Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster

Constance of Castile (1354 — March 24, 1394) was claimant of the Castilian throne after the death of her father Peter, King of Castile and León, also known as Peter the Cruel. Her mother was María de Padilla, whom Peter had secretly married, but was then forced to repudiate; however he kept her as his mistress.
Constance was married, at Roquefort, near Bordeaux, Guienne, on 21 September 1371, to John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, who was the third son of Edward III, King of England and Philippa of Hainault, as his second wife. Constance's younger sister, Infanta Isabella, married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, the fourth son of King Edward III and Queen Philippa.
On 9 February 1372 Constance made a ceremonial entry into London as Queen of Castile, accompanied by Edward, the Black Prince, and an escort of English and Castilian retainers and London dignitaries. Crowds lined the streets to see her as she processed to the Savoy Palace in the Strand where she was ceremonially received by her husband, who had proclaimed himself King of Castile and León on 29 January.Jonathan Sumption, Divided Houses: The Hundred Years War III (Faber & Faber, 2009), p. 122.
This was the way for Gaunt to obtain a kingdom of his own (he had been offered Scotland as a youth by the childless David II but nothing came of this), as his nephew Richard II and the descendants of his brother Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, stood between him and the Crown of England. John of Gaunt claimed the title of King of Castile jure uxoris, and insisted that English nobles address him as "my lord of Spain", but was unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain the crown. Their daughter Catherine of Lancaster was married to the king of the Trastámara line, Henry III of Castile, thus uniting these two rival claims.
Constance died at Leicester Castle and was buried at the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke, Leicester.Leland's Itenerary Vol.1 Page 17 The Collegiate Church Newarke Constance daughter of Peter King of Castile, and wife of John of Gaunt, lieth before that High Altar in a tomb of marble with an image [Brass] (Like A Queen) on itCharles James Billson, Mediaeval Leicester (Leicester, 1920)
==Children==
*Catherine of Lancaster, married Henry III of Castile
*John Plantagenet (1374–1375)Leese, Thelma Anna, Blood royal: issue of the kings and queens of medieval England, 1066-1399, (Heritage Books Inc., 1996), 222.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed, 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959 reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K. Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 908 Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage
==Ancestry==
==References==
Castile, Infanta Constance of
Castile, Infanta Constance of
Category:Duchesses of Aquitaine
Category:Princesses of England
Lancaster
Category:English royalty
Category:Castilian House of Ivrea
Category:Pretenders to the throne of the kingdom of Castile
Category:Ladies of the Garter
Category:House of Lancaster
Category:14th-century Castilians
Category:Castilian infantas
Category:14th-century Spanish women
Category:14th-century English women
Category:14th-century English people
Category:Daughters of kings
Category:Duchesses of Lancaster