Constance of France, Countess of Toulouse

Constance‘s son Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse

Constance of France (1124–1176) was the only daughter of Louis VI of France and his second wife Adélaide de Maurienne. She is also known as Constance Capet. Constance's elder siblings included: Louis VII of France, Philip, Henri, Robert I Capet, another Philip and Peter II of Courtenay.

In 1140, Constance married Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne. Eustace was knighted in 1147, at which date he was probably from sixteen to eighteen years of age. In 1151 he joined Constance‘s brother Louis in an abortive raid upon Normandy, which had accepted the title of the Empress Matilda, and was now defended by her husband, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.

The couple had only one child, a daughter named Eustachia who married Anselme the count of St Pol. Eustace died in 1153, aged between 17–26.

In 1154, Constance remarried after being a widow for a year. She married Raymond V, Count of Toulouse, being his first wife.

Raymond was implicated in the Cathar crisis. In 1176, Guilhem, the Bishop of Albi organized the council of Lombers, attended by both clerics and princes, including Raymond of Trencavel, Raymond V, and Constance, and the representatives of the Cathars. The crisis later led to the Albigensian Crusade.

Raymond and Constance had five children together, they were:

1. Raymond VI, who succeeded his father
2. Aubri, died 1180
3. Azalais of Toulouse
4. Baldwin of Toulouse, born 1165, executed on the orders of Raymond VI in 1214
5. Laura (died in 1230), wife of Odo of Comminger

As Raymond was related to Constance within prohibited degrees, they were separated by ecclesiastical authority in 1165. Constance died in 1176, aged 51–52 by which time her brother Louis was king of France.

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