Constance of York

Constance of York was a daughter of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, and a granddaughter of Edward III. Through marriage and family allegiance she became involved in the unstable politics surrounding Richard II and Henry IV, including the failed Epiphany Rising and later plots against Lancastrian rule.

Constance of York also held the offices or ranks of duchess. Constance of York belonged to the House of York and operated within Kingdom of England. Constance of York was born in Conisbrough Castle and died in Reading Abbey.

Anne O’Brien’s A Tapestry of Treason makes Constance of York an active participant in the conspiracies that follow Henry Bolingbroke’s deposition of Richard II. Her husband Thomas Despenser and her Yorkist brothers are divided by ambition and survival, while Constance commits herself to schemes intended first to restore Richard and then to advance the Mortimer claim. The novel uses her dynastic position to show how marriage and kinship could become instruments of treason when the legitimacy of Henry IV’s new regime remained contested.