Beatrice of Sicily, Latin Empress

Beatrice of Sicily
Latin Empress of Constantinople
Spouse Philip of Courtenay
Issue Catherine I of Courtenay
House House of Anjou-Sicily
House of Courtenay
Father Charles I of Sicily
Mother Beatrice of Provence
Born abt 1252
Died 1275 (aged 23)

Beatrice of Sicily (1252 17 November/12 December 1275) was the Empress consort of Philip of Courtenay, titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople.

Family

She was a daughter of Charles I of Sicily and Beatrice of Provence. She was also an older sister of Charles II of Naples.

Their paternal grandparents were Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. Their maternal grandparents were Raymond Berenguer IV of Provence and Beatrice of Savoy.

Marriage

Under the Treaty of Viterbo (27 May 1267), Baldwin II of Courtenay transferred much of the rights to the Latin Empire to Charles I.[1] Charles was to be confirmed in possession of Corfu and some cities in Albania. He was also given suzerainty over the Principality of Achaea and sovereignty of the Aegean Islands, excepting those held by Venice and Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Amorgos.

The same treaty arranged the marriage of Philip of Courtenay, heir apparent to the Latin Empire, and Beatrice, second daughter of Charles. If the marriage was childless, Philip's rights would be inherited by Charles I.[1] Beatrice was approximately fifteen-years-old at the time of her betrothal.

On 15 October 1273, Beatrice and Philip were married in Foggia. The bride was twenty-one-years old and the groom thirty. Her father-in-law died days later. Philip was proclaimed emperor with Beatrice as his Empress. Their only known daughter, Catherine I of Courtenay, was born on 25 November 1274.

Beatrice died in late 1275. Her husband survived her by eight years but never remarried.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 John V.A. Fine, Jr., The Late Medieval Balkans (1987), page 170

External links

Titles in pretence
Preceded by
Marie of Brienne
 TITULAR 
Latin Empress consort of Constantinople
1273–1275
Reason for succession failure:
Conquest by Empire of Nicaea in 1261
Succeeded by
Marie of Bourbon