Recent from talks
Constance I of Sicily
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Constance I of Sicily
Constance I (Italian: Costanza; 2 November 1154 – 27 November 1198) was the queen of Sicily from 1194 until her death and Holy Roman Empress from 1191 to 1197 as the wife of Emperor Henry VI.
As queen regnant of Sicily, she reigned jointly with her spouse and later with her infant son, the future Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. She is particularly notable for her actions against her own family, the Norman kings of Sicily; she played an important role in the end of the Hauteville presence in Sicily.
Despite being the sole heir to the throne of Sicily, she did not marry until she was 30 due to a prophecy; shortly after becoming empress, she was involved in the succession war against her illegitimate nephew King Tancred for the Sicilian throne, during which she was captured, though she was later released unharmed. In the history of the Holy Roman Empire, only two empresses were captured, with the other being her mother-in-law Empress Beatrice.
Shortly before ascending the Sicilian throne, at the age of 40, she gave birth to her only child, Frederick, thus continuing the bloodlines of both the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily.
After the death of her husband, she gave up her son's claim to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in favor of her younger brother-in-law Philip of Swabia, making her son merely king of Sicily. She, however, continued to use her imperial title. She died one year later, having entrusted her young son to Pope Innocent III.
Constance was the posthumous daughter of King Roger II by his third wife Beatrice of Rethel. Constance, unusually for a princess, was not betrothed until she was thirty, which later gave rise to stories that she had become a nun and required papal dispensation to marry. Boccaccio related in his De mulieribus claris that a prediction that "her marriage would destroy Sicily" led to her confinement to remain celibate, and by the 15th century, the monastery of Santissimo Salvatore, Palermo, claimed Constance as a former member.
In the spring of 1168, during the reign in Messina of her elder nephew King William II, opposition to the Chancellor, Stephen du Perche, grew intense. A rumor spread that William had been murdered, and that the Chancellor planned to put his brother on the throne by marriage to Constance, even though William had a brother, Henry of Capua. Stephen was finally forced to flee.
Henry died in 1172, as King William II did not marry until 1177 and his marriage remained childless (or ever had a son named Bohemond in 1181), Constance became the sole heir to the Sicilian crown; nonetheless, while said to have been designated the heir and sworn fealty to in 1174, she remained confined to her convent with her marriage seemingly beyond consideration until she was 30 years old.
Hub AI
Constance I of Sicily AI simulator
(@Constance I of Sicily_simulator)
Constance I of Sicily
Constance I (Italian: Costanza; 2 November 1154 – 27 November 1198) was the queen of Sicily from 1194 until her death and Holy Roman Empress from 1191 to 1197 as the wife of Emperor Henry VI.
As queen regnant of Sicily, she reigned jointly with her spouse and later with her infant son, the future Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. She is particularly notable for her actions against her own family, the Norman kings of Sicily; she played an important role in the end of the Hauteville presence in Sicily.
Despite being the sole heir to the throne of Sicily, she did not marry until she was 30 due to a prophecy; shortly after becoming empress, she was involved in the succession war against her illegitimate nephew King Tancred for the Sicilian throne, during which she was captured, though she was later released unharmed. In the history of the Holy Roman Empire, only two empresses were captured, with the other being her mother-in-law Empress Beatrice.
Shortly before ascending the Sicilian throne, at the age of 40, she gave birth to her only child, Frederick, thus continuing the bloodlines of both the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily.
After the death of her husband, she gave up her son's claim to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in favor of her younger brother-in-law Philip of Swabia, making her son merely king of Sicily. She, however, continued to use her imperial title. She died one year later, having entrusted her young son to Pope Innocent III.
Constance was the posthumous daughter of King Roger II by his third wife Beatrice of Rethel. Constance, unusually for a princess, was not betrothed until she was thirty, which later gave rise to stories that she had become a nun and required papal dispensation to marry. Boccaccio related in his De mulieribus claris that a prediction that "her marriage would destroy Sicily" led to her confinement to remain celibate, and by the 15th century, the monastery of Santissimo Salvatore, Palermo, claimed Constance as a former member.
In the spring of 1168, during the reign in Messina of her elder nephew King William II, opposition to the Chancellor, Stephen du Perche, grew intense. A rumor spread that William had been murdered, and that the Chancellor planned to put his brother on the throne by marriage to Constance, even though William had a brother, Henry of Capua. Stephen was finally forced to flee.
Henry died in 1172, as King William II did not marry until 1177 and his marriage remained childless (or ever had a son named Bohemond in 1181), Constance became the sole heir to the Sicilian crown; nonetheless, while said to have been designated the heir and sworn fealty to in 1174, she remained confined to her convent with her marriage seemingly beyond consideration until she was 30 years old.
Recent media