Constance of Castile

For other people named Constance of Castile, see Constance of Castile (disambiguation).
Constance of Castile
Queen consort of France
Tenure 1154–1160
Born c 1140
Died 4 October 1160
Burial Basilica of St Denis
Spouse Louis VII of France
Issue Margaret, Queen of Hungary
Alys, Countess of the Vexin
House House of Burgundy
Father Alfonso VII of León and Castile
Mother Berenguela of Barcelona
Religion Roman Catholicism

Constance of Castile (c 1140 - 4 October 1160) was Queen of France as the second wife of Louis VII, who married her following the annulment of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine.[1] She was a daughter of Alfonso VII of León and Berengaria of Barcelona,[2] but her year of birth is not certainly known.

The official reason for her husband's divorce from Eleanor of Aquitaine had been that he was too close a relative of Eleanor for the marriage to be legal by Church standards; however, he was even more closely related to Constance.

Constance died giving birth to her second child. Desperate for a son, her husband remarried a mere five weeks after her death.

Constance was buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, France.

Children

Constance bore her husband two children:

  1. Margaret, 1157–1197, who married first Henry the Young King of England, and then Béla III of Hungary
  2. Alys, 1160–1220, who married William IV of Ponthieu

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Constance Bouchard, Those of My Blood: Creating Noble Families in Medieval Francia, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 126.
  2. ↑ Jim Bradbury, The Capetians, (MPG Books Ltd, 2007), 165.
French royalty
Preceded by
Eleanor of Aquitaine		 Queen of France
1154–1160 		Succeeded by
Adele of Champagne
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