Constance d'Arles
Queen · 1003-1031
Daughter of Count William I of Provence, Constance of Arles married King Robert II the Pious in 1003, after he became a widower. Joined to a king excommunicated for his previous marriage to Berthe of Burgundy, she became Queen of the Franks and left her mark on the reign with her authority and imperious temperament.
Constance quickly imposed her choices on the court, where her southern origins and Provençal counsellors displeased the northern barons. She pushed her younger son, Robert, to rebel against her husband, then supported her second son, the future Henry I, before later turning against him too.
Her reputation as an intriguing and domineering queen, passed down by the chroniclers, should not obscure her real role: from her descended the first Capetian kings of the 11th century, including her son Henry I and her grandson Philip I. She died in 1032, two years after the king.
In the tree of power
- Spouse: Robert II le Pieux (996-1031)