Constance of Hungary
Overview
Biography
(See also Genealogical Table(s): 2.2.)
Constance was the daughter of Bela III, king of Hungary. The family had many saintly connections. Constance’s brother, Andrew II, married Gertrude, a sister of St. Hedwig, duchess of Silesia; Andrew and Gertrude were the parents of St. Elizabeth. Constance herself was the mother of Agnes of Prague, a follower and supporter of Clare of Assisi. Constance was the second wife of Premysl Otakar, king of Bohemia, whose first marriage with Adela/Adleta of Meissen was dissolved on the grounds of consanguinity, which she contested until just before her death. Constance and Otakar, married in 1199, had 9 children, including Wenceslas I, Otakar's successor, Premysl, marquis of Moravia, Anna, who married Henry II of Silesia (son of St. Hedwig), Blazena, known as Guglielma Boema, who settled in Milan and became famous for healing in a religious cult, and the youngest, Agnes of Prague, who founded a Franciscan house for women in Bohemia and corresponded with Clare of Assisi whose struggles with the papacy she supported. Constance is named in a number of documents as codonator with her husband (Codex Diplomaticus et Epistolarius Regni Bohemiae, epp.60, 86, 238, 245, 320, 324, 332) and as the originator/petitioner of her husband's donation (epp.52, 75, 188). She is also named in confirmations of a document in which her brother, Bela IV, king of Hungary, conferred a town, Boleraz, which he had bought from his sister, on nuns of Trnava in 1247 (CDERB, 4.215, #120). There are two apparently false public letters written in Constance’s name, one granting freedom to the towns held by the monastery of St. Stephen of Hradiste in Olomuc and in Breclava, and giving land in Ostrovany to the same monastery (CDERB 2.368-70, ep.354) the other saying she has placed honorable Teutonic men (viros honestos Theutunicos) in the city of Hodonin/Goeding, and granted them municipal rights (CDERB 2.428-29, ep.381).
Letters from Constance of Hungary
A letter to monastery in Hradiste (1233)A letter to monastery of Rajhrad (1222)
A letter to nuns of St. Peter in Olomuc (1233, January 21)
A letter to Public (1206-07?)
A letter to Public (1233, February 6)
A letter to Public (1235, February 12)
A letter to Public (1236, December 7)
A letter to Public (1240, December 5)
Letters to Constance of Hungary
A letter from Gregory IX (1231, April 10)A letter from Gregory IX, pope (1228)
A letter from Wenceslaus I, king of Bohemia (1233, February 6)