Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda

Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda or Beatrice de Tende or Beatrix (c. 1372 – 1418), was an Italian noblewoman who was the wife of Facino Cane, Count of Biandrate and a condottiero, and then wife to Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, who caused her death.

Beatrice was born in 1370 or 1372 or 1376. She was the daughter of Pietro Balbo II and the sister of Giovanni Antonio I Lascaris Count of Tende, in an ancestral castle erected in a valley that opens to the north of the Col di Tenda. She was part of the Lascaris di Ventimiglia Conti di Tenda, a branch of the House of Ventimiglia, who were sovereigns of a large province Maritime Alps area.

On September 2, 1403, she married Facino Cane of Montferrat, a military commander and condottiero, who usually was in the service of the Visconti dukes. He reputedly treated her with great consideration and respect and divided his honors and treasures with her. She is said to have accompanied him in battle.

Facino Cane died May 19, 1412 at Pavia, the very day of the assassination of Giovanni Maria Visconti, the second Duke of Milan. Cane's death left Beatrice a very rich widow. She had four hundred thousand ducats, the domain of those towns and lands that were in her dead husband's control, and many men-at-arms.

Filippo Maria Visconti succeeded his murdered brother in the Duchy of Milan. Some of his council advised him to marry Beatrice, whose worth exceeded his own personal fortune and territorial control, despite that she was twenty years his elder. Once he obtained his new wife's resources, he easily conquered the various rulers of the smaller neighboring domains. Building on the Facino's foundation, he reconstructed a state that began to compare of that of his father, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, before it fell apart under his brother Giovanni's rule.

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