Beatrice of Bar (also Beatrix) (c. 1017 – 18 April 1076) was the marchioness of Tuscany from 1053 to her death as the wife of Boniface III of Tuscany. She was the daughter of Frederick II, Duke of Upper Lorraine, who was also count of Bar, and Matilda of Swabia.
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After her father died, she and her sister Sophie went to live with their mother's sister, Empress Gisela[1].
In 1037, she became the second wife of Boniface III of Tuscany in a splendid ceremony. She bore him the following children:
With Boniface' death on 6 May 1052, Beatrice assumed the regency for her son Frederick. In 1054, to give her son the protection she could not militarily provide, she married Godfrey, former duke of Lower Lorraine. However, in 1055, the Emperor Henry III arrested Beatrice for marrying a traitor. She was brought to Germany a prisoner while Frederick was summoned to Henry's court at Florence. He refused to go and died before any action was taken against him. The heir of Boniface was now his youngest daughter Matilda, who was imprisoned with her mother.
On the death of Henry, Godfrey was reconciled with his heir, Henry IV, and exiled to Italy with his wife and stepdaughter. In January 1058, as a partisan of the newly-elected Pope Nicholas II, Leo de Benedicto had the gates of the Leonine City thrown open for Godfrey and Beatrice. Godfrey immediately possessed the Tiber Island and attacked the Lateran, forcing Benedict X to flee on January 24. Beatrice and Godfrey were allied with the reformers, including Hildebrand and Pope Alexander II, against the emperor. In 1062, Beatrice tried to stop the Antipope Honorius II from reaching Rome, but she failed.
In 1069, Godfrey died. Matilda was of age, yet Beatrice continued to exercise government in her name until the day she died. She was buried in the Cathedral of Pisa, where the Late Roman sarcophagus, bearing reliefs illustrating the story of Hippolytus and Phaedra, from which Nicola Pisano adapted nude figures for his pulpit in the cathedral,[2] reused for her sepulture can still be seen. The added 11th-century inscription reads:
On 29 August 1071, Beatrice founded the monastery Frassinoro at the Apennine pass of Foce della Radici.