User:Ian Spackman/Bianca Paleologo

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Blanche of Montferrat is depicted, on the right, in Jean Colombe’s The Man of Sorrows, a miniature from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry.
Blanche of Montferrat is depicted, on the right, in Jean Colombe’s The Man of Sorrows, a miniature from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry.[1]

Bianca Paleologo, or Blanche of Montferrat (French: Blanche de Montferrat, Italian: Bianca di Monferrato; 1472 - 30 March 1519) was born into the Palaeologus dynasty of Montferrat and became Duchess of Savoy on her marriage to Charles I of Savoy. Following his death she ruled the duchy on behalf of their son Charles II of Savoy.

[edit] Life

Bianca was born in 1472 at Casale Monferrato, then capital of the Marquisate of Montferrat, to Elisabetta Maria (10 June 1456 – 1472), daughter of Francesco I Sforza, Duke of Milan, and William VIII Paleologo (1420 – 1483), Marquis of Montferrat.

Her marriage on 1 April 1485 to Charles I of Savoy made her Duchess of Savoy as well as titular Queen of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. Two years later their first child was born, Yolande Luise (1487–1499) who would die before her marriage to Philibert II of Savoy was consummated. On 24 June 1489 their son, Carlo Giovanni Amedeo was born in Turin. Charles I died In March 1490 and was succeeded by his son as Charles II, Duke of Savoy.

From her husband’s death until 1496 when her son died, aged nearly seven, Bianca was the effective ruler of the Duchy. She was appointed regent of the Savoyard state by the Assembly of the States General, meeting at Pinerolo, and she summoned the Piedmontese feudatory Sebastiano Ferrero to court, making him counsellor of state and treasurer general. Gifted with a strong and combattative character, Bianca, who at only eighteen had to maintain the regency of the state, found herself in conflict with her husband’s family who laid claim to the rights of succession. She acted adroitly in establishing the peace in Piedmont following the wars with the Marquisate of Saluzzo undertaken by her husband. In 1494 She gave Charles VIII of France permission to cross the Piedmontese States in order to reach the Kingdom of Naples. This expedition marked the beginning of the Italian Wars; the French King also had the support of her uncle Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.

On the death of her daughter in 1499 Bianca retired to her castle at Carigano where she entertained Louis XII twice and, in 1515, his successor to the Kingdom of France, Francis I. She died in the castle on 31 March 1519 and was buried in the church of S. Maria delle Grazie.[2]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ See Olteanu 1997 for identification of the donor figures.
  2. ^ Castagno & Agrillo n.d.

[edit] References