From Her Head to Her Toes: Gender-Bending Regalia in the Tomb of Constance of Aragon, Queen of Hungary and Sicily

This article re-examines József Deér’s claim that the crown uncovered in the tomb of Constance of Aragon (d. 1222) was originally her husband’s. His argument is based entirely on the shape of the crown itself, and ignores the context of her burial and the other idiosyncrasies of Frederick II’s burial provisions at Palermo Cathedral. By examining the contents of the grave of Constance, and by discussing patterns related to the size of medieval crowns recovered from archaeological context, the evidence indicates that this crown would have originally adorned the buried queen’s head. Rather than identifying it as a ‘male’ crown that found its way into the queen’s sarcophagus as a gift from her husband, this article argues that Constance’s crown is evidence that as a category of analysis, gender is not as simple as it may appear. In fact, medieval crowns often had multiple owners and sometimes a crown could be owned, or even worn, by someone who had a different gender than the original owner. This fact demonstrates the need for a more complex, nuanced interpretation of regalia found in an archaeological context.