Louis VII's *other* wife: Constanza of Castile, and her daughter Alais

I know she was the queen of a Capetian and not a Plantagenet, but her daughter was Henry II's mistress and Richard I's fiancee, and another daughter was Henry the Young King's wife, and this comm is Capetian friendly anyway... so here's a little on Constanza of Castile, the second wife of Louis VII of France. She died this month in 1160.



Following his divorce from Eleanor, Louis VII went on pilgrimage to Galicia to visit the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (reputedly the resting place of the Apostle St. James). He returned to France in 1154 with a new wife, Constanza, daughter of King Alfonso VII of Castile and Berenguela of Barcelona. She was the sister of Sancho III of Castile; Fernando II of León; Sancha, queen of Navarre; and a half-sister of Sancha, queen of Aragon and Urraca, queen of Navarre. Constanza was no doubt named for her great-grandmother, Constance of Burgundy, queen of Alfonso VI. She was also a close blood cousin of her new husband, she and Louis sharing a descent from Guillaume, count of Mâcon. Their descent was as follows:

Guillaume, count of Mâcon -> Raymond of Burgundy -> Alfonso VII of Castile -> Constanza
Guillaume, count of Mâcon -> Gisele of Burgundy -> Adelaide of Savoy -> Louis VII

Many modern genealogical works assign Louis VII's fourth daughter, Alais, to his third wife, Adele of Champagne. To my knowledge, no contemporary or near-contemporary source states that Adele was her mother. Ralph of Diceto states that Queen Constanza died bearing a daughter who survived; this is most probably a reference to Alais. Alberic of Trois-Fontaines is franker, saying that Louis and his Spanish queen were the parents of "Reginam [Angliæ] Margaretam" (Marguerite, wife of Henry the Young King) and "Comitissam Alix", wife of Count Guillaume of Ponthieu. The Spanish chronicle Ex Roderico Toletani Archiepiscopi de Rebus Hispaniae Libris IX explicitly states that the daughter of "Adelfonsi VII Hispaniarum Regis" married "Ludovico Regi Francorum" and by him was the mother of "Adelodis", who was herself the grandmother of Jeanne of Ponthieu, queen of Ferdinando III of Castile. In a French source, Chronico De Regibus Francorum (Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, 1869), written during Alais' lifetime, her mother is identified as "Constantiam, filiam inclyti Principis Hispaniæ Aldefonsi". So there's confirmation from English, French, and Spanish sources about the maternity of Marguerite and Alais. It would seem that Louis VII had two children by each wife, namely Marie and Alix by Eleanor, Marguerite and Alais by Constanza, and Philippe and Agnes by Adele.

The death of "Constantia regina filia regis Hispanie" is recorded by the necrology of the abbey of Saint-Denis as II. Non. October (October 4). However, the anniversary of the death of Queen Constanza ("Constancia regina") was given as III. Non. October (October 5) by the necrology of the Abbey of Saint-Martin of Pontoise (Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Martin de Pontoise, 1897). Perhaps she died during the night of October 4-5th. As stated by Ralph of Diceto, she died in childbirth, an unfortunate but common fate. Constanza's deathdate is also Alais' birthdate.

Louis VII remarried within a month, to Adele of Champagne, by whom he had Philippe Auguste and Agnes, later Byzantine empress.