Constance II of Sicily

{{Infobox royalty

| name = Constance II

| image = D. Constança de Hohenstaufen, Rainha de Aragão - The Portuguese Genealogy (Genealogia dos Reis de Portugal).png

| succession2 = Queen consort of Aragon

| reign2 = {{Nowrap|{{Start date|1276|7|27|df=y}} {{en dash}} {{end date|1285|11|df=y}}}}

| reign-type2 = Tenure

| succession = Queen of Sicily

| predecessor = Conradin (as pretender) or Charles I (de facto)

| successor = James I

| reign = {{Nowrap|1282{{en dash}}{{end date|1285|df=y}}}}{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Julian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYkEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA767 |title=Coinage and Money in Medieval Greece 1200-1430 (2 vols.) |date=2020-10-20 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-43464-6 |language=en|pages=767|quote=Constance and Peter of Aragon (1282-1285)}}{{Cite web |title=Constance, Queen of Sicily and Aragon|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG157699 |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=British Museum}}
(also pretender from 1268)

| reg-type = Co-ruler

| regent = Peter I

| spouse = {{marriage|Peter III of Aragon|13 June 1262|November 1285|end=died}}

| issue = {{plainlist|

| house = Hohenstaufen

| father = Manfred, King of Sicily

| mother = Beatrice of Savoy

| birth_date = {{Circa|1249}}

| birth_place = Kingdom of Sicily

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1302|4|9|1249|df=y}}

| death_place = Barcelona, Crown of Aragon

| place of burial = Barcelona Cathedral

}}

File:Coat of Arms of Constance of Sicily, Queen of Aragon.svg

Constance II ({{circa|1249}} – {{death date|1302|4|9|df=y}}) was Queen of Sicily from September 1282 to November 1285 alongside her husband, King Peter I. She was also Queen of Aragon from 1276 to 1285 during her husband's reign as Peter III of Aragon. She was a pretender to the Kingdom of Sicily from 1268 to 1282.{{sfn|Runciman|1958|p=202}} She was the only daughter of Manfred, King of Sicily, and his first wife, Beatrice of Savoy.{{sfn|George|1875|p=table XIII}}

Life

Constance was largely raised by Bella d'Amichi, who remained her favorite and confidante as queen.«[http://dbd.cat/fitxa_biografies.php?id=442 Diccionari Biogràfic de Dones: Bella, d'Amichi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807184058/http://dbd.cat/fitxa_biografies.php?id=442 |date=2016-08-07 }}» On 13 June 1262, Constance married Peter,{{sfn|Burgtorf|2007|p=74}} eldest son of King James I of Aragon. Her father was killed in the Battle of Benevento (26 February 1266) while fighting against his rival, Charles of Anjou.{{sfn|Bartlett|2020|p=279}} She inherited his claim to the Sicilian throne.

According to author E.L. Miron in her book "The Queens of Aragon" Constance was the first Queen of Aragon whose coronation was recorded as taking place, in Zaragoza on November 17, 1276.

James I died on 27 July 1276 and Peter succeeded to the throne with Constance as queen. During the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302), Peter and then their sons claimed the throne of Sicily in her right. The war resulted in the partition of the Kingdom of Sicily and the creation of the Kingdom of Trinacria under her heirs and the Kingdom of Naples under the heirs of Charles of Anjou.

Peter III died on November 1285. Constance died as a nun in Barcelona.

Children

Constance and Peter III of Aragon had six children:

Alfonso III of Aragon ({{birth date|1265|11|4|df=y}} – {{death date|1291|6|18|df=y}}).{{sfn|Lodge|1924|p=278}}
James II of Aragon ({{birth date|1267|8|10|df=y}} – {{death date|1327|11|2|df=y}}).{{sfn|Lodge|1924|p=278}}
Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal ({{circa|1271}} – {{death date|1336|7|4|df=y}}). Married Denis of Portugal{{sfn|Previte-Orton|1960|p=825}}
Frederick III of Sicily ({{birth date|1272|12|13|df=y}} – {{death date|1337|6|25|df=y}}).{{sfn|Lodge|1924|p=278}}
Yolande, Duchess of Calabria ({{circa|1273}} – {{death date|1302|8||df=y}}). Married Robert of Naples{{sfn|Cawsey|2002|p=2}}
Peter of Aragon ({{circa|1275}} – {{death date|1296|8|25|df=y}}). Married Guillemette of Béarn, daughter of Gaston VII, Viscount of Béarn.

Role in Dante's ''Divine Comedy''

Though most historical sources have little information about her, Constance occupies a place in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Constance's appearance in Canto III of Purgatorio of the Divine Comedy is understated and shadow-like. The reader learns of Constance through the speech of her father, Manfred of Sicily, whom Dante meets in the space of Mount Purgatory reserved for excommunicated souls. Manfred begs the poet to bring the truth "if another tale is told [to his] fair daughter, mother of the pride of Sicily and Aragon."{{Cite book|last=Hollander|first=Jean and Robert|title=Translation of Purgatorio|publisher=Anchor Books|year=2003|isbn=0-385-49700-8|location=New York|pages=111}} Manfred proceeds to tell Dante of how he repented and confessed to God for his "horrible" sins shortly before his death, and was thus saved from an afterlife in Hell, contrary to what others may have thought. Manfred concludes his speech by telling Dante that his sentence in Purgatory may be lessened if those still alive on Earth pray for him, and subsequently by asking Dante to tell Constance of his current placement and of how her "holy prayers" can aid in his movement toward Paradise.

References

Sources

{{cite book |title=Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe |first=Robert |last=Bartlett |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2020 }}
{{cite book |chapter=A Mediterranean Career in the Late Thirteenth Century: Hospitaller Grand Master Boniface of Calamandrana |first=Jochen |last=Burgtorf |title=The Hospitallers, the Mediterranean and Europe: Festschrift for Anthony Luttrell |editor-first1=Karl |editor-last1=Borchardt |editor-first2=Nikolas |editor-last2=Jaspert |editor-first3=Helen J |editor-last3=Nicholson |publisher=Ashgate |year=2007 }}
{{cite book |title=Kingship and Propaganda: Royal Eloquence and the Crown of Aragon c.1200-1450 |first=Suzanne F. |last=Cawsey |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 }}
{{cite book |first=Hereford Brooke |last=George |title=Genealogical Tables Illustrative of Modern History |publisher=Oxford at the Clarendon Press |year=1875 }}
{{cite book |title=The End of the Middle Age, 1273-1453 |first=Eleanor Constance |last=Lodge |publisher=Methuen & Company Limited |year=1924 }}
{{cite book |title=The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History |first=C.W. |last=Previte-Orton |volume=II: The twelfth century to the Renaissance |publisher=Cambridge at the University Press |year=1960 }}
{{cite book |first=Steven |last=Runciman |title=The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1958 }}

{{Succession box

| title = Queen of Sicily

| before = Charles I

| after = James I

| years = 1282–1285
with Peter I

}}

{{Succession box

| title = Queen consort of Aragon and Valencia
Countess consort of Barcelona

| before = Violant of Hungary

| after = Isabella of Castile

| years = 1276–1285

}}