Beatrice of Bar

Beatrice of Bar (also Beatrix) (c. 1017 – 18 April 1076) was Regent of Tuscany in 1052-1076. She was the daughter of Frederick II, Duke of Upper Lorraine, who was also count of Bar, and Matilda of Swabia. She was married first to Boniface III of Tuscany and later to Godfrey of Lotharingia. Through her marriage to Boniface, she was marchioness of Tuscany from c. 1037/8 to her death in 1076.

After her father died, she and her sister Sophie went to live with their mother's sister, Empress Gisela.

c.1037/8, she became the second wife of Boniface III of Tuscany in a splendid ceremony. She bore him the following children:

With Boniface's death on 6 May 1052, Beatrice assumed the regency for her son Frederick. In 1054, to give her son the protection she could not militarily provide, she married her cousin, Godfrey, former duke of Lower Lorraine. However, in 1055, the Emperor Henry III arrested Beatrice for marrying a traitor. She was brought to Germany a prisoner while Frederick was summoned to Henry's court at Florence. He refused to go and died before any action was taken against him. The heir of Boniface was now his youngest daughter Matilda, who was imprisoned with her mother.

On the death of Henry, Godfrey was reconciled with his heir, Henry IV, and exiled to Italy with his wife and stepdaughter. In January 1058, as a partisan of the newly elected Pope Nicholas II, Leo de Benedicto had the gates of the Leonine City thrown open for Godfrey and Beatrice. Godfrey immediately possessed the Tiber Island and attacked the Lateran, forcing Benedict X to flee on January 24. Beatrice and Godfrey were allied with the reformers, including Hildebrand and Pope Alexander II, against the emperor. In 1062, Beatrice tried to stop the Antipope Honorius II from reaching Rome, but she failed.

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