Constance of Arles
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Constance of Arles (973 - July 25, 1034) was the third wife and queen of King Robert II of France. She was the daughter of William I, count of Provence and great-grandson of Charles-Constantine; and Adelais of Anjou, daughter of Fulk II of Anjou. She was the sister of Count William II of Provence.
In 1003, she was married to King Robert, after his divorce from his second wife. The marriage was stormy; the family of Robert's second queen, Bertha, opposed her, and Constance was despised for importing her Provençal kinfolk. Robert's friend, Hugh of Beauvais, tried to convince the king to repudiate her in 1007. Constance's response was to have Beauvais murdered by the knights of her kinsman, Fulk Nerra. In 1010 Robert even went to Rome, accompanied by his former wife Bertha, to seek permission to divorce Constance and remarry Bertha. Constance encouraged her sons to revolt against their father, and then favored her younger son, Robert, over her elder son, Henri.
During the famous trial of Herefast de Crepon (who was alleged to be involved with the Cathars) in 1022, the crowd outside the church in Orleans became so unruly that, according to Moore:
- At the king's command, Queen Constance stood before the doors of the Church, to prevent the common people from killing them inside the Church, and they were expelled from the bosom of the Church. As they were being driven out, the queen struck out the eye of Stephen, who had once been her confessor, with the staff which she carried in her hand.
The symbolism, or reality, of putting an eye out is used often in medieval accounts to show the ultimate sin of breaking of one's oath, whether it be heresy, or treason to ones lordship, or in this case both. Stephen's eye was put out by the hand of a Queen wielding a staff (royal scepters were usually tipped with a cross) thus symbolically providing justice for the treasoned lord on earth and in heaven.
Constance and Robert had seven children:
- Advisa, Countess of Auxerre, (c.1003-after 1063), married Count Renaud I of Nevers
- Hugh Magnus, co-king (1007-September 17, 1025)
- Henri (May 4, 1008-August 4, 1060)
- Adela, Countess of Contenance (1009-June 5, 1063), married (1) Duke Richard III of Normandy (2) Count Baldwin V of Flanders
- Robert I, Duke of Burgundy (1011-March 21, 1076)
- Eudes (1013-1056)
- Constance (1014-unknown), married Manasses de Dammartin
At Constance's urging, her eldest son Hugh Magnus was crowned co-king alongside his father in 1017. Hugh Magnus demanded his parents share power with him, and rebelled against his father in 1025. He died suddenly later that year, an exile and a fugitive. Robert and Constance quarrelled over which of their surviving sons should inherit the throne; Robert favored their second son Henri, while Constance favored their third son, Robert. Despite his mother's protests, Henry was crowned in 1027. Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, wrote a letter claiming that he was "frightened away" from the consecration of Henry "by the savagery of his mother, who is quite trustworthy when she promises evil."
Constance encouraged her sons to rebel, and Henri and Robert began attacking and pillaging the towns and castles belonging to their father. Robert attacked Burgundy, the duchy he had been promised but had never received, and Henry seized Dreux. At last King Robert agreed to their demands and peace was made which lasted until the king's death.
King Robert died in 1031, and soon Constance was at odds with both her elder son, Henri, and her younger son Robert. Constance seized her dower lands and refused to surrender them. Henri fled to Normandy, where he received aid, weapons, and soldiers from his brother Robert. He returned to besiege his mother at Poissy, but Constance escaped to Pontoise. She only surrendered when Henri began the siege of Le Puiset and swore to slaughter all the inhabitants.
Constance died in 1034, and was buried beside her husband Robert at Saint-Denis Basilica.
[edit] Sources
- Jessee, W. Scott. A missing Capetian princess: Advisa, daughter of King Robert II of France (Medieval Prosopography), 1990
- Nolan, Kathleen D. Capetian Women, 2003.
- Moore, R.I. The Birth of Popular Heresy, 1975.
