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Constance of Castile (1141 – 4 October 1160) was the second wife of Louis VII, King of France, following his divorce from Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was a daughter of Alphonse VII, King of Galicia, León and Castile, and Berenguela of Barcelona. Her maternal grandparents were Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona and his third wife Douce I of Provence. The official reason for her husband's divorce from Eleanor of Aquitaine had been that he was too close a relative of Eleanor for the marriage to be legal by Church standards; however, he was even more closely related to Constance. Constance died giving birth to her second child. Desperate for a son, her husband remarried a mere five weeks after her death. Constance was buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, France. Children Constance bore her husband two children: Alys of France, 1160–1220, who was betrothed (but never married) to Richard I of England, and later married to William IV of Ponthieu. |