Constance, Queen of Sicily

Background and Marriage

Constance was the posthumous daughter of Roger II by his third wife Beatrice of Rethel.

Rather strange for a princess Constance 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 remain celibate. Her betrothal to Henry was announced 29 Oct 1184 at the Augsburg episcopal palace. In 1185 Constance traveled to Milan to celebrate the wedding accompanied by a grand procession of princes and barons. Henry accompanied her to Salerno but had to return to Germany for the funeral of his mother. They were married on 27 January 1186 at Milan.

The death of her younger nephew Henry of Capua in 1172 made Constance heir presumptive to the Sicilian crown, since her elder nephew King William II did not marry until 1177 and his marriage remained childless. Abulafia (1988) points out that William did not foresee the union of German and Sicilian crowns as a serious eventuality; his purpose was to consolidate an alliance, with an erstwhile enemy of Norman power in Italy.

The papacy, also an enemy of the emperors, did not want to see the kingdom of southern Italy (then one of the richest in Europe) in German hands, but Henry pressed Pope Celestine III to baptize and crown his son: the Pope put him off.

Claim to Sicily

Knowing that Sicily's Norman aristocracy would not welcome a Hohenstaufen king, William made the aristocracy, and the important men of his court, promise to recognize Constance's succession if he died without direct heirs. Nevertheless, after his unexpected death in 1189 his cousin, (and Constance's nephew) Tancred, seized the throne. Tancred was illegitimate but he had the support of most of the great men of the kingdom such as Vice-Chancellor Matthew of Ajello. On the other hand Archbishop Walter of the Mill, and most of the aristocracy, supported Constance. Eventually however, Matthew was able to induce Walter, along with other barons, to support Tancred.

Joan of England widow of William believed Constance to be the rightful successor and vocally supported the Germans; in response Tancred put her under house arrest and confiscated her vast estates, which action would enrage Richard I, King of England, elder brother of Joan.

First Expedition

While Constance's father-in-law Frederick Barbarossa was on a crusade Henry and Constance were forced to stay in Germany and could not maintain her claim to Sicily. Emperor Frederick died in 1190 and the following year Henry and Constance were crowned Emperor and Empress. Constance then accompanied her husband at the head of a substantial imperial army to forcefully take the Sicilian throne from Tancred with the support of the loyal Pisa fleet. The northern towns of Sicily opened their gates to Henry, including the earliest Norman strongholds Capua and Aversa. Salerno, Roger II's mainland capital, sent word ahead that Henry was welcome and invited Constance to stay in her father's old palace to escape the summer heat, and take treatment from doctors for her infirm health. At Naples Henry met the first resistance of the whole campaign, and were held up well into the southern summer from May to August, by which time much of the army had succumbed to malaria and disease. As a result the imperial army was forced to withdraw from Sicily altogether. Constance remained in Salerno with a small garrison as a sign that Henry would soon return.

Brief Captivity

Once Henry had withdrawn with the bulk of the imperial army the towns that had supposedly fallen to the Empire immediately declared their allegiance to Tancred, for the most part now fearing his retribution. Nicholas of Ajello, son of Matthew and former Archbishop of Salerno, who was helping defend Naples, wrote letters about the events to his friends in Salerno. Thus the populace of Salerno saw an opportunity to win some favour with Tancred, so they besieged the defenseless Constance at Castel Terracena. Constance presented herself on a balcony and spoke to them in the tone of mild remonstrance and admonition, trying to tell them that the situation might improve and the defeat of Henry might be exaggerated by Nicholas, but the Salernitans were determined to capture her for Tancred, so they continued the siege. Constance locked herself in her room, locked the windows, and prayed to God for help and revenge. After a rapid negotiation with Elia di Gesualdo, a distant relative of Tancred, Constance voluntarily went out under the condition that her German garrison were to be allowed to leave unharmed. She was then arrested by Elia (and some barons of Apulia who were related to her) and delivered to Tancred in Messina by Admiral Margaritus of Brindisi (her brother-in-law who had helped in the defence of Naples), on a bireme galley or dromon with 200 rowers. She was in her attire as empress, wearing a dress quilted with gold and decorated with roses, a cloak covered with precious jewels, and her hair was strewn with gems, making her look like a goddess. Thus she became an important and valuable prize given that Henry had every intention of returning. When meeting Constance Tancred blamed her for the invasion, but she proudly responded that she was just taking back her dominion robbed by Tancred.

Constance was taken to Palermo, supervised by Queen Sibylla; Tancred had her eat with Sibylla and sleep in Sibylla's bedroom. Sibylla, who had once quarrelled with Constance, after seeing that the populace of Palermo was showing sympathy to Constance, suggested that Tancred put Constance to death. Tancred disagreed, worrying that this would harm his popularity. So under the suggestion of Tancred, Sibylla went on a discussion with Matthew of Ajello, who had been promoted to Chancellor, where to imprison Constance. Matthew wrote a letter to Tancred in her presence, suggesting him to lock Constance in the Castel dell'Ovo in Naples in the custody of nobleman Aligerno Cottone so as to be better-guarded since the castle was surrounded by water, meanwhile had her secluded from Sicilian people. Tancred accepted their suggestion. In addition Matthew wrote to Aligerno ordering him to "ut imperatricem in Castro Salvatoris ad mare benè custodiat" (guard the empress in Castle of the Savior (i. e. Castel dell'Ovo) in the sea properly).

Although Tancred always treated her with courtesy during her captivity, Constance was under extremely careful guard. Sibylla strongly opposed the deference Tancred showed to Constance, believing this would implicitly acknowledge the claims of the latter.

Henry VI consistently refused to make peace with Tancred despite the capture of his wife; on his letter to Pope Celestine III to request the kingship of Tancred declared illegitimate, he even did not mention her captivity. While he did not have the power to rescue her, Tancred would not permit Constance to be ransomed. Henry complained to Celestine about the capture of his wife, so the Pope threatened to excommunicate Tancred if he did not release the Empress. (The Pope hoped that by securing Constance's safe passage back to Rome Henry would be better disposed towards the papacy and Celestine would be able to keep the Empire and Sicily from uniting.) Finally, Tancred was willing to give up his negotiating advantage (i.e. possession of the Empress) if the Pope would legitimize him as King of Sicily.

Constance was released in 1192 with all her suites and some gifts, and delivered to Egidio Cardinal of Anagni from the Papal States t . They traveled through the Strait of Messina, but before they made it to Rome imperial soldiers and the pro-Hohenstaufen abbot Roffredo of Montecassino were able to intercept them at Ceprano and escorted her safely across the Alps, ensuring that in the end neither the papacy nor Sicily scored any real advantage in having had the Empress in their custody at all, only less than a month after her release; Within two weeks Henry and Constance reunited in the imperial castle of Trifels.

Second Expedition

Henry was already preparing to invade Sicily a second time when Tancred died in February 1194. Later that year he moved south, leveled Salerno to the ground in revenge for arresting Constance, entered Palermo unopposed, deposed Tancred's young son William III, and had himself crowned instead.

Queen of Sicily

While Henry moved quickly south with his army, a pregnant Constance followed at a slower pace. On 26 December, the day after Henry was crowned at Palermo, she gave birth to a son, Frederick-Roger (the future Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily) in the small town of Iesi, near Ancona.

There is a story that Constance, being 40 after a marriage of 9 years, knew that many would question whether the child was really hers. Thus she had the baby in a pavilion tent in the market square of the town, and invited the town matrons to witness the birth. A few days later she returned to the town square and publicly breast-fed the infant. Later she was crowned as queen of Sicily.

In 1196 Henry VI had Richard, Count of Acerra brother of Sibylla hanged in revenge for the capture of Constance.

On Good Friday in 1196, Constance summoned Joachim of Fiore to Palermo to hear her confession in Palatine chapel. Initially she sat on a raised chair, but when Joachim told her that as they were at the places of Christ and Mary Magdalene, she needed to lower herself, she sat on the ground.

However, the tyranny of Henry for Sicily initiated revolts, especially around Catania and southern Sicily. Henry wanted to placate Sicilians by naming Constance regent, but failed as Constance was merely viewed as his tool and could not stop him from making up Sicilian government dominated by German seneschal Markward von Anweiler and ensured by German troops. Provoked by the neglect of Henry, and pitying her countrymen, Constance also joined the revolts against her husband and besieged him in a castle, forcing him into a treaty.

Crowning of Frederick II and Her Death

In 1197 Henry revisited Sicily, when there was a plot to murder him, which Constance and the Pope might be involved; and on September Henry died unexpectedly - some said he was poisoned by Constance.

The following year Constance had the three-year-old Frederick crowned King of Sicily with herself as regent, and in his name dissolved the ties her late husband had created between the government of Sicily and the Empire. She adopted very different policies from those of her late consort. She surrounded herself with local advisors and excluded the ambitious Markward von Anweiler from a position of power, attempting to restrict him to his fief in Molise, as well as Walter of Palearia and Conrad I, Duke of Spoleto. She made no mention of any claims to the German kingship and empire when her son was anointed and crowned at Palermo, May 1198. While her own health becoming poor, Constance made warm overtures to the new pope Innocent III, abandoning the long-contended principle that the king was the apostolic legate, a central principle of Norman autonomy in the regno. Faced with the dangers that surrounded any child-king, Constance placed Frederick under the protection of Pope Innocent III. While always maintaining her title of Holy Roman Empress Dowager, she expected her son to be raised as a Sicilian, and to be nothing more than King of Sicily, without distracting claims to Germany or even to the title "King of the Romans" to which her brother-in-law Philip of Swabia was acclaimed by the Roman nobles. That he became much more than that could not be predicted when she unexpectedly died in late November 1198. In her will she set up a Council of Regency for Sicily and made Innocent, who was the child's feudal suzerain, his guardian, a reminder to all of the inviolability of his inheritance.

Constance was buried in the Cathedral of Palermo near the tomb of her father.

In the Divine Comedy, Dante places Constance in Paradise (though he subscribed to the story that Constance had been a nun):