Bianca Lancia – The Emperor’s secret wife




Miniature from the Codex Manesse - Sometimes identified as Bianca and Frederick (public domain)

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, had married three times for political reasons. However, according to legend, there was one woman he truly loved: Bianca Lancia.

Origin

Not much is known of Bianca’s origins. She came from the Lancia family, which was from the Aleramici dynasty and one of Northern Italy’s most powerful families. Her exact paternity is unknown, but many believe her father was named Boniface of Agliano. Her mother might have been named Bianca Maletta. Bianca is thought to have been born around the year 1210. Like most royal mistresses, Bianca is described to have been very beautiful.

Bianca and the Emperor 

Bianca and Emperor Frederick are believed to have met around 1225 while he was travelling around Italy. Others suggest that they might have met later, perhaps between 1226 and 1230. When Frederick met Bianca, he was probably married to his second wife, Isabella II of Jerusalem. (His first wife was Constance of Aragon.)  It is not known when Frederick and Bianca’s affair started, but she does not seem to have started to bear children until after Isabella’s death in 1228. Bianca and Frederick had three children together: two daughters, Constance and Violente, and a son named Manfred. The children were probably born between 1230 and 1233.

In 1235, Frederick married his third wife, Isabella of England, but he seems to have kept Bianca as his concubine. Bianca is usually regarded as Frederick’s favourite mistress, and some even believe she was his true love. She was given Mount Saint Angelo, the traditional dower of Sicilian queens, and her relatives were later granted fiefs in Sicily.

According to the chroniclers, Matthew Paris and Salimbene di Adam, Frederick and Bianca only married when she was dying. Due to the seven-year gap between his second wife’s death, and third marriage, some believe that Bianca’s marriage and death happened during this time, and Isabella of England was Frederick’s fourth wife. However, it seems most likely that Bianca outlived Isabella, and married and died in the 1240s. In 1247, their son Manfred was referred to as Manfred Lancia, indicating that he was illegitimate and his parents were not yet married. However, when Frederick wrote his will in 1250, he recognised Manfred as a legitimate son.

According to the chronicler Matthew Paris, Bianca, who was seriously ill or pretending to be so, begged Frederick to marry her for the salvation of her soul and the future of their children. Since Manfred was still considered illegitimate in April 1247, it is believed the marriage took place after this date. Whether she was ill or not, Bianca predeceased Frederick. When Frederick died in December 1250, he granted the castle of Mount Saint Angelo, which usually went to Sicily’s widowed queens, to Manfred rather than Bianca, suggesting that she had died by then. Her marriage seems to have benefited her children; Manfred later became King of Sicily, and her daughter, Constance, married the Byzantine Emperor. Bianca seems to have never been crowned as Queen of Sicily and the Romans, but she is referred to as so occasionally. The relationship between Bianca and Frederick is believed to have lasted for about twenty years.

Legend

Although not much was recorded of Bianca in her lifetime, her prominent position as Frederick’s mistress gave rise to many legends. According to a later legend, Frederick believed she was unfaithful to him, and imprisoned her in a tower of the Castello Normano-Svevo. The story says that she was pregnant with Manfred at the time, and Frederick thought that a page was the real father. Once Bianca had given birth, she cut her breasts off and sent them with the baby to Frederick. Frederick then believed that he had been mistaken, and rushed to the tower and found Bianca bleeding to death. He then quickly married her there before she died. After that, it is said that Bianca’s screams could be heard in the castle every night.

Sources:

Alio, Jacqueline; Queens of Sicily, 1061-1266

Hoffmann-Becking, Dirk; History of the Germans Podcast: Episode 83- The Court of Frederick II






About CaraBeth 62 Articles
I love reading and writing about the royals of medieval Europe- especially the women. My interest was first started by the Plantagenet dynasty, but I decided to dive deeper, and discovered that there were many more fascinating royal dynasties in medieval Europe. Other dynasties I like reading and writing about are; the Capets, and their Angevin branch in Naples and Hungary, the Luxembourgs, the early Hapsburgs, the Arpads, the Piasts, the Premyslids and many more!

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