Bianca Lancia
Bianca Lancia d'Agliano (also called Beatrice, – ), was an Italian noblewoman. She was the mistress and later, possibly the last wife of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II. The marriage was conducted while she was on her deathbed, therefore it was considered non-canonical. Origins and name The exact filiation and even the name of King Manfred's mother, traditionally called Bianca Lancia, are unknown. Historians have different versions about the identification of her parents, there was no clarity among contemporaries either: Salimbene di Adam mentioned Manfred's mother three times and could not unambiguously choose between "sister" and "niece" ("sister's daughter") of Manfred II Lancia. According to the Genoese annals of the time, Annales ianuenses, she was "the daughter of donna Bianca, daughter of the late Marquis of Lancia". Tommaso Tosco in 1279 wrote the Manfred was born "from the sister of the Marquis of Lancia, who was the daughter of donna Bianca". Thus, the chroniclers mentioned her maternal origin from the Lancia family, and the name Bianca was called not by Manfred's mother, but by his maternal grandmother. The family received the surname Lancia because Manfred I (fl. 1160–1214), the alleged grandfather or father of Manfred's mother, has been lancifer (pikeman) of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The first indication of the name Bianca in relation to Manfred's mother goes back to Bartholomew of Neocastro, who wrote only 40 years after Manfred's death. Perhaps the name Bianca was borne by two women: the daughter of the Marquis Manfred I and his granddaughter, the daughter of the first Bianca. In the Lancia family, the repetition of names was a tradition. The same confusion among the chroniclers was caused by the name Manfred in three generations of men in the family. Tommaso Tosco also expressed the popular hypothesis that Emperor Frederick II could have had a relationship with both the elder Bianca and her two daughters, one being Manfred's mother. Contemporary chroniclers do not mention Manfred's mother's father, which means that his origin is less noble than that of his mother. Even Manfred in 1247 is called "Manfred Lancia" in a document. Niccolò di Jamsilla, who lived at the court of Manfred, mentions that his maternal relatives were the Counts of Agliano, and this may indicate Bianca's father, Bonifazio d'Agliano. It is assumed that Manfred's mother was born around 1210. It may have happened in Agliano Terme (Piedmont), the family's estate. Life Bianca lived most of her life at the Castello di Brolo, the ancestral seat of the Lancia family. It is not known when her relationship with Frederick II began and how long it lasted. It is widely believed that her meeting with the Emperor took place in 1225, when he married Isabella II of Jerusalem. According to Renato Bordone, it is unlikely that the Emperor met her in Agliano in 1225; in fact their meeting would have taken place between 1226 and 1230 in Sicily. In any case, the children of Bianca and Frederick II were born in the period after the death