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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Count Raymond Berengar IV & Countess Beatrice of Savoia

23638786. Count Raymond Berengar IV & 23638787. Countess Beatrice of Savoia

1195, Raymond born in France, s/o 47277572. Alphonso II of Provence & 47277573. Garsenda of Sabran.

1206-7, Beatrice born in Savoy, d/o 47277574. Thomas, Count of Savoy & 47277575. Margaret of Geneva.

1209, Raymond, Count of Provence, succeeded his father. Ramon was imprisoned in the castle of Monzon, Aragon.

10/28/1216, Henry III, age 9, crowned king of England.

1219, Raymond escaped and claimed his inheritance. [Provence, a center of trade, derived most of its income from the sale of salt.]

[–––Raymond & Beatrice–––]

6/15/1219, Raymond married Beatrice.

1220, Beatrice gave birth to twin sons that did not survive.

7/14/1223, Louis VIII succeeded as king of France.

11/8/1226, Louis IX succeeded as king of France.

1234, Raymond pledged a dowery of 10,000 silver marks for his daughter Marguerite’s wedding to the heir of France. Raymond eventually raised 2,000 marks from the Archbishop of Aix for future favors, and Queen Blanche agreed to pledged castles, including the castle of Tarascon, instead of marks.

5/17/1734, Raymond, Beatrice, Raymond’s brothers Guillaume and Thomas of Savoy, and the rest of the wedding party stopped in Lyon to sign the wedding contract. From there they continued  on to Sens.

5/27/1234 at Sens, Prince Louis married Marguerite and assumed the role of King. The Archbishop of Sens performed the ceremony.  [Marguerite crowned Queen the next day at St Stephen’s Cathedral.]

11/23/1235, At the Provencal castle at Tarrascon, daughter Elenor pledged to marry King Henry III of England. Raymond had a stipulated to a dowery of 10,000 marks on his death. Safe passage for the Eleanor to England was granted by Queen Blanche, her son King Louis, and her sister Queen Marguerite.

12/1235, Raymon knighted by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.

1236, Beatrice in England for the marriage of her daughter Eleanor to King Henry III; she persuaded her son-in-law Henry III to grant his sister’s husband, Simon de Montfort, a yearly stipend of 500 marks. Henry also endowed Beatrice with an annual stipend of £400 and agreed to loan her husband, for whom she was acting, 4000 marks on the security of 5 castles in Provence.

1238, A “monstrous and inhuman race of men”, with a leader called Kan, began to overun far eastern Europe.

1240, Raymond faced an invasion by Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse. Raymond wrote letters to his sons-in-laws, King Henry III and King Louis IX, seeking help. Henry wrote a letter to Frederick II to stop supporting Toulouse [which he denied doing], and Louis sent troops [which were overmatched by those supplied by Frederick]. Is a short time Toulouse captured about 20 French castles. To appease Toulouse, Raymond promised his daughter Sanchia in marriage to provide a male heir. [What Toulouse really wanted.] About this same time, Richard of Cornwall arrived, stopping on his way to the holy lands on crusade.

6/25/1242, Beatrice was in Bourdeaux, Gascony, with her daughter Queen Eleanor when she gave birth to her granddaughter who was named Beatrice.

1243, Beatrice in England for the marriage of her daughter Sanchia.

1244, Beatrice returned to Provence to find Count Raymon ill. There was serious concers as to who would succeed as Count if Raymond should die.

8/19/1245, Raymond, Count of Provence and Barcelona, died in Aix-en-Provence. In his will he left everything to his unmarried daughter Beatrice, 13 years old, to be hers at her marriage. Countess Beatrice, the mother, was left to run the affairs of Provence. Queen Margaret arranged for her father’s burial. [Margaret was still owed a dowery of 10,000 marks. Henry III was still owed 4,000 marks loaned to Countess Beatrice.]

[–––Beatrice–––]

9/10/1245, Pope Innocent IV wrote a letter to Beatrice sending condolences over the death of her husband.

12/1245 in Lyon, France, King Louis arranged for his brother Charles to marry Beatrice’s daughter Beatrice.

12/1245, Charles and Philippe of Savoy, uncle of Beatrice, with 500 French knights arrived at Aix to find in under siege by the forces of the king of Aragon, who also wanted to marry Beatrice [There were many suitors because of her inheritance.] The French quickly routed the Aragon forces.

1/31/1246 at Aix, Charles married Beatrice, becoming Count of Provence and Forcalquier. [And put Charles for multiple years in conflict with his mother-in-law Beatrice.] Thomas of Savoy, Beatrice’s uncle, escorted her to the altar. The ceremony was attended by French Royal family.

3/1248, In return for 1/3rd  the normal revenues of the comital treasury, Beatrice agreed to forego her claims on both usufruct of the county and on payment of arrears; and son-in-law Charles of Anjou promised to oblige his officers to swear to honor the commitments.

1248, Beatrice made a trip to London to visit her daughters and to ensure King Henry that she was protecting his castles from Charles of Anjou.

1250-56, Beatrice formed “the nucleus of a powerful anti-Angevin party” from her seat in Forcalquier and Gap.

1251-2, Count Charles, returning from a crusade, had to suppress open rebellion that his mother-in-law Beatrice had instigated while he was away.

1252, Count Charles ordered an inquest into his rights as Count of Provence and Forcalquier.

12/1254, King Louis IX with his wife Queen Marguerite, her sister Queen Eleanor with her husband King Henry III, Marguerite and Eleanor’s sisters Sanchia married to Henry’s brother Richard, Beatrice married to Louis’ brother Charles, and the mother of all the females, Beatrice of Savoy gathered in Paris for a family reunion. (S) Epistolæ.

1255, When her brother Thomas, on crusade, was captured by citizens of Asti, Beatrice closed the Piedmont routes through her territory and arrested the “Lombards” who came through.

1256, Beatrice commissioned a text, the Régime du corps from Aldobrandino of Siena, which includes two chapters on pediatrics.

11/1256, King Louis IX of France [Beatice’s son-in-law] sent Beatrice a letter about her problems with his brother [and her son-in-law] Charles of Anjou.

1/1/1257, Notification to B. the countess of La Marche, marquise of Provence and countess of Forchalquier, that the king [Henry III] condoles with her … caused by the count of Provence, the French king’s brother, about the lands of … her husband Raymond, count of Provence, … loan of 4000 marks … to give him sufficient security for the payment … (S) CPRs.

1/1257, King Henry III released the 5 castles back to Beatrice for 4000 marks, which Charles paid; which allowed her to finalize agreements made with her son-in-law Charles. Beatrice agreed to give all her possessions in the country to Charles in exchange for an annual stipend of 6000 livres tournois, and 5000 up front, to be paid out of the French royal treasury.

1258, Beatrice's mother Margaret of Geneva died, leaving her daughter all her possessions in the Alps.  Beatrice took up residence in Menuet with a large entourage.

7/1262, Beatrice was invited to France to mediate agreements between King Henry III and Simon de Montfort.

1263, Beatrice wrote her will: … I give, bequeath to my dearest daughters Marguerite and Eleanor illustrious queens of the French and of England … I bequeath to [her daughter] Beatrice, countess of Anjou, a hundred silver marks …

1263, Beatrice cedes all her rights to inheritance in her birth family to her youngest brother, Philip, then the elected archbishop of Lyon.

1264/5, Beatrice wrote a codicil to her will disposing of her possessions; and requesting burial at the hospital at les Echelles.

1265, Beatrice, Countess and Marquise of Provence and Countess of Forcalquier and Gap, died. Beatrice, concerned about improving travel conditions in the Alps, left money in her will for bridge and road construction and repair.

(S) Francisque Viard, Beatrice de Savoye, Lyon: L'Echo de Savoie, 1942, P132. (S) Epistolæ. (S) 4 Queens, Goldstone, 2007.

Family notes:

·         Raymond had a passion for literature, writing versus and opening his castle to poets and minstrels.

Children of Raymond and Beatrice:

i. Queen Margaret of Provence (47281333), born 1221 in Provence.

ii. Queen Eleanor of Provence (11819393), born 1223 in Provence.

iii. Queen Sachia of Provence, born 1228 in Provence.

8/11/1241, Sanchia married by proxy to Count Raymond VII of Toulouse.

1243, Sachia married Richard of Cornwall (23640580). [See Richard for details of her life and their children.]

11/9/1261, Sanchia died.

iv. Queen Beatrice of Provence (23638813), born 1230 in Provence.


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