Christina of Norway’s “infelice successo” in Bernarda Ferreira de Lacerda’s Hespaña libertada

Abstract

The second part of Bernarda Ferreira de Lacerda’s (1595-1644) epic Hespaña
libertada, published in Lisbon in 1673, recreates in unique poetic style the journey of Princess
Kristín Hákonardóttir (1234-1262) to the court of King Alfonso X of Castile and Leon, based
on Juan de Mariana’s Historia General de España. In this paper, I propose a contextualization
and a brief commentary of the “infelice successo de Christina, hija del Rey de Dinamarca”, a
little studied version of the episode that sheds light on the cultural perception of Christina of
Norway’s legend and the Iberian-Boreal contacts in the literature of the Spanish Golden Age.

Keywords: Bernarda Ferreira de Lacerda, Women's Writing, Hespaña Libertada, Christina of Norway, Iberian-Nordic relations