Constance of Hungary

Constance of Hungary
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
Issue Wenceslaus I of Bohemia
Anna of Bohemia
Saint Agnes of Bohemia
House House of Árpád
Father Béla III of Hungary
Mother Agnes of Antioch

Constance of Hungary (c. 1180 – 6 December 1240) was the second Queen consort of Ottokar I of Bohemia.[1]

Family

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

Constance of Hungary on a tympanum in the Cistercian abbey Porta Coeli, 1230s

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

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 Constance 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 Constance and her dowry 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

Ancestors

References

  1. Sara Ritchey, Holy Matter: Changing Perceptions of the Material World in Late Medieval Christianity, (Cornell University Press, 2014), 101.
  2. 1 2 3 Earenfight 2013, p. 175.
  3. Women's Biography: Constance of Hungary
  4. 1231 Letter from Gregory IX to Constance of hungary
  5. Joan Mueller, A Companion to Clare of Assisi: Life, Writings, and Spirituality, (Brill, 2010), 130.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Konstancia of Hungary.
Constance of Hungary
Born: 1180? Died: 6 December 1240
Royal titles
Preceded by
Adelheid of Meissen
Queen consort of Bohemia
1199–1230
Succeeded by
Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen
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