page_title: Beatrice of Savoy
section_title: Dowager countess
hierarchical_section_title: Beatrice of Savoy / Dowager countess
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Statue de Béatrice de Savoie Les Échelles, Savoie, France Novembre 2016
context_page_description: Beatrice of Savoy was the daughter of Thomas I of Savoy and Margaret of Geneva. She was Countess consort of Provence by her marriage to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence.
context_section_description: When Ramon Berenguer died on 19 August 1245, he left Provence to his youngest daughter, and his widow was granted the usufruct of the county of Provence for her lifetime.  Beatrice's daughter and namesake then became one of the most attractive heiresses in medieval Europe. Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor sent a fleet and James I of Aragon sent an army to seize her, so Beatrice placed herself and her daughter in a safe fortress in Aix, secured the trust of its people then sent to the Pope for his protection.  The Pope was also a target for Frederick's military incursions in France.  In Cluny during December 1245, a secret discussion, between Pope Innocent IV, Louis IX of France, his mother Blanche of Castile, and his brother Charles of Anjou, took place. It was decided that in return for Louis IX supporting the Pope militarily, the Pope would allow Charles of Anjou, youngest brother to the French King, to marry Beatrice of Provence.  Mother and daughter were satisfied with this selection. But Provence was to never go to France outright through Charles. It was agreed that if Charles and Beatrice had children, the county would go to them; if there was no issue, then the county would go to Sanchia of Provence. If Sanchia died without an heir, Provence would go to the King of Aragon.
  Henry protested the selection, arguing that he had not yet received the full dowry for Eleanor nor his brother for Sanchia.  He also still had the castles in Provence against the loan he had made to the former count. 
  When Charles took over the administration of Provence in 1246, he did not respect Beatrice's rights within the county. She sought the aid of Barral of Baux and the Pope in protecting her rights within the area. The citizens of Marseille, Avignon, and Arles joined this resistance to Capetian control.  In 1248, Charles began to seek peace with her so that he could join his brother's crusade. A temporary truce was reached to allow this.
  In 1248, she travelled back to England with her brother Thomas, to see their family there.
  In 1254, as Louis was returning from his crusade by way of Provence, Beatrice petitioned him for a more permanent resolution of the dispute with Charles.  The French queen Margaret joined the petition, noting that Charles had not respected her dowry either. Beatrice travelled with them back to Paris.  As the year progressed, Henry and his wife were invited to travel to Paris, and eventually all four daughters joined their mother there for Christmas.
  The generally good relationship among the four sisters did much to improve the relationship of the French and English kings. It brought about the Treaty of Paris in 1259, where differences were resolved. Beatrice and all her four daughters participated in the talks. While the family was still gathered, Louis IX finally persuaded Beatrice to surrender her claims and control in Provence in exchange for a sizeable pension to be paid to her. Charles also paid back the loan henry had made to the previous count, clearing his claims in the county.
  In 1262, Beatrice was part of the family discussion to try again to bring peace between Henry and Simon de Montfort.  When Henry was captured in 1264, Beatrice's brother Peter II, Count of Savoy took his army to join the efforts to free the king.  He left Beatrice in charge of Savoy while he was gone.
  Beatrice outlived her third daughter Sanchia and came close to outliving her youngest daughter Beatrice, who died months after her mother (Beatrice the elder died in January, Beatrice the younger died in September). Beatrice of Savoy died on 1265 or 1266–1267. ·
caption: Statue of Beatrice of Savoy in Les Échelles (Savoy, France)
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FH8", "Image Orientation": "Rotated 90 CW", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2016:11:12 21:26:04", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "714", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D3": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Rotated 90 CW", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "11764", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4703", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "31/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:11:12 21:26:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:11:12 21:26:04", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "209/64", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "32/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4608", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "10816", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}