Constance, Duchess of Wodzisław

Who was Constance, Duchess of Wodzisław?

Constance was a Polish princess member of the House of Piast and sovereign Duchess of Wodzisław Śląski from 1324 until her death.

Her name appears twice in contemporary sources: firstly, in a letter of Pope John XXII dated 22 September 1321, where she is named "Duchess of Racibórz", and secondly in the Chronicle of Racibórz, who give her the title of "Duchess of Wodzisław" and mentions her death in 1351. None of these sources showed Constance's parentage. Historians and sources are agreed that she was a member of the Piast dynasty; however, the difficult of establishing who was her father, caused two theories to emerge about her origins.

The first hypothesis states that Constance was the daughter of Duke Władysław of Opole and wife of Henry IV Probus, Duke of Wrocław, who repudiated her after several years of marriage. She moved to Racibórz at the court of her brothers Mieszko I and Przemysław, who given to her the district of Wodzisław as her own Duchy, where she remained until her death.