Beatrice of Tuscany

BEATRICE di TOSCANA. - Marchioness, b. in Lorraine about 1015, d. at Pisa on 28 Apr. 1976. Daughter of Federico, duke of Upper Lorraine, and soon left orphaned of both parents, she was received, together with her sister Sofia, by her aunt, the empress Gisella, wife of Corrado II il Salico. At the imperial court she was able to acquire great political experience, which she later exercised against her cousin Enrico III when, having married Bonifacio di Toscana in 1036, she induced her husband to ally himself with other powerful lords and, with their support, to rebel openly against the emperor in 1047. After her husband’s death in 1052, she married, in a bold political move, her cousin Goffredo il Barbuto, a known enemy of Enrico III; the latter, indignant, then imprisoned the proud marchioness and took her with him to Germany. Upon the emperor’s death, B. was sent back free to Italy by the regent Agnese (1056). Having lost her husband in 1069, she and her daughter Matilde placed themselves wholly at the service of the Pope; and the letters of Gregorio VII show that he counted them among his most faithful auxiliaries.