Constance d'Arles (973-July 25, 1032) was the third wife and queen of King Robert II of France. She was the daughter of Count Guilhem II of Provence and Adelais d'Anjou, and the sister of Count Guilhem III of Provence .

In 1003 she was married to King Robert, after his divorce from his second wife. The marriage was stormy; the family of Robert's second queen, Bertha, opposed her. Robert's friend, Hugh of Beauvais, tried to convince the king to repudiate her in 1007. Constance's response was to have Beauvais murdered by the knights of her kinsman, Fulk Nerra. In 1010 Robert even went to Rome, accompanied by Bertha, to seek permission to divorce Constance and remarry Bertha. Constance encouraged her sons to revolt against their father, and then favored her younger son, Robert, over her elder son, Henri. In 1027, Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres , wrote a letter claiming that he was "frightened away" from the consecration of Henri "by the savagery of his mother, who is quite trustworthy when she promises evil."

During the famous trial of Herefast de Crepon (who was alleged to be involved with the Cathars) in 1022, the crowd outside the church in Orleans became so unruly that, according to Moore:

"At the king's command, Queen Constance stood before the doors of the Church, to prevent the common people from killing them inside the Church, and they were expelled from the bosom of the Church. As they were being driven out, the queen struck out the eye of Stephen, who had once been her confessor, with the staff which she carried in her hand."

The symbolism, or reality, of putting an eye out is used often in medieval accounts to show the ultimate sin of breaking of one's oath, whether it be heresy, or treason to ones lordship, or in this case both. Stephen's eye was put out by the hand of a Queen wielding a staff (royal scepter's were usually tipped with a cross) thus symbolically providing justice for the treasoned lord on earth and in heaven.

Constance and Robert had seven children:

1. Advisa, Countess of Auxerre, (c.1003-after 1063), married Count Renaud I of Nevers
2. Hugh Magnus, co-king (1007-September 17, 1025)
3. Henry I of France (May 4, 1008-August 4, 1060)
4. Adela, Countess of Contenance (1009-June 5, 1063), married (1) Duke Richard III of Normandy (2) Count Baldwin V of Flanders
5. Robert I, Duke of Burgundy (1011-March 21, 1076)
6. Eudes (1013-1056)
7. Constance (1014-unknown), married Manasses de Dammartin

Sources

• Jessee, W. Scott. A missing Capetian princess: Advisa, daughter of King Robert II of France (Medieval Prosopography), 1990
• Nolan, Kathleen D. Capetian Women, 2003.
• Moore, R.I. The Birth of Popular Heresy, 1975.