Beatrice of Luxembourg ( hu, Luxemburgi Beatrix; 1305 – 11 November 1319), was by birth member of the
House of Luxembourg
The House of Luxembourg ( lb, D'Lëtzebuerger Haus; french: Maison de Luxembourg; german: Haus Luxemburg) or Luxembourg dynasty was a royal family of the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Middle Ages, whose members between 1308 and 1437 ruled as kin ...
and by marriage
Queen of Hungary
The King of Hungary ( hu, magyar király) was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 (or 1001) to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" (''Apostoli Magyar Király'') was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1 ...
.
She was the youngest child of
Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VII (German: ''Heinrich''; c. 1273 – 24 August 1313),Kleinhenz, pg. 494 also known as Henry of Luxembourg, was Count of Luxembourg, King of Germany (or ''Rex Romanorum'') from 1308 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1312. He was the first emp ...
and his wife,
Margaret of Brabant
Margaret of Brabant (4 October 1276 – 14 December 1311), was the daughter of John I, Duke of Brabant and Margaret of Flanders. She was the wife of Henry, Count of Luxembourg, and after his election as King of Germany in 1308, she b ...
. Her two siblings were
John of Luxembourg and
Marie of Luxembourg, Queen of France.
Life
At the time of his death (1313), Emperor Henry VII initiated the negotiations for a marriage between Beatrice and
Charles, Duke of Calabria
Charles, Duke of Calabria (1298 – 9 November 1328), was the son of King Robert of Naples and Yolanda of Aragon.
Charles was born in Naples in 1298, during the reign of his paternal grandfather, King Charles II, the second king of the Angevin ...
, son and heir of King
Robert of Naples
Robert of Anjou ( it, Roberto d'Angiò), known as Robert the Wise ( it, Roberto il Saggio; 1276 – 20 January 1343), was King of Naples, titular King of Jerusalem and Count of Provence and Forcalquier from 1309 to 1343, the central figure of I ...
, and also planned to marry again (his wife was already dead in 1311) with
Catherine of Habsburg. Beatrice was called by her father to Italy, where she arrived with her paternal grandmother,
Beatrice d'Avesnes
Beatrice d'Avesnes (died: 1321) was a daughter of Baldwin of Avesnes and his wife Felicitas of Coucy. Baldwin was the son of Bouchard IV of Avesnes.
She married in 1265 Count Henry VI of LuxembourgJohn A. Gades, ''Luxemburg in the Middle Ages'', ...
. The marriage plans with the Duke of Calabria failed, and the Emperor began negotiations for a marriage with
Prince Peter of Sicily, eldest son and heir of King
Frederick III; however, the current political conflicts between the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily soon ended this planned betrothal too.
When King
Charles I of Hungary
Charles I, also known as Charles Robert ( hu, Károly Róbert; hr, Karlo Robert; sk, Karol Róbert; 128816 July 1342) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of ...
(whose first wife
Maria of Bytom
Maria of Bytom ( pl, Maria bytomska; before 1295 – 15 December 1317) was a Queen of Hungary by marriage to Charles I of Hungary.
She was the third child and only daughter of Duke Casimir of Bytom by his wife Helena, whose origins are unk ...
, had died in 1317) decided to marry again, he sent to the
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...
two representants,
Thomas Szécsényi
Thomas (I) Szécsényi ( hu, Szécsényi (I.) Tamás; died 1354) was a Hungarian powerful baron and soldier, who rose to prominence during King Charles I's war against the oligarchs. He belonged to the so-called "new aristocracy", who supported t ...
and
Simon Kacsics
Simon from the kindred Kacsics ( hu, Kacsics nembeli Simon, hr, Šimun Kačić; died after 1228) was a Hungarian distinguished nobleman from the ''gens'' Kacsics (Kačić). He was one of the leading instigators of Queen Gertrude's assassinatio ...
, in addition to an interpreter, a bourgeois from Szoprońskim called
Stephen
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...
, in order to find a bride. King John called his two sisters to his court; at that moment, Marie resided in
St. Marienthal Abbey and Beatrice remained in Italy. Both princesses arrived to
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
on 20 June 1318, and three days later, the Hungarian envoys met both girls at the monastery of
Zbraslav
Zbraslav (; german: Königsaal; Latin ''Aula Regia'') is a municipal district and cadastral area of Prague. The southernmost district of Prague, it lies on the Vltava River in the national administrative district of Prague 16.
The former indepe ...
, where the Bohemian king gave them the opportunity to choose between them their future queen. After a calculated assessment of both personal and physical attitudes, they chose Beatrice. Soon after, the formal engagement took place, and the young bride parted with the Hungarian entourage to her new home. On the border of the Kingdom of Hungary she was officially welcomed by Charles I's messengers. Beatrice and Charles I married at the ''Octave of Saint Martin'' (between 12 and 17 November) and she was crowned Queen of Hungary in the ceremony.
Beatrice became pregnant in 1319. In November, she went into labour but died while giving birth. The child was stillborn. She was buried at
Nagyvárad
Oradea (, , ; german: Großwardein ; hu, Nagyvárad ) is a city in Romania, located in Crișana, a sub-region of Transylvania. The county seat, seat of Bihor County, Oradea is one of the most important economic, social and cultural centers in the ...
Cathedral.
References
*Włodzimierz Dworzaczek: ''Genealogia'', Warsaw 1959, tab. 46.
*Jiří Spěváček: ''Jan Lucemburský a jeho doba 1296-1346'', Prague 1994, p. 111, 176, 182, 266, 318.
*Stanisław A. Sroka: ''Genealogia Andegawenów węgierskich'', Kraków 1999, pp. 14–16.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beatrice Of Luxembourg
1305 births
1319 deaths
14th-century Luxembourgian people
14th-century Hungarian women
14th-century German women
14th-century Luxembourgian women
Hungarian queens consort
House of Luxembourg
Hungarian people of Luxembourgian descent
Deaths in childbirth
Medieval Luxembourgian nobility
Daughters of emperors
Daughters of kings