Constance of Sicily

Children Constance and Peter III of Aragon had six children:

Alfonso III of Aragon ( – ). James II of Aragon ( – ). Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal ( – ). Married Denis of Portugal Frederick III of Sicily ( – ). Yolande, Duchess of Calabria ( – ). Married Robert of Naples ( – ). Married Guillemette of Béarn, daughter of Gaston VII, Viscount of Béarn.

Role in Dante's Divine Comedy Though most historical sources have little information about her, Constance occupies a place in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Constance's appearance in Canto III of Purgatorio of the Divine Comedy is understated and shadow-like. The reader learns of Constance through the speech of her father, Manfred of Sicily, whom Dante meets in the space of Mount Purgatory reserved for excommunicated souls. Manfred begs the poet to bring the truth "if another tale is told [to his] fair daughter, mother of the pride of Sicily and Aragon." Manfred proceeds to tell Dante of how he repented and confessed to God for his "horrible" sins shortly before his death, and was thus saved from an afterlife in Hell, contrary to what others may have thought. Manfred concludes his speech by telling Dante that his sentence in Purgatory may be lessened if those still alive on Earth pray for him, and subsequently by asking Dante to tell Constance of his current placement and of how her "holy prayers" can aid in his movement toward Paradise.