Constance Queen of Sicily

The Norman Queen of Sicily that I find most intriguing was Constance. She was the last daughter born to Roger II and his third wife, Beatrice of Rethel. When Roger died not long before Constance was born, his son by his first marriage, William I, became King. When William died, his son became king. His heir presumptive had been his brother, Henry of Capua, but he died in 1172, making Constance heiress presumptive to the Sicilian crown.

With his marriage still childless, William II arranged for his aunt Constance to be married to Henry, heir to the Byzantine Emperor Frederick I. She was thirty years old which was unusual for a first marriage. It is not known why she had remained single until that time as it was common to use marriages to cement political alliances: she may have been in a convent. (what is the expression? holding a card in reserve?)

Neither the church, the emperors nor the Norman barons of Sicily wanted to see southern Italy in German hands. When William II died in 1189, his cousin (and Constance's nephew) Tancred, seized the throne and had himself crowned king.

In the next year, the Byzantine Emperor Fredrick I died, and his son Henry VI became Emperor with Constance crowned Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.

I think about the fact that Tancred had taken William I and his family hostage when Constance was a child. Then, Tancred took Joan, William II's wife hostage until she was rescued by her brother, Richard the Lionheart. Constance accompanied her new husband, Henry VI with a substantial army to forcefully retake the throne from Tancred in Sicily.

Now it gets interesting. The Norman strongholds opened their gates to Henry. They invited Constance to stay in her father's old palace at Salerno to escape the summer heat. Henry went off to Naples where he met with considerable military resistance. Malaria and other diseases struck his troops. He was forced to withdraw. The towns began to withdraw their allegiance. The people of Salerno delivered Constance to Tancred and he held her hostage. He wanted Pope Celestine III to legitimize him as King of Sicily in exchange for releasing Constance.  If the Pope were to secure Constance's safe passage back to Rome, the Pope hoped that Henry would be more of an ally toward him. Plans foiled. Constance escaped. 

Henry moved south quickly, a pregnant Constance following. Henry was crowned 12/26/1194 as King of Sicily and the next day Constance's child was born. Constance was now 40. She knew people would question her ability to bear a child so 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!

Henry died in 1197. The following year Constance had the 3 year old Frederick crowned King of Sicily and in his name she dissolved the ties her late husband had created between the government of Sicily and the Empire. She made no mention of claims to the German kingship. She made positive gestures toward Pope Innocent III and placed Frederick under hs protection as his guardian in her will. When she died in 1198 she did not know that he would become much more than King of Sicily, but ultimately Frederick II Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. 

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