Bianca Lancia

Bianca Lancia d'Agliano (also called Beatrice and Blanca; c. 1200/10 – c. 1244/46) was an Italian noblewoman. She was the mistress and later the last wife of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II. The marriage was conducted while she was on her deathbed, therefore it was considered non-canonical.

Possibly born in Agliano in Piedmont, where her ancestors of the Ghibelline Lancia (or Lanza) noble family, so-called since Manfred I (fl. 1160–1214) had been lancifer pikeman of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, served as margraves. There is no source which definitively states who her parents were, historians have offered three theories that she was a granddaughter of Manfred I Lancia:

If she was a daughter of Manfred II, she had seven siblings: four brothers (Manfred III, Guglielmo, Galvano and Frederick) and three sisters (Beatrice, Agnes and Isabella).

Bianca lived most of her life in Lancia Castle of Brolo, the ancestral residence of her family, the Castello Normanno in Paternò and the castle of Gioia del Colle. She met Frederick II, who was then married to Yolande of Jerusalem, in 1225 at Agliano near Asti. Thenceforth, it is said, the two maintained a romantic relationship.

According to some historians, Bianca was the only true love of Frederick's life; others consider this a romantic exaggeration. It was certainly beneficial to the interests of the Lancia family, who were favoured by the Emperor with political posts in Italy (Manfredo III was appointed Imperial Vicar of the Holy Roman Empire's northern Italian territories and Podesta of Alessandria, Milan and Chieri; Galvano became Imperial Vicar of Tuscany, Podesta of Padova, Prince of Salerno, Count of Fondi and Grand Marshal of Sicily; and Frederick was appointed Count of Squillace and Viceroy of Apulia). Nonetheless, the relationship of Bianca and Frederick was the longest to all the affairs of the Emperor.

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