Beatrice of Portugal, Duchess of Savoy

Image:Portuguese Carracks off a Rocky Coast.jpg Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai, and other Portuguese ships. From painting, attributed to either Gregório Lopes or Cornelis Antoniszoon, showing the voyage of the Portuguese Infanta Beatrice to Savoy, 1521]]

She was the second daughter of Manuel I of Portugal (1469–1521) and his second wife, Maria of Aragon (1482–1517). Her siblings included King John III of Portugal and Isabella, Holy Roman Empress. She was educated under the supervision of her governess Elvira de Mendoza.

In Villefranche-sur-Mer on 29 September 1521, Beatrice married Duke Charles III of Savoy. He had succeeded as the duke of Savoy in 1504, making Beatrice duchess at the moment of her wedding.

Beatrice was described as beautiful,{{sfn|Cartwright Ady|1913|p=87}} brilliant, and ambitious. In 1531, she received the County of Asti as a fiefdom from her cousin and brother-in-law, Emperor Charles V, which on her death was inherited by her son and permanently included in the Savoys' heritage.

In 1534, she welcomed Christina of Denmark, a ward of her brother-in-law the Emperor, on her way to her marriage with the Duke of Milan.{{sfn|Cartwright Ady|1913|p=87}} When Christina was widowed in 1535, the Milanese Count Stampa suggested a marriage between Christina and the eldest son of Beatrice, Louis, the heir of Savoy, in an attempt to protect Milan from Imperial sovereignty.{{sfn|Cartwright Ady|1913|p=}} Beatrice supported the plan, and when Louis died, she suggested that her next son could replace him.{{sfn|Cartwright Ady|1913|p=}} Nothing more was heard of this, however. In April 1536, Beatrice fled from the French conquest of Savoy to Christina in Milan in the company of two of her surviving children and the Shroud of Turin from Chambéry.{{sfn|Cartwright Ady|1913|pp=117–118}} In May, she was able to visit the Emperor with Christina in Pavia, but without any political result.{{sfn|Cartwright Ady|1913|pp=116–117}} She then lived as a guest with Christina in Milan, with whom she was good friends. In November 1537, Beatrice was escorted by the Imperial viceroy of Milan to the Emperor in Genoa, but again, the meeting was without any result. She continued to Nice, where she reunited with her spouse. She died in Nice in January 1538.{{sfn|Cartwright Ady|1913|p=119}}

Beatrice and Charles III had nine children, but only one of them lived to adulthood:

• Adrian Jordan Amadeus, Prince of Piedmont (19 November 1522 – 10 January 1523), died in infancy.
• Louis, Prince of Piedmont (4 December 1523 – Madrid, 25 November 1536), died in childhood.
• Emmanuel Philibert (Chambéry, 8 July 1528 – Turin, 30 August 1580); only surviving child and later Duke of Savoy
• Catherine (25 November 1529 – May 1536), died in childhood.
• Marie (12 June 1530 – 1531), died in infancy.
• Isabella (May 1532 – 24 September 1533), died in early childhood.
• Emmanuel (born and died May 1533)
• Emmanuel (born and died May 1534)
• Gianmaria (3 December 1537 – 8 January 1538), died in infancy.

After the death of the childless Sebastian of Portugal (her grand-nephew), her son fought for his rights to become King of Portugal; however, he failed and the throne was given to Isabella's son Philip.

{{ahnentafel

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|1= 1. Beatrice of Portugal

|2= 2. Manuel I of Portugal

|3= 3. Maria of Aragon

|4= 4. Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Emanuel I. |volume=9}}

|5= 5. Beatrice of Portugal

|6= 6. Ferdinand II of Aragon{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_krkCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT11 |title=Isabel the Queen: Life and Times |last=Liss |first=Peggy K. |date=2015-11-10 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=9780812293203 |pages=11 |df=dmy-all}}

|7= 7. Isabella I of Castile

|8= 8. Edward, King of Portugal{{cite book |last=Stephens |first=Henry Morse |author-link=H. Morse Stephens |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jwMqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA139 |title=The Story of Portugal |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |year=1903 |isbn=9780722224731 |page=139 |access-date=17 September 2018}}

|9= 9. Eleanor of Aragon

|10= 10. John, Constable of Portugal

|11= 11. Isabel of Barcelos

|12= 12. John II of Aragon{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Ferdinand V. of Castile and Leon and II. of Aragon |volume=10}}

|13= 13. Juana Enríquez

|14= 14. John II of Castile{{Britannica|295037|Isabella I, Queen of Spain}}

|15= 15. Isabella of Portugal

}}

• Descendants of Manuel I of Portugal

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Cartwright Ady |first=Julia |author-link=Julia Cartwright Ady |title=Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, 1522-1590 |year=1913 |publisher=E.P. Dutton and Company |location=New York |oclc=871060 |url=https://archive.org/details/christinaofdenma00adyj}}
• Prestage, Edgar: Il Portogallo nel medioevo, in: Cambridge University Press - Storia del mondo medievale, vol. VII, pp. 576–610, Garzanti, 1999.
• Ricaldone, Aldo di, Annuari del Monferrato, Vol I and II.
• Testa D., Storia del Monferrato, seconda edizione ampliata, Tip.S.Giuseppe 1951.
• Vergano L.: Storia di Asti, Vol. 1,2,3. Tip.S.Giuseppe Asti, 1953, 1957.

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{{s-hou|House of Aviz|31 December|1504|8 January|1538|House of Burgundy}}

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{{s-vac|last=Margaret of Austria}}

{{s-ttl|title=Duchess consort of Savoy|years=29 September 1521 – 8 January 1538}}

{{s-vac|next=Margaret of France}}

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{{Portuguese infantas}}

{{Ducal consorts of Savoy}}

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Category:1504 births

Category:1538 deaths

Category:House of Aviz

Category:Duchesses of Savoy

Category:Deaths in childbirth

Category:16th-century Portuguese nobility

Category:Portuguese Roman Catholics

Category:16th-century Roman Catholics

Category:16th-century women monarchs

Category:Daughters of kings

Category:Mothers of Italian monarchs

Category:Portuguese infantas