Beatrice de Montfort, Countess of Montfort-l'Amaury

Beatrice de Montfort, Countess of Montfort-l'Amaury (c. December 1248/1249- 9 March 1312) was the wife of Robert IV of Dreux Count of Dreux (1241- 12 November 1282), and the ancestress of the Dukes of Brittany.

Family

Beatrice was born sometime between December 1248 and 1249, the only child of Jean I de Montfort, Count of Dreux and Jeanne, Dame de Chateaudun. Her paternal grandparents were Amaury VI, Count of Montfort and Beatrice of Burgundy. Her maternal grandparents were Geoffrey VI, Viscount de Chateaudun and Clemence des Roches. Her great- grandfather Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester was a prominent leader of the Albigensian Crusade.

In 1249, Beatrice's father died in Cyprus, while participating in the Seventh Crusade, leaving her mother a widow. In 1251, Jeanne married secondly Jean de Brienne, Grand Butler of France, by whom she had a daughter Blanche de Brienne, Baroness Tingry (1252- 1302) who married William II de Fiennes, Baron of Tingry. [Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, p.155]

Jeanne died sometime after 1252, leaving her two daughters as her co-heiresses.

Marriage

Beatrice was married to Robert IV of Dreux, Count of Dreux, Braine and Montfort- l'Amaury in 1260, when she was about 11 years old. He was the son of John I of Dreux, Count of Dreux and Braine, and Marie de Bourbon. The marriage produced six children. Robert inherited the titles of Dreux and Braine following the death of his father in 1249, and after his marriage succeeded to the title of de Montfort by right of his wife.

List of children

# Marie of Dreux (1261/62- 1276), in 1275 married Mathieu de Montmorency.
# Yolande de Dreux (1263- 1323), married firstly on 15 October 1285 King Alexander III of Scotland, and secondly in 1292 Arthur II, Duke of Brittany. By her second husband she was the mother of seven children.
# John II of Dreux (1265- 1309), Count of Dreux and Braine. Fought at the Battle of the Golden Spurs. He married firstly Jeanne de Beaujeu, Dame de Montpensier (died 1308), by whom he had four sons and one daughter. In 1308, he married secondly Perrenelle de Sully, by whom he had a daughter Jeanne II, Countess of Dreux (1309- c.1355).
# Jeanne of Dreux, Countess of Braine, married firstly Jean IV de Roucy, and secondly John of Bar.
# Beatrice of Dreux, Abbess of Pont-Royal (1270- 1328)
# Robert of Dreux, seigneur of Chateau-du-Loire.

Death

Beatrice died on 9 March 1312 at the age of 63. She was buried in the Abbaye de Haute- Bruyère. [ Charles Cawley "Medieval Lands"] Duke John V of Brittany and French Queen consort Anne of Brittany were included amongst her notable descendants.

References

#Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham, and David Faris, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Royal Ancestry series, p. 155, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, Md., 2004
# Charles Cawley Medieval Lands