Beatrice was the only surviving child of
Reginald III, Count of Burgundy and
Agatha of Lorraine. She was named after her
grandmother. As the only child of her father, she was the heiress of the County of Burgundy, and at the death of her father in 1148 she inherited the vast
County of Burgundy and became countess palatine. As such, she was one of the most desired brides in the Empire. Her uncle,
William III of Mâcon, who acted as her regent, attempted to deprive her of her rights, and had her imprisoned. A marriage was suggested to Emperor Frederick I, who stopped William.
Wedding Frederick I likely suggested the marriage because the County of Burgundy would give him an alternative to the Brenner Pass and a strategically valuable position against Milan, and because of the additional troops of Burgundian knights available for his war. The wedding between Beatrice and Frederick took on 9 June 1156 at
Würzburg. After the wedding, the Bishop of Trier anointed Beatrice queen. The poem
Carmen de gestis Frederici I imperatoris in Lombardia, written about 1162, describes Beatrice upon her wedding day: :"''
Venus did not have this virgin's beauty,'' :
Minerva did not have her brilliant mind :
And Juno did not have her wealth. :''There never was another except
God's mother Mary'' :
And Beatrice is so happy she excels her." After the death of William III, Frederick created titles as compensations for his sons
Stephen and Girard, and Stephen attended the wedding of Beatrice.
Empress depicting Beatrice and Frederick. After their marriage, Frederick took control of the County of Burgundy by the right of his wife and became her co-ruler. Although formally co-rulers, Beatrice's name was seldom included in the charters managing the affairs of Burgundy before the year of 1166, after which more charters were issued in the name of both Beatrice and Frederick as joint rulers of Burgundy. Her actual involvement in the rule of Burgundy is unknown. Her younger son Otto was named the heir to Burgundy, rather than her elder son. Another source states that Barbarossa took his wrath upon every able-bodied man in the city, and that it was not a fig they were forced to hold in their mouth, but excrement from the donkey. To add to this debasement, they were made to announce,
"Ecco la fica" (meaning "behold the fig"), with the faeces still in their mouths. It used to be said that the insulting gesture (called fico), of holding one's fist with the thumb in between the middle and forefinger came by its origin from this event. Beatrice at least once played a role in warfare: during the
Siege of Crema in July 1159, she was able to provide the emperor with badly needed reinforcements from her own county of Burgundy, and arrived to Crema on 20 July of that year in the company of Henry the Lion, archbishop
Conrad of Augsburg and 1,200 knights, providing him with the reinforcements he needed. In 1162, Italian chronicler
Acerbo Morena, having seen Beatrice at her hometown Lodi, said of Beatrice that she was: :"of medium height, with shining golden hair, a most beautiful face, and white, well shaped teeth; her posture was upright, her mouth small, her countenance modest, her eyes sparkled; she was bashful when charming and flattering words was addressed to her; she had most beautiful hands and a slender figure; she was completely submissive to her husband, feared him as her lord and loved him in every way as her husband; she was literate and devoted to God; and just as she was named Beatrix, so she was in fact happy ['Beata']". After they reached Pavia, they were attacked again. The emperor having escaped, Jasperse suggests that the coinage was intended to show the couple as co-rulers. During the disputed Cambrai episcopal election of 1168, Beatrice supported the election of bishop
Peter of Cambrai and at his request successfully blocked the attempt of the archbishop Philip to transfer the bishopric of Cambrai from the metropolitan province of Reims to Cologne, supported by archbishop
Christian of Mainz and
Henry the Lion. The early development of the German tradition of
minnesang is associated with Beatrice and the French troubadours she brought to Barbarossa's court, especially
Guyot de Provins.
Gautier d'Arras dedicated the long version of his
Ille et Galeron to her.
Death In 1184, Beatrice fell ill with an unknown illness at
Jouhe and quickly died, aged about 40. She was buried in
Speyer Cathedral, but her heart was buried in
Jouhe's old Benedictine abbey. Frederick grieved for her early death, and in April 1189, a month before joining the Crusade, he donated to the Church of St. Etienne in Besançon. ==Issue==