Beatrice of Portugal – Great longing and great love (Part one)

Beatrice of Portugal was born on 31 December 1504 as the daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and his second wife, Maria of Aragon. She was born in the old Alcáçova in Lisbon. Shortly before Beatrice was born, her grandmother, Queen Isabella I of Castile, had passed away. This news was hidden from her mother as to keep the pregnancy safe.

Beatrice was the third child of Manuel and Maria, her elder siblings being the future King John III of Portugal and Isabella, later Holy Roman Empress. Seven more siblings would follow over the years, although not all survived to adulthood. Beatrice spent the first years of her life in the old Alcáçov before the family took up residence in the new Ribeira Palace. Possibly due to her grandmother’s death, there were no grand celebrations for her birth and baptism. However, she was certainly baptised in the early days of the new year. She was cared for by a wetnurse by the name of Ines Alvarez.¹ Ines would stay with Beatrice for a long and eventually accompany her to her new homeland.

For the first years of her life, Beatrice would live in the mostly female space of her mother’s household. Here, there were nurses and maids who looked after her and her siblings. She was close to her sister Isabella, who was just one year older. Breaking with tradition, their brother John also spent a long time in the Queen’s household. As they grew up, Christian piety and devotion were also part of their education. Beatrice and Isabella also learned to speak, read and write in Latin.

Beatrice’s mother died on 7 March 1517, six months after the birth of her last child. Maria had not come out of this last childbirth without injury, and she suffered horrible pains for months. She managed to attend the confirmation of three of her sons in October 1516, but she was in a great deal of pain. It is not clear what exactly Maria was suffering from, although cancer may have played a part.² The following year, Manuel remarried to Eleanor of Austria, a niece of his first and second wife. Eleanor’s grandfather, Maximilian, was opposed to the union and wrote, “As for the King of Portugal pursuing our daughter Lady Leonora, we have previously written to you our intention, namely that in no way can we advise marrying our daughter to the said King of Portugal, but if he wanted to have her for his eldest son, we would be very happy.”³ He was mainly opposed due to the King’s age – 49. Nevertheless, it was threatened that Manuel would marry Joanna la Beltraneja, a claimant to Charles’ throne, if Eleanor were not offered in marriage.

Eleanor dutifully accepted the groom placed before her, and she married King Manuel by proxy on 10 July 1518. Upon meeting his children, Eleanor refused to let them kneel to her and embraced them warmly. She was at ease with them as she was close to their age. Beatrice’s own marriage was already being negotiated as well. In 1516, Charles III, Duke of Savoy, asked for her hand in marriage. He had become Duke of Savoy in 1504 upon the death of his elder half-brother. His elder half-sister was Louise of Savoy, mother of King Francis I of France.

There was one problem: in her will, Maria had requested that her daughters be married to Kings or the sons of Kings and if this was not possible, they should become nuns even if they didn’t want to become nuns.⁴ For Isabella, this wouldn’t be a problem as it had long been Maria and Manuel’s desire to marry her to the future Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. With Beatrice’s match, Manuel was going against Maria’s wishes, although he wasn’t about to let go easily. Negotiations dragged on, and Charles upped his offers after Manuel refused the match twice. Perhaps he believed it would be impossible to abide by Maria’s wishes, or was he perhaps influenced by brother-in-law Charles? Even Beatrice believed that the match was beneath her.

Finally, on 7 April 1521, the official betrothal between Beatrice and Charles took place, but the celebrations were overshadowed by the death of the infant Charles, the son of King Manuel and Queen Eleanor, who had been born in 1520. Then Beatrice fell ill with a fever shortly before the proxy wedding, and she only recovered two weeks later. The proxy wedding finally took place on 4 August 1521. After more celebrations, Beatrice finally left Portugal on 8 August. King Manuel “gave her his blessing, and with great longing and great love, he said goodbye to her.”⁵ She would never see her father again, and he died the following December.

Read part two here.

1. Beatriz de Portugal (1504-1538). A Infanta esquecida by Ana Isabel Buescu p.47
2. The reign of the fortunate king, 1495-1521 by Elaine Sanceau p.145
3. Éléonore d’Autriche: seconde épouse de François Ier by Michel Combet p.86
4. Beatriz de Portugal (1504-1538). A Infanta esquecida by Ana Isabel Buescu p.71
5. Beatriz de Portugal (1504-1538). A Infanta esquecida by Ana Isabel Buescu p.126