among these officers, even in military affairs, was the seneschal. Only after 1191, when
Philip II let that office remain vacant, did the constable become the leader of the royal
military forces.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, the constables were drawn from the nobility of the Île-
de-France, most frequently from the Montmorency family. Nobles of the north and east
began to dominate the office in the late 13th century, and three members of the Brienne
family held it in the 14th. The Hundred Years’ War made the position extremely
important. The three most celebrated constables of that period were Bretons—Bertrand
du Guesclin (1370–80), Olivier de Clisson (1380–92), and Arthur de Richemont (1425–
58). These men were of progressively higher economic and social position, and
Richemont ended his days as duke of Brittany. Thereafter, the constable was usually a
member of the great nobility.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
Lemarignier, Jean-François. Le gouvernement royale aux premiers temps capétiens (987–1108).
Paris: Picard, 1965.
Lot, Ferdinand, and Robert Fawtier. Histoire des institutions françaises au moyen âge. 3 vols.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, Vol. 2: Institutions royales (1958).
CONSTANCE OF ARLES
(d. ca. 1034). Queen of France. King Robert II (996–1031) married his third wife,
Constance of Arles, ca. 1005. She was the mother of all his children: Hugh, who died
young in 1025; Henry I (1031–60), the next French king; Robert, who became duke of
Burgundy; Odo; Adélaïde, who married Count Baudouin of Flanders; and probably
Hadwidis, who married Count Raynaud of Nevers. Constance was the daughter of Count
Guillaume II of Arles and of Adélaïde-Blanche of Anjou. She had a reputation for a
ferocious temper. She seems to have wanted her third son, Robert, to succeed in 1031
rather than Henry, and she even waged a brief war against her sons in that year.
Constance B.Bouchard
Dhondt, Jean. “Sept femmes et un trio de rois.” Contributions à l’histoire économique et sociale
3(1964–65):35–70.
Facinger, Marion F. “A Study of Medieval Queenship: Capetian France, 987–1237.” Studies in
Medieval and Renaissance History 5(1968):3–47.
Lot, Ferdinand. Les derniers Carolingiens. Paris: Bouillon, 1891, Appendix 9.
Pfister, Christian. Études sur le règne de Robert le Pieux (996–1031). Paris: Vieweg, 1885.
CONSTANCE OF CASTILE
(d. 1160). Two years after his divorce from Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, Louis VII (r.
1137–80) married Constance, daughter of Alfonso VII of Castile. She died in 1160,
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