Beatrice of Montferrat (c.1210- 1274) was an Italian noblewoman and the suo jure Lady of Saint-Bonnet. She was the eldest daughter of William VI, Marquess of Montferrat, and the third wife[1] of Guigues VI of Viennois, by whom she had two sons. She married a total of four times.[2] According to the vida of the troubadour Gauseran de Saint-Leidier, Beatrice was the domna (lady), whom he allegedly loved. He celebrated his idealised devotion to her in his cansos.
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Beatrice was born in about 1210 the eldest daughter and second child of William VI, Marquess of Montferrat and Berta of Clavesana. Her brother was Boniface II, Marquess of Montferrat, and her younger sister Alix married King Henry I of Cyprus.
Beatrice's paternal grandparents were Boniface I, Marquess of Montferrat and his first wife Helena del Bosco; her maternal grandparents were Marquess Boniface of Clavesana, Count of Cortemiglia and his wife who is unnamed[3].
On 21 November[4] 1219, at the age of about nine (or possibly younger), Beatrice married her first husband, Guigues VI of Viennois. Their marriage was recorded in Aymari Rivalli De Allobrogibus.[5] He was over twenty years her senior and she was his third wife. From 1228 until Guigues' death in 1237, as his wife, she was the Dauphine consort of Viennois as well as the Countess of Albon, Briançon, Grenoble and Oisans. Together they had two sons:
Beatrice was immortalised as the domna of the troubadour Gauseran de Saint-Leidier, who extolled his idealised and unconsummated love for Beatrice in his cansos, of which only two are extant.
In 1252, after being a widow from since 1237, Beatrice married her second husband, Sire Guy II, Lord of Bauge. The marriage produced one daughter:[6]
Sometime between Guy's death which occurred the year her only daughter was born and 1259, she married her third husband, Jean II, Sire de Chatillon-en-Bazois and de La Roche-Milay. In about 1271, she married her fourth and last husband, Pierre de la Roue[7]. These last two marriages were childless.
Beatrice died on an unrecorded date in 1274.