Tenure 1154–1160 Role Queen of Castile Name Constance Castile | House House of Burgundy Burial Basilica of St Denis Children Catherine of Lancaster | |
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Father Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile Mother Berenguela of Barcelona Died March 24, 1394, Leicester Castle, Leicester, United Kingdom Spouse John of Gaunt (m. 1371–1394) Parents Peter of Castile, Maria de Padilla Siblings Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York Similar People John of Gaunt, Katherine Swynford, Blanche of Lancaster, Catherine of Lancaster, Peter of Castile | ||
Constance of Castile (c 1140 - 4 October 1160) 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 certainly known.
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.
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, France.
Children
Constance bore her husband two children:
- Margaret, 1157–1197, who married first Henry the Young King of England, and then Béla III of Hungary
- Alys, 1160–1220, who married William IV of Ponthieu