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- BIOGRAPHY
Madragana Ben Aloandro, later known as Maior Afonso or Mor Afonso, was born about 1230 in Faro, Portugal to Aloandro Ben Bakr, governor of Faro. After Afonso III, king of Portugal took Faro from the Moors, her father offered him his daughter. She was re-christened, receiving her new name as Maior Afonso, Mor being short for Maior (meaning 'the Bigger'), a common female name in medieval Portugal. Afonso was given her in baptism as her new patronymic, meaning 'the daughter of' Afonso - implying that her elderly royal lover was also her godfather, and that she took his spiritual fatherhood when christened. At times Madragana was also called Mouroana, Mouroana Gil and Madraganil in ancient Portuguese chronicles - all of these Iberian Christian names. Madragana had two children fathered by the king. When her relationship with the king waned, she was married to Fernao Rei, and they had documented issue: at least one daughter, Sancha Fernandes.
There is, however, some controversy regarding a claim that she might have been a Moor even though it is obvious from the facts that she was not. For example Duarte Nunes de Leao, a Portuguese royal chronicler of the 16th century, asserted that Madragana was a Moor. This was denied by António Caetano de Sousa, in the 18th century, in the _História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa._
Madragana or Maior Afonso is an ancestor of almost all European aristocracy and royal families, as a 6th generation descendant, Margarita de Castro e Souza, a Portuguese noblewoman of the 15th century, married Jean II, count of Neufchâtel, and their issue spread throughout Europe.
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