Arles

Constance of Arles

Father: William I, count of Provence

Hugonis Floriacensis Modernorum Regum Francorum Actus in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 9 p385 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1851)
Duxit autem uxorem Constantiam, filiam Guillelmi comitis Arelatensis, natam de Blanca, sorore Gaufridi comitis Andegavensis; ex qua genuit 4 filios, Hugonem qui cognominatus est Magnus, Henricum, Robertum, Odonem.
This roughly translates as:
Moreover, he [Robert] took as his wife Constance, the daughter of William, count of Arles, born of Blanche, the sister of Geoffrey, count of Anjou; from her he fathered four sons: Hugh, who was surnamed the Great; Henry; Robert; and Odo.

Mother: Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou

Adonis archiepiscopi Viennensis chronicon continuatio altera in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 2 p326 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1829)
Regnans cum patre Rotbertus 10 annis; post mortem eius 34 annis vixit, regnavit et senuit. De coniuncta vero sibi uxore Constantia, filia Adelaidis, cui prenomen erat Candida, inclitos et precipuos habens filios, unum ex eis ad regnum elegit Hugonem.  
This roughly translates as:
Robert, reigning with his father for 10 years; after his [father's] death, he lived, reigned, and grew old for 34 years. From the wife joined to him, Constance—daughter of Adelaide, whose first name was Candida—having renowned and distinguished sons, he chose one of them, Hugh, for the kingship

Married: Robert II of France, about 1002

Around 1001, Robert finally succumbed to the Church’s demands, "repudiated" Bertha and married Constance. However, Robert was still attached to Bertha and he took her to Rome in 1010 to seek recognition of his marriage to her, but was unsuccessful, and the king was forced to return to Constance.

Children Notes:
See Hugonis Floriacensis Modernorum Regum Francorum Actus in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 9 pp387-9 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1851) for Constance's battles with her son Henry.

The conflict between Queen Constance of Arles and her son, Henry I, was a bitter struggle for the future of the French throne, rooted in Constance's fierce desire to control the royal succession. The tension began years before Robert the Pious died. Robert and Constance had several sons, including Hugh Magnus (the eldest), Henry, and Robert. Constance favored the younger son, Robert, whom she found more malleable or perhaps more like her own hot-tempered southern kin. King Robert II insisted on the traditional succession. After the death of the eldest son, Hugh, in 1025, the King designated Henry as his heir and had him crowned co-king in 1027. Constance was enraged by Henry's coronation, refusing to acknowledge him as king, and in the letter transcribed below, Fulbert, a high-ranking bishop, explicitly states that he is too afraid of the queen to travel to the coronation - that she "is believed enough when she promises evil things, with many and memorable deeds of hers providing proof".
  When King Robert died in July 1031, Constance moved immediately to block Henry’s path to sole power. She didn't just argue; she went to war. Constance used her influence to seize several key royal castles, including Senlis, Meun, and Sens. Henry, caught off guard and lacking immediate support from the Frankish lords, was forced to flee for his life. He sought refuge with Robert the Magnificent, the Duke of Normandy (father of William the Conqueror). With Norman troops and the support of a few loyal counts,
Surrender of Constance to her son Henry
A 14th century depiction of the surrender of Constance to her son, king Henry I
Illumination from Grandes Chroniques de France held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France  (Français 2813, folio 177 recto) posted on wikipedia
Henry fought his way back into the heart of France, methodically besieging the fortresses his mother had seized, ending when Constance submitted to Henry in 1032. A settlement followed in which Henry I was recognized as the undisputed king of France and Robert (the younger brother) was given the duchy of Burgundy as a consolation prize. This created the first "Capetian House of Burgundy," a powerful branch of the family that would rule that region for over three centuries. Constance retired to Melun, where she died just months later.

In one of his charters, dated 1027 or 1028, Robert notes how much he enjoyed the "pleasant conversation" of Constance.
Roberti regis diplomata in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France vol 10 p621 (1874)
Innotescat ergo universitati sanctæ matris Ecclesiæ fidelium, tam præsentium quàm etiam futurorum, me et conjugem meam Constantiam, jocunda conversatione mihi admodum dilectam, et in administratione renim ad se pertineutium satis utilem et strenuam, prædium nostræ regali sedi Vermeriæ contiguum, quod de auro [à patris suis domo] ex patris sui dono asportato prædicta conjux mea emerat, S. Mariæ  Compendiensis Ecclesiæ, cujus cultum singulariter per ceteros Sanctorum amplectebatur, et SS. Martyribus Cornelio et Cypriano in eadem Ecclesia requiescentibus humiliter dedisse, et devotè jure prætorio et forensi tradidisse pro nostra incolumitate et salute animarum nostrarum, et filii nostri Hugonis jam regni solio, antequam decederet, sublimati, et proh dolor! nostris diebus inibi sepnlti.
This roughly translates as:
Let it be known therefore to the whole of the faithful of holy mother Church, as well those present as also those to come, that I and my spouse Constance—greatly beloved by me for her pleasant conversation, and sufficiently useful and vigorous in the administration of things pertaining to her—have humbly given a property adjacent to our royal seat of Verberie, which my aforesaid spouse had bought with gold carried away from her father’s house as a gift from her father, to the church of St. Mary of Compiègne (whose worship she embraced singularly above the rest of the saints) and to the holy martyrs Cornelius and Cyprian resting in the same church; and [we have] devotedly handed it over by praetorian and forensic law for our safety and the salvation of our souls, and for our son Hugh, already raised to the throne of the kingdom before he departed, and—oh, the grief!—buried there in our own days.

After the death of Hugh, the eldest son, Constance opposed the coronation of their second son, Henry, favouring their third son, Robert, leading to a civil war following Henry's coronation.
Glabri Rodulphi Historiarum liber III in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France vol 10 pp39-40 (1874)
Constituerat autem secundum Burgundiæ Ducem, Henricum nomine, post Hugonem natum, ipsumque decrevit pro fratre in regnum sublimare. Sed rursùm mater muliebri animositate agitata, tam à patre quàm à ceteris, qui parti illius favebant, dissentit, dicens tertium ad regni moderamen præstantiorem fore filium, qui et Roberti patris nomine censebatur.
This roughly translates as:
Moreover, he [Robert] had appointed Henry the second duke of Burgundy, after Hugh was born, and he decreed to raise him into the kingdom in place of his brother. But again the mother, driven by womanly animosity, disagreed both with the father and with the others who were favoring that party, saying that the third son, who was called by the name of his father Robert, would be more outstanding for the government of the kingdom.

Fulbert describes his fear of the wrath of queen Constance for even attending Henry's coronation.
Fulberti Carnotensis Epistolæ in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France vol 10 p481 (1874)
        LXXVIII.
    Ad Goffridum Episcopum Cabilonensem.
  Ob infirmam valetududinem non interest Henrici Regis benedictioni.
VENERABILI Patri et Coëpiscopo suo G. Fulbertus. Ad benedictionem Henrici regiæ prolis voto quidem rapior, sed adversa me corporis valetudo retardat. Tentarem tamen utcunque moderatis equitationibus eò pervenire, si non absterreret sævitia [Constantiæ] matris ejus, cui satis creditur, cùm mala promittit: fidem facientibus multis et memorabilibus gestis ejus. Qua difficultate prohibitus, rogo vestram charitatem, dilectissime, ut vice mea suadeatis domno Archiepiscopo Remensi, ceterisque Primoribus, ne qua occasione differant benedictionem juvenis supradicti. Spero enim illum Deo et bonis omnibus placiturum. Valete..
This roughly translates as:
        78.
    To Geoffrey bishop of Chalon.
  Because of weak health he is not present at the benediction of king Henry.
To the VENERABLE Father and his fellow-bishop G[eoffrey], Fulbert [sends greetings]. Indeed I am carried away by the desire for the benediction of Henry, the royal offspring, but the adverse health of my body holds me back. Nevertheless, I would attempt to arrive there somehow by moderate rides, if the cruelty of his mother [Constance] did not terrify me—who is believed enough when she promises evil things, with many and memorable deeds of hers providing proof. Prevented by this difficulty, I ask your charity, most beloved, that in my place you persuade the lord archbishop of Reims and the rest of the Princes, that they not delay the benediction of the aforementioned youth for any reason. For I hope that he will be pleasing to God and to all good men. Farewell.

Hugonis Floriacensis Modernorum Regum Francorum Actus in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 9 pp387-8 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1851)
  10. Henricus igitur patri suo succesdens in rego anno incarnacionis dominicae 1032, regnauit annis 27. Huius mater Constantia magnam regni porcionem post funus mariti in suum conabatur retinere dominium, urbem scilicet Silvanectensem et Senonensem et castellum Bistisiacum et Donnum Martinum et Puteolum et Milidunum et Pisciacum et Codiciacum. Multos etiam Franciae et Burgundiae proceres sibi conciliaverat et a filii fidelitate seiunxerat. Quod Henricus non tulit, sed adorsus Pisciacum, mox illud suum retorsit ad dominium. Demum vero Puteolum obsedit et cepit. Quod cernens Constantia, ab eo dextram expeciit. Post haec autem aggressus est rex Odonem comitem, et abstulit illi Gorniacum castrum. Senonicae quoque urbis partem, quam illi regina Constantia dederat, ad suum postmodum retorsit dominium.
This roughly translates as:
  10. Henry, therefore, succeeding his father in the kingdom in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1032, reigned for 27 years. After the death of her husband, his mother Constance endeavored to retain a great portion of the kingdom under her own lordship: namely, the cities of Senlis (Silvanectensem) and Sens (Senonensem), and the castles of Béthisy, Dammartin, Puteolum, Melun, Pisciacum, and Coucy. She had even won over many nobles of France and Burgundy to her side and separated them from loyalty to her son. Henry did not endure this, but having attacked Pisciacum, he soon twisted it back into his own lordship. At last, he besieged and captured Puteolum. Seeing this, Constance sought a truce (dextram) from him. After these things, the king attacked count Odo and took from him the castle of Gournay. That part of the city of Sens, which queen Constance had given to [Odo], he later twisted back into his own lordship.

Helgardi Flor. Epitome Vitæ Roberti Regis in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France vol 10 p110 (1874)
Tabulam ad altare S. Pétri , in cujus honore exstat locus, auro bono totara cooperait, de qua Constantia nobilis Regina ejus conjux gloriosa, post mortem viri sui sanctissimi Deo, et sancto attribuit Aniano, summam scilicet librarum [DCC] septem ipsius metalli in meliorandis à se Monasterii [sartis tectis] facti tectis: quibus ab imis ad superiora apertis, cœlum meliùs cerneretur quàm terra. Extitit in ea quantitas auri [MCC] quindecim librarum probati. Quod reliquum fuit, in quibus debuit, distribuit, quia erat ei sollicitudo Ecclesiarum Dei, juxta utile Senioris sui velle.
This roughly translates as:
A panel at the altar of St. Peter, in whose honor the place stands, he [Robert] covered entirely with good gold; from which the noble Queen Constance, his glorious spouse, after the death of her most holy husband, assigned to God and to saint Anianus a sum, namely of seven [DCC] hundred pounds of that same metal, for improving by her own hand the [repaired roofs] of the monastery’s roofs; which, being open from the bottom to the top, the sky could be seen better than the earth. There was in that [panel] a quantity of gold of fifteen [MCC] hundred pounds of tested [gold]. What was left over, she distributed to those whom she ought, because she had a care for the churches of God, according to the beneficial will of her lord.

The ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis vol 4 p135 (trans. Thomas Forester, 1853)
Robert was a son of Robert king of France by his queen Constance, so that he derived his nobility from the blood of kings and emperors; and he much distinguished himself in different countries, by his noble deeds and great merits. He it was who was sought by his powerful mother to be raised to the throne of France, in preference to his elder brother Henry; an object which she used all possible means to effect. In the end, justice having placed the sceptre in the hand of Henry, the right heir, Robert held for a long period the duchy of Burgundy, and had three sons, Henry, Robert, and Simon.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edition vol 23 p399 (ed. Hugh Chisholm, 1911)
  ROBERT II. (c. 970-1031), king of France … For five years the king braved all anathemas, but about 1002 he gave up Bertha and married Constance, daughter of a certain Count William, an intriguing and ambitious woman, who made life miserable for her husband, while the court was disturbed by quarrels between the partisans of the two queens. Still attached to Bertha, Robert took this lady with him to Rome in 1010, but the pope refused to recognize their marriage, and the king was forced to return to Constance. By this wife Robert had four sons, and in 1017, the eldest of these, Hugh, (1007-1025), was crowned as his father’s colleague and successor. After Hugh’s death the king procured the coronation of his second son, Henry, duke of Burgundy, afterwards king of France, a proceeding which displeased Constance, who wished her third son, Robert (d. 1075), afterwards duke of Burgundy, to receive the crown.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edition vol 13 pp290-1 (ed. Hugh Chisholm, 1911)
  HENRY I. (1008-1060), king of France, son of King Robert and his queen, Constance of Aquitaine, and grandson of Hugh Capet, came to the throne upon the death of his father in 1031, although in 1027 he had been anointed king at Reims and associated in the government with his father. His mother, who favoured her younger son Robert, and had retired from court upon Henry’s coronation, formed a powerful league against him, and he was forced to take refuge with Robert II., duke of Normandy. In the civil war which resulted, Henry was able to break up the league of his opponents in 1032. Constance died in 1034, and the rebel brother Robert was given the duchy of Burgundy, thus founding that great collateral line which was to rival the kings of France for three centuries.

Death: 22 July 1034, in Melun, France

Raoul Glaber: Les cinq livres de ses histoires (900-1044) book 3 chapter 9 #36 p85 (ed. Maurice Prou, 1886)
  36. Anno quoque sequenti, mense Julio2, Rotbertus rex apud castrum Meledunense diem clausit extremum; delatumque est corpus ejus ad ęcclesiam Sancti Dionisii martyris ac in eadem sepultum. Tunc rursus oritur inter matrem et filios rediviva discordiae crudelitas, ac preteritarum irarum frena laxant inveterata odia. Diu multumque vastando res proprias debacatum est donec Fulco Andegavorum comes cognatus3 scilicet ipsorum, matrem redarguens cur bestialem vesaniam erga filios exerceret, utrumque parentem in pacem reduceret. Sequenti vero anno, eodem mense, atque in eodem castro quo rex obierat, et ipsa obiit, indeque portata est ad Sancti Dionisii basilicam ac juxta regem sepulta. 
  2. Le 20 juillet 1031.
 3 Au dessus de cognatus une main postérieure a ajouté dans le ms lat 10912 avunculus Cette addition a été empruntée aux Gesta consul Andegav éd Marchegay p 112
This roughly translates as:
  36. Also in the following year, in the month of July2, king Robert closed his final day [passed away] at the castle of Melun; and his body was carried to the church of Saint Denis the Martyr and buried in that same place. Then, once again, a renewed cruelty of discord arose between the mother and the sons, and long-standing hatreds loosened the reins of past angers. For a long time, there was an outburst of violence involving the wasting of their own property, until Fulk, Count of the Angevins—their kinsman3—reproving the mother for why she was exercising such beastly madness toward her sons, brought both parent and children back into peace. In the following year, however, in the same month and in the same castle where the king had died, she also died; from there she was carried to the basilica of Saint Denis and buried next to the king.
  2. 20 July 1031
  3. Above cognatus, a later hand added avunculus in manuscript lat. 10912. This addition was borrowed from the Gesta consul Andegav., edited by Marchegay, p. 112.

Tomb of Robert II of France and Constance
Effigies of king Robert II of France and queen Constance on the ossuary in the crypt in the basilica of Saint-Denis, Paris
photo posted on 5 June 2023 by Łukasz Janecki on findagrave.com
Burial: 25 July 1034, next to her husband before the altar of the holy Trinity in the basilica of Saint-Denis, Paris, France

Adonis archiepiscopi Viennensis chronicon continuatio altera in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 2 p326 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1829)
Obiit autem Miliduno castro, incarnationis dominicae anno 1032, et deportatus Parisiis, iuxta patrem suum sepelitur ante altare sanctae Trinitatis. Inclita vero Regina Constantia post mortem sui senioris piissimi Rotberti anno tertion moritur, & 8. Kal. Aug. iuxta ipsum sepelitur.  
This roughly translates as:
He died, moreover, in the castle of Melun, in the year of the incarnation of the Lord 1032, and having been carried to Paris, he was buried next to his father before the altar of the Holy Trinity. The illustrious Queen Constance, indeed, died in the third year after the death of her most pious lord Robert, and was buried next to him on the 8th of the Kalends of August [July 25].

Constance's tomb was desecrated during the French Revolution and her bones were thrown into a common pit (a mass grave) outside the church. After the restoration of the monarchy in the 19th century, these remains were gathered and placed in a massive ossuary in the crypt of the Basilica, where they remain today.

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