Beatrice of England

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English Royalty
House of Plantagenet

Armorial of Plantagenet
Henry III
   Edward I Longshanks
   Margaret, Queen of Scots
   Beatrice, Duchess of Brittany
   Edmund, Earl of Lancaster

Beatrice of England (25 June 124224 March 1275) was a daughter of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence.

She was a younger sister of Edward I of England and an older sister of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster.

King Håkon Håkonsson of Norway in the 1250s tried to obtain Beatrice as a wife for his son Magnus, but his advances were politely rejected by king Henry, as negotiations for Beatrice's hand were already being conducted with the French king.[1]

On 22 January 1260, at the Abbey of Saint Denis, Beatrice married John II, Duke of Brittany. They were parents to seven children:

  1. Arthur II, Duke of Brittany, born 1262
  2. Henry of Brittany, born ca 1264 and raised in England; died or killed in 1284 during his uncle Edward I's war in Wales, and buried there at Edward's expense
  3. John de Bretagne, 1st Earl of Richmond, born 1266
  4. Marie de Dreux, wife of Guy III of Châtillon (1268-1339)
  5. Pierre, Viscount de Leon (1269-1312)
  6. Blanche de Dreux, wife of Philip of Artois (1271-1327)
  7. Eleonore, Abbess of Fontevrault (1274/75-1329)

It is sometimes stated that Beatrice died in childbirth bearing her youngest daughter. She was buried in Greyfriars Church, Greenwich, London.