by the destruction of Milan, and the ignominious punishment of the inhabitants.
BEATRICE,
Of Provence, daughter of Raymond Berenger, count of Provence, married, in 1245, Charles, son of Louis the Eighth of France, who was afterwards crowned king of Naples and Sicily. She died at Nocisa.
BEATRICE PORTINARI,
Is celebrated as the beloved of Dante, the Italian poet She was born at Florence, and was very beautiful. The death of her noble father, Folca Portinari, in 1289, is said to have hastened her own. The history of Beatrice may be considered as an affection of Dante—in that lies its sole interest. All that can be authenticated of her is that she was a beautiful and virtuous woman. She died in 1290, aged twenty-four; and yet she still lives in Dante's immortal poem, of which her memory was the inspiration.
It was in his transport of enthusiastic love that Dante conceived the idea of the Divina Commedia," his great poem, of which Beatrice was destined to be the heroine. Thus to the inspiration of a young, lovely, and noble-minded woman, we owe one of the grandest efforts of human genius.
BEAUFORT, JOAN,
Queen of Scotland, was the eldest daughter of John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, (son of John of Gaunt,) and of Margaret, daughter of the earl of Kent
She was seen by James, sometimes called the Royal Poet, son of Robert the Third, king of Scotland, while he was detained a prisoner in the Tower of London, and he fell passionately in love with her. On his release in 1423, after nineteen years of captivity, he married Joan, and went with her to Edinburgh, where they were crowned. May 22nd., 1424. In 1430, Joan became the mother of James, afterwards James the Second of Scotland.
She possessed a great deal of influence, which she always exercised on the side of mercy and gentleness. In 1437, the queen received information of a conspiracy formed against the life of her husband, and hastened to Roxburgh, where he then was, to warn him of his danger. The king immediately took refuge with his wife in the Dominican abbey, near Perth; but the conspirators, having bribed a domestic, found their way into the room. The queen threw herself between them and her husband, but in rain; after receiving two wounds, she was torn from the arms of James the First, who was murdered, February 21st., 1437.
Joan married a second time, James Stewart, called the Black Knight, son to the lord of Lorne, to whom she bore a son, afterwards earl of Athol. She died in 1446, and was buried at Perth, near the body of the king, her first husband.
BEAUFORT, MARGARET,
Countess of Richmond and Derby, was the only daughter and heiress of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset, (grandson to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster,) by Margaret Beauchamp, his wife. She was born at Bletshoe, in Bedfordshire, in 1441. While very
