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- BIOGRAPHY
Beatrice d'Anjou was born about 1252, the second daughter of Charles I Etienne, king of Naples and Sicily, and Beatrice de Provence.
Under the Treaty of Viterbo of 27 May 1267, Baudouin II de Courtenay, emperor of Constantinople, transferred much of the rights to the Latin empire to Beatrice's father Charles I Etienne. He was to be confirmed in possession of Corfu and some cities in Albania. He was also given sovereignty over the principality of Achaea and of the Aegean Islands, excepting those held by Venice and Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Amorgos. The same treaty arranged the marriage of Baudouin II's son Philippe de Courtenay, heir apparent to the Latin empire, to Beatrice. If the marriage was childless, Philippe's rights would be inherited by Charles I Etienne. Beatrice was about fifteen at the time of her betrothal.
On 15 October 1273 Beatrice and Philippe were married in Foggia. The bride was twenty-one-years old and the groom thirty. Her father-in-law died days later. Philippe was proclaimed emperor with Beatrice as his empress. Catherine, their only known child, was born in 1274. She would have progeny, marrying Charles, comte de Valois. Beatrice died between 17 November and 12 December 1275. Her husband survived her by eight years but never remarried.
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