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Constance of Hungary
Queen Constance on a tympanum in the Cistercian abbey Porta Coeli
Queen consort of Bohemia
Tenure	1199–1230
Born	c. 1180 Hungary
Died	6 December 1240 (aged c. 60) Tišnov, Moravia
Burial	Cloister Porta coeli
Spouse	Ottokar I of Bohemia ​ ​(m. 1199; died 1230)​
Issue	Wenceslaus I of Bohemia Anna of Bohemia Saint Agnes of Bohemia
House	Árpád
Father	Béla III of Hungary
Mother	Agnes of Antioch

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

Family

Constance was a daughter of Béla III of Hungary 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

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

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. 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). In 1232, Constance founded Cloister Porta Coeli near Tišnov and retired to it as a nun. She died within the Cloister.

Issue

• Vratislav (c. 1200 – before 1209)
• Judith (c. 1202 – 2 June 1230), who married Bernhard von Spanheim, Duke of Carinthia
• Anna (c. 1204 – 23 June 1265), who married Henry II the Pious, Duke of Wrocław
• Agnes, thought to have died young
• Wenceslaus I of Bohemia (c. 1205 – 23 September 1253)
• Vladislaus, Margrave of Moravia (1207 – 10 February 1228)
• Přemysl, Margrave of Moravia (1209 – 16 October 1239), who married Margaret, daughter of Otto I, Duke of Merania, and Beatrice II, Countess of Burgundy
• Agnes (20 January 1211 – 6 March 1282), Mother Superior of the Franciscan Poor Clares nuns of Prague

The Milanese mystic Guglielma (1210s – 24 October 1281) claimed to be a Princess of Bohemia 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

1. Sara Ritchey, Holy Matter: Changing Perceptions of the Material World in Late Medieval Christianity, (Cornell University Press, 2014), 101.
2. ^ 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

• Earenfight, Theresa (2013). Queenship in Medieval Europe. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1137303929.

External links

• Women's Biography: Constance of Hungary, contains several letters sent and received by Constance.

v t e Royal consorts of Bohemia
Přemyslid	c. 870–1198 (Duchesses) Ludmila of Bohemia Drahomíra Biagota Emma of Mělník Božena Judith of Schweinfurt Ida of Wettin Adelaide of Hungary Świętosława of Poland Wirpirk of Tengling Lukarta of Bogen Helbirga of Austria Richeza of Berg Adelaide of Hungary Gertrude of Babenberg Judith of Thuringia Elizabeth of Hungary Elisabeth of Greater Poland Hellicha of Wittelsbach 1198–1306 (Queens) Adelaide of Meissen Constance of Hungary Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen Margaret of Austria Kunigunda of Halych Judith of Habsburg Elizabeth Richeza of Poland Viola of Teschen
Non-dynastic	1306–1310 Anne of Bohemia Elizabeth Richeza of Poland
Luxembourg	1310–1437 Elizabeth of Bohemia Beatrice of Bourbon Blanche of Valois Anne of Bavaria Anna von Schweidnitz Elizabeth of Pomerania Joanna of Bavaria Sophia of Bavaria Barbara of Cilli
Habsburg	1437–1457 Elizabeth of Luxembourg
Non-dynastic	1457–1471 Joanna of Rožmitál
Jagiellonian	1471–1526 Barbara of Brandenburg Beatrice of Naples Anne of Foix-Candale Mary of Hungary
Habsburg	1526–1780 Anne of Bohemia and Hungary Maria of Austria Anna of Tyrol Elizabeth Stuart Eleonora Gonzaga Maria Anna of Spain Maria Leopoldine of Austria Eleonora Gonzaga Margaret Theresa of Spain Claudia Felicitas of Austria Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Maria Amalia
Habsburg-Lorraine	1780–1918 Maria Luisa of Spain Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este Caroline Augusta of Bavaria Maria Anna of Savoy Elisabeth of Bavaria Zita of Bourbon-Parma
also titled Queen of Bohemia

• 1180s births
• 1240 deaths
• Daughters of kings
• House of Árpád
• Queens consort of Bohemia
• Hungarian princesses
• 12th-century Hungarian women
• 12th-century Hungarian people
• 13th-century Hungarian women
• 13th-century Hungarian people
• 12th-century people from Bohemia
• 12th-century women from Bohemia
• 13th-century women from Bohemia
• 13th-century people from Bohemia
• Bohemian queen mothers