Constance of Hungary (in Hungarian, Konstancia; in Czech, Konstancie; c. 1180 – 6 December 1240) was the second Queen consort of Ottokar I of Bohemia.[1]

Constance of Hungary
Queen Constance on a tympanum in the Cistercian abbey Porta Coeli
Queen consort of Bohemia
Tenure1199–1230
Bornc. 1180
Hungary
Died6 December 1240 (aged c. 60)
Tišnov, Moravia
Burial
Spouse
(m. 1199; died 1230)
IssueWenceslaus I of Bohemia
Anna of Bohemia
Saint Agnes of Bohemia
HouseÁrpád
FatherBéla III of Hungary
MotherAgnes of Antioch

Family

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Constance was a daughter of Béla III of Hungary[2] and his first wife Agnes of Antioch. Her older siblings included Emeric, King of Hungary, Margaret of Hungary and Andrew II of Hungary.

Marriage and children

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In 1199, Ottokar I divorced his first wife, Adelaide of Meissen, on grounds of consanguinity. He married Constance later in the same year.[2] Together with Ottokar, she had nine children.[2]

Queen Constance is regularly noted as a co-donator with her husband in various documents of his reign. Her petitions to her husband for various donations are also recorded. She is considered to have sold the city Boleráz to her nephew Béla IV of Hungary. In 1247, Béla conferred said city to the nuns of Trnava. An epistle by which Constance supposedly grants freedom to the cities of Břeclav and Olomouc is considered a false document. The same epistle grants lands in Ostrovany to the monastery of St. Stephen of Hradište. Another epistle has the queen settling "honorable Teutonic men" (viros honestos Theutunicos) in the city of Hodonín and is also considered a forgery.[3] In 1230, Ottokar I died and their son Wenceslaus succeeded him. Constance survived her husband by a decade.

In 1231, Pope Gregory IX set Queen Constance and her dower possessions under the protection of the Holy See. His letter to Constance clarifies said possessions to include the provinces of Břeclav (Brecyzlaviensem), Pribyslavice (Pribizlavensem), Dolni Kunice (Conowizensem), Godens (Godeninensem), Bzenec (Bisenzensem) and Budějovice (Budegewizensem).[4] In 1232, Constance founded Cloister Porta Coeli near Tišnov and retired to it as a nun. She died within the Cloister.

Issue

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The Milanese mystic Guglielma (1210s – 24 October 1281) claimed to be a Princess of Bohemia[5] and has therefore been identified as a daughter of Ottokar and Constance with the name Vilemína or Božena, but there is an absence of any corroborating Bohemian documents.

References

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  1. ^ Sara Ritchey, Holy Matter: Changing Perceptions of the Material World in Late Medieval Christianity, (Cornell University Press, 2014), 101.
  2. ^ a b c Earenfight 2013, p. 175.
  3. ^ "Women's Biography: Constance of Hungary". Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
  4. ^ "1231 Letter from Gregory IX to Constance of hungary". Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
  5. ^ Marina Benedetti, ed. (1999). Milano 1300: I processi inquisitoriali contro le devote e i devoti di santa Guglielma. Milan: Libri Scheiwiller.

Sources

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Constance of Hungary
Born: 1180? Died: 6 December 1240
Royal titles
Vacant
Title last held by
Adelaide of Meissen
Queen consort of Bohemia
1199–1230
Succeeded by