Beatrice of Lorraine, marchioness and regent of Tuscany (died 18 April 1076)
Before his death in 855 (and after decades of rebellion and instability within the Frankish empire that had once been ruled by Charlemagne), the Carolingian emperor Lothair I divided his kingdom among his three sons--the northern third was given to Lothair II. This region, known as Lotharingen (in German) or Lotharii regnum (in Latin, "Lothair's kingdom"), would ultimately become known as Lorraine.
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| Beatrice of Lorraine, from a twelfth-century manuscript of Donizo's Vita Mathildis (Vatican Library, Codex Vat. Lat. 4922, fol. 30v) |
In this act of partition, Lothair I followed a divsion of territory that had occurred after the death of his father, Louis I, "the Pious." Louis was the only surviving son of Charlemagne, inheriting the entirety of the Carolingian empire after his father's death in 814. But during his tumultuous rule, he faced a series of civil wars (he had four rebellious sons by two different wives).
After his death and yet another civil war, an attempt was made to settle the conflicts among his three sons. By the terms of the Treaty of Verdun (843), the empire was divided: Middle Francia was inherited by Lothair, East Francia, by Louis "the German," and West Francia. by Charles "the Bald." (No territory needed to be given to Louis' fourth rebellious son, Pepin, who had predeceased his father.)
And so, as Lothair I approached his death--after years of further unrest--he too attempted to solve conflicts by means of partition. He divided Middle Francia, the portion of the empire he had inherited following the Treaty of Verdun. The Treaty of Prüm (855) did not establish peace, however, and the result was further instability and conflict.
It was by the terms of this agreement that Lothair II inherited what would become known as Lorraine from his father.* Lothair II would marry twice, but his "marital" history was more than a bit complicated. Although he had several children (at least two sons) by his second "wife," Waldrada, they were all declared illegitimate. Thus, when Lothair II died in 869, the succession was disputed, with control of Lorraine swinging between his two uncles, Louis the German and Charles the Bald.
In 870, by the terms of the Treaty of Mersen, Lorraine was once again partitioned, this time along slightly different lines. (And, interestingly, one of Lothair II's "illegitimate" sons, Hugh, got the duchy of Alsace under the deal.)
But conflict continued until 925, when the Germany king Henry I conquered Lorraine, establishing the kingdom as a duchy under German control. In 953, Henry I's son and successor, Otto I, deposed his rebellious son-in-law as duke of Lorraine and handed the title off to his own younger brother, Bruno. As archbishop of Cologne, Bruno did not marry and have children, but he did have two important feudal commanders to support him in Lorraine, Frederick, count of Bar, and Godfrey, count of Hainault.
In 959, Bruno, divided Lorraine, creating Upper and Lower Lorraine. Control of Upper Lorraine and the title of margrave were given to Frederick. After Bruno's death in 965, Frederick became duke of Upper Lorraine, and it was Upper Lorraine that was inherited by his grandson, Frederick II--who was Beatrice of Lorraine's father.
All of this just to get us through something of Beatrice of Lorraine's paternal background!
As for Beatrice of Lorraine's mother. About the year 1012 or 1013, Frederick married Matilda of Swabia, a woman with her own relationship to the conflicts of this tumultuous geography. There had been some dispute about the validity of Matilda's first marriage, said to be consanguinous, though the couple remained together despite condemnation by the church.** After the death of her first husband, Matilda married Frederick despite very similar objections, that the two were too closely related to enter into a valid marriage. (Like her husband, Matilda of Swabia was a descendant of Charlemagne.)
Nevertheless, Frederick II and Matilda remained married and had three children: Sophie (born c. 1013-1018), Beatrice (born in Mantua c. 1013-1026), and Frederick (born c. 1017-1020). As you can see from the range of dates I've offered here, the birthdates--and, thus, birth order--of these children are not clear. Various dates and orders of birth are suggested by sources.
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| The seal of Beatrice of Lorraine (reproduced in Nora Duff's Matilda of Tuscany, La gran donna d'Italia) |
Meanwhile, after Frederick II's death and his son's succession, both Sophie and Beatrice were sent to the imperial household of the Holy Roman Emperor--their mother Matilda of Swabia's sister, Gisela, was married to Emperor Conrad III. (The marriage of Gisela and Conrad was also disputed because of their consanguinity--sheesh.) At the imperial court, the two girls were "nourished" by their aunt.
Matilda of Swabia was known to be at the imperial court with her sister and her children in 1030, but she died some time before January 1034. Her two daughters, Sophie and Beatrice, now "orphans," were "adopted" by their aunt.
It was at the imperial court of Conrad II and Gisela that a marriage was arranged for Beatrice with the the most powerful nobleman in northern Italy, Boniface of Canossa. From his father, Boniface had inherited the cities and counties of Mantua, Modena, Reggio, Parma, and Ferrara, among others. From his mother, he had inherited parts of Tuscany, including territory in and around Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Pistoia. Boniface supported the Holy Roman Empire in its various expeditions in northern Italy, and in 1027 Conrad awarded Boniface the lordship of Tuscany.
In 1036, when Boniface attended the marriage of Conrad and Gisela's son, he seems to have met Beatrice. Recently widowed and childless, the fifty-two-year-old Boniface was soon married to Beatrice, then about seventeen years old, but perhaps a bit younger. In addition to her imperial connections, Beatrice brought her inheritance in Lorraine to the marriage: she was dame du château de Briey and "heiress of the lordships of Stenay, Mouzay, Juvigny, Longlier and Orval, all in the northern part of her family's ancestral lands."
After a magnificent marriage ceremony, Boniface and Beatrice took up residence in the ducal castle in Mantua, where the couple's "homecoming" was celebrated with lavish banquets and entertainments. Their court was known for its "brilliance and culture."
Little documentation about Beatrice survives from the period, but during the years of her marriage, she seems to have spent most of her time in and around Canossa--there are references to her in Bologna (1040), Ferrara (1042), Mantua (1044), and Luca (1044).
During these years, Beatrice gave birth to three children. As with her natal family, the birth order and dates of birth of Beatrice's children are variously given, with only Matilda of Canossa's birthdate, 1046, generally agreed on. This year is derived from the epic poem about her life, Vita Mathildis, written by the monk Donizo of Canossa, who says Matilda was sixty-nine years old when she died in 1115. In addition to Matilda, Beatrice gave birth to a son, Frederick of Canossa (referred to in some chonicle sources, confusingly, as Boniface), and a third child, probably a daughter named Beatrice of Canossa, though some early chronicles indicate this child was also a boy, a younger son, "Beatricio."
Boniface maintained his strong relations with the Holy Roman Empire after Conrad II's death in 1036, and received further territories, including Spoleto and Camerino, for his support for Conrad's son and successor, Henry III. In 1046, he hosted Henry, on his way to be crowned as emperor. But ultimately their relationship broke down, and the emperor may (or may not) have played a role in Boniface's assassination in 1052.
Boniface's son, Frederick, succeeded his father, with Beatrice of Lorraine assuming the role of regent for him. To protect his inheritance--to preserve what she could of Frederick II's lands and titles (as well as her own)--the widowed Beatrice needed to act quickly. In the words of a contemporary chronicler, Beatrice, having lost the protection of her husband, needed to find a new protector (Destitutam se priori marito desolatae domui patronuni paravisse). And so, Beatrice quickly married her cousin, Godfrey III, duke of Lorraine, probably in 1053.***
The marriage of Beatrice and Godfrey had, however, taken place without the permission of the emperor, Henry III, against whom Godfrey had already rebelled. Traveling to Florence in 1055 for a meeting with the pope, the emperor had Beatrice arrested--she and her daughter Matilda, then about ten years old, were taken as a prisoner to Germany. Her son, Frederick, remained in Tuscany. (It isn't clear whether Beatrice's third child was still alive at this point.)
But Frederick III did not survive for long, and it was rumored that the emperor had had both Frederick and Beatrice's third child killed, leaving only Matilda of Canossa as heir to Frederick II. (Beatrice of Lorraine would make a donation to the abbey of Santa Maria de Fenonica for the souls of of her husband, Boniface, her son, and her daughter, so perhaps that solves the question of her third child's sex).
As for Godfrey, he assumed control of Tuscany in the right of his wife and Matilda. The emperor died suddenly in October of 1056, succeeded by his son, Henry, a minor. The boy's mother, Agnes of Poitou, was appointed to act as the boy's guardian and regent--and she rather quickly reconciled with Godfrey of Lorraine. Beatrice and Matilda were released and reunited with Godfrey, who was recognized as margrave of Tuscany.
Beatrice of Lorraine, her husband, and her daughter, Matilda, were all in Rome in 1059, celebrating celebrating the election of Pope Nicholas II. Indeed, Beatrice played a role in three papal elections over the course of just a few years, those of Stephen IX (1057), Nicholas II (1059), and Alexander II (1061). Historian Valerie Eads notes that these elections were accompanied by a "turbulence" in Rome and that Beatrice "played an active role" in maintaining the peace, protecting the elections, and opposing the anti-popes supported by the empire.
After 1060, Godfrey returned to Lorraine, leaving Beatrice in Italy, though the two were together again in Rome in 1062 and 1063. During these years, Beatrice took an active rold in papal politics and reform as well as governing Tuscany on behalf of her daughter. In November 1069, Beatrice returned to Lorraine with her husband and daughter, but by December Godfrey III of Lorraine lay dying. Before his death, Beatrice arranged for her daughter, Matilda, to be married to Godfrey's son, another Godfrey (he would succeed his father as Godfrey IV).****
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Beatrice of Lorraine, from a 14th century manuscript of Donizo's Vita Mathildis (Biblioteca Panizzi, MS Turri E52) |
Beatrice remained loyal to her second husband, commemorating their marriage in a seal (reproduced above) dating to 1073. The legend reads, "May you always be happy, dear Godfrey, Beatrix" (Sis semper felix, Gotfredo cara, Beatrix). But the younger Godfrey and Beatrice's daughter, Matilda, were not well matched, and after the birth and death of a daughter in 1071, Matilda left her husband and rejoined her mother.
Although Matilda of Tuscany was by now fully old enough to rule in her own name, Beatrice continued to exercise power as "dux of Tuscany." In her entry on Beatrice of Lorraine in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Margherita Giuliana Bertolini details Beatrice's "jurisdictional activity" (attività giurisdizionale) involving ecclesiastical institutions in the years from 1070 through 1076 in various locations, including Florence, Lucca, Siena, Perugia, Arezzo, and Pisa. Interestingly, given her past involvement in papal politics, Beatrice appears not to have played a role in the 1073 papal election of Gregory VII--she received news of the election by letter.
During these years Beatrice also founded and endowed a number of religious institutions, including monasteries, churches, and hospitals, in Siena, Arezzo, Luca, Florence, Parma, and Mantua, among other places (these are detailed by Bertolini).
Beatrice's daughter, Matilda of Tuscany, never reconciled with her husband, Godfrey. He was assassinated on 27 February 1076 while fighting on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV during what has become known as the Investiture Controversy--for her part, Matilda supported papal power against imperial power.
On 18 April 1076, just two months after the death of her son-in-law (and stepson), Beatrice of Lorraine died. When he came to write his great epic poem about the life of Matilda of Tuscany, the Italian monk Donizo of Canossa noted the pivotal role that Beatrice had played during her lifetime: "She persuaded [the emperor] to peace with love for the pope, / And the the pious pope for love of the king" (Pontificis pacem regem suadebat amore / Atque pium papam de regis amore rogabat, quoted by Bertolini--my Latin is really bad these days, so I hope this translation is close).
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| The tomb of Beatrice of Lorraine, Camposanto, Pisa |
Beatrice of Lorraine was buried in a Roman sarcophagus in the cathedral church of Pisa, her burial arranged by her daughter. Her tomb was relocated inside the church in the fourteenth century, and then moved to its current location, in the Camposanto, in the nineteenth century. (For an excellent analysis of the tomb and its construction, click here.)
Letters from and to Beatrice of Lorraine are available at Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters (click here).
There is a full-length biography of Beatrice of Lorraine, Elke Goetz's Beatrix von Canossa und Tuszien :Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte des 11. Jahrhunderts (1995).
*For Paul B. Pixton's summary of all this, in Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia, click here.
**Canon law concerned itself with the blood relationships among those who would marry. For a discussion of consanguinity as an impediment to a valid marriage, click here.
***Godfrey III, "the Bearded," duke of Lower Lorraine, was a member of the house of Ardennes-Verdun, Beatrice of the house of Ardennes-Bar. In her entry on Beatrice of Lorraine in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Margherita Giuliana Bertolini notes that after the death of Frederick II of Upper Lorraine in 1033, the House of Ardennes-Bar became "extinct," and Gothelo, duke of Lower Lorraine, of the house of Ardennes-Verdun, was invested with Upper Lorraine, uniting the once-divided territories. After Gothelo's death, his son Godfrey eventurally succeeded to his father's role ("eventually" because there had been conflict and rebellion). Notably, Bertolini suggests that Godfrey had "probably" (probabile) administered Beatrice's holdings (dei beni) in Upper Lorraine.
****Godfrey IV was the son of Godfrey III's first wife, Doda.
