Civil War
When Constance's father King Peter II died 15 August 1342, her uncle John of Aragon, Duke of Athens and Neopatra, became the vicar of the kingdom and regent to her four-year-old brother and heir to the throne, Louis. When John died on 3 April 1348, the regency was passed to Blasco Alagona the Younger, a Catalan nobleman and grand justiciar of the kingdom who had been the vicar's lieutenant since October 1342. Four years later in 1352, Constance took over the role as regent during the minority of her brother.
Tensions between the local noble Sicilian families and rivaling noble families, existed long before the birth of Constance and her time as regent. The Civil Wars that raged from the 1330s to the 1360s had long-lasting effects on institutions and economic life. The monarchy was short on resources to fight their enemies or influence factions to their side. Though the monarchy profited from grain sales, increasingly the barons came to control even the sale of grain. Barons increased their rights through alienation of fiefs, and the Monarchy tolerated the barons' growing power to use them as buffers against their enemies, the Angevins, but at a high cost. The chairmonte known as the 'Latin' faction, and their rivals, the 'Catalan' faction, waged civil wars within the kingdom over their private disputes.
Following Louis's accession as king in 1342, the Latins rebelled against the new regent but did not have permanent Angevin Success. In 1348, civil war broke out. On one side of the rivaling barons was the Alagona family of Catalan origin, and on the other side, the local noble Sicilian families of Palizzi and Chiaramonte. Infighting within the kingdom between cities was common, particularly between Messina and Palermo.
On 1 September 1350, an agreement was made between the warring barons to cease fighting until Louis had reached the age of majority.
When Louis turned fourteen, he wrote a correspondence to communicate his wish to assume responsibility of the government as king to the Catanian people. In June 1353, Constance and her brother Louis arrived in Taormina to meet with Blasco. As regent, and someone who aspired for peace within the kingdom, Constance arranged for a meeting between Blasco and Louis. According to one source, the meeting never occurred due to Chiaramonte protest. An agreement was later reached on 4 October 1353 in Messina.
By November 1353, Constance was confirmed from a document to have taken over the responsibilities of vicar after the death of her mother, Queen Elizabeth of Carinthia.
