Beatrice d'Este (1215 – before 8 May 1245) was

Queen consort of Hungary This is a list of the queens consorts of Hungary (), the consorts of the King of Hungary, kings of Hungary. After the extinction of the Árpád dynasty and later the Capetian House of Anjou, Angevin dynasty, the title of King of Hungary has been ...

as the third wife of King

Andrew II of Hungary Andrew II (, , , ; 117721 September 1235), also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1205 and 1235. He ruled the Principality of Halych from 1188 until 1189/1190, and again between 1208/1209 and ...

. Beatrice was the only child of Marquis Aldobrandino I of Este but her mother's name and origin is unknown. Since her father died in the year of her birth, she was educated by her uncle, Marquis Azzo VII of Este. In the beginning of 1234, the elderly King

, who had been widowed for the second time in 1233, visited the court of the Este family and fell in love with the young Beatrice. Her uncle gave his consent to the marriage only on the condition that both King Andrew and Beatrice renounced the dowry and any claim of her father's inheritance. Their marriage was celebrated on 14 May 1234 in

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; ; ; ; Serbian language, Serbian: ''Стони Београд''; ), known colloquially as Fehérvár (), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the Regions of Hungary, regional capital of C ...

, and King Andrew promised in their conjugal contract that he would grant 5,000 pounds as marriage portion to Beatrice and Beatrice would also receive 1,000 pounds as her annual revenue. However, the relationship between Beatrice and her husband's sons became tense soon. Following her husband's death on 21 September 1235, her stepson, King

Béla IV of Hungary Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of Andrew II of Hungary, King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group ...

ascended the throne and he wanted to banish Beatrice from Hungary. Moreover, when the widowed Beatrice announced that she was pregnant, her stepson accused her of adultery with Denis, son of Ampud, his father's powerful royal advisor, and ordered her arrest. Beatrice could escape from Hungary only with the assistance of the ambassadors of

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (, , , ; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusalem from 1225. He was the son of Emperor Henry VI, Holy Roman ...

who had arrived to the deceased king's funeral. She went to the Holy Roman Empire, where she bore her husband's posthumous son,

Stephen Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

whose legitimacy, however, was never acknowledged by his brothers. Following the birth of her child, Beatrice was planning to live in the court of his uncle, but Marquis Azzo VII denied her request. She spent the following years wandering in Italy, and she never gave up her son's claims to receive ducal revenues from Hungary. She tried to persuade the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

to support her son during the war with

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, but the Serenissima promised King Béla IV that it would not support Beatrice and her son in the peace of 30 June 1244.

Marriage and child

She married on 14 May 1234 to King

(c. 1177 – 21 September 1235) and had issue: * Stephen the Posthumous (1236 – 10 April 1271), father of the King

Andrew III of Hungary Andrew III the Venetian (, , ; – 14 January 1301) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1290 and 1301. His father, Stephen the Posthumous, was the posthumous son of Andrew II of Hungary although Stephen's older half brother ...

Sources

* Soltész, István: ''Árpád-házi királynék'' (Gabo, 1999) * Kristó, Gyula - Makk, Ferenc: ''Az Árpád-ház uralkodói'' (IPC Könyvek, 1996) {{DEFAULTSORT:Deste, Beatrice, Queen Of Hungary Queens consort of Hungary 1215 births 1245 deaths 13th-century Hungarian women 13th-century Italian women 13th-century Hungarian people 13th-century Italian nobility