the king fell ill, Sibil·la de Fortià, fearful of reprisals, fled from the court, first to Sitges and then to the castle of Sant Martí Sarroca. The fortress was besieged by the sons of the Ceremonious and, as a result, the queen was imprisoned. Accused of treason and abandonment of the King, it was thanks to the mediation of the Pope of Avignon that the Queen was pardoned, under the condition that she relinquished all her possessions.