Constance of Castile


Constance of Castile was Queen of France as the second wife of Louis VII, who married her following the annulment of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was a daughter of Alfonso VII of León and Berengaria of Barcelona, but her year of birth is not known.

Life

The official reason for her husband's annulment 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. They were second cousins through William I, Count of Burgundy.
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, Paris.

Children

Constance had two children:
  1. Margaret of France, Queen of [England and Hungary|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