Béatrix de Cusance, Baroness of Belvoir, was the second wife of Charles IV, former reigning Duke of Lorraine.
Background
She was the second child and first daughter of Claude-François de Cusance (1590–1627), Baron de Belvoir and de Saint-Julien, an officer in the Spanish Netherlands, and of Ernestine van Witthem (before 1588–1649), Comtesse de Walhain and Vicomtesse de Sébourg. To avoid a scandal, her mother arranged a marriage to Leopold-Eugène Perrenot de Granvelle, Prince de Cantecroix (1615–1637), whom she married in 1635.
Career
She was a correspondent of Constantijn Huygens. She was raised in Besançon and at the Brussels court of Isabella Clara Eugenia, regent of the Spanish Netherlands. In 1634, she became the mistress of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, who was at the time in the service of Spain.
Six months after the ceremony she gave birth to a boy, whom Charles acknowledged.
The boy, Joseph, died in February 1638. Béatrix accompanied Charles on his military campaigns, wearing armour over her dress.
Béatrix lived in Brussels, where she hosted a salon and arranged concerts as one of the city"s leading social figures. In 1652 she became acquainted with Constantijn Huygens, who dedicated to her some of his work and with whom she corresponded.
In 1652–1660, she lived in several places in the Spanish Netherlands.
She is described as a witty beauty, and Pope Alexander VII referred to her as the most beautiful woman of the century. In 1654, Charles IV was imprisoned in Spain. When he returned to Lorraine in 1659, Béatrix left the Netherlands to join him.
However, he did not wish to see her and they did not resume their relationship.
She died two weeks after this second marriage. Charles married a fourth time at the age of 61.
The bride was Marie Louise d"Aspremont (1652–1692), the eighteen-year-old daughter of Charles d"Aspremont-Lynden, Count of Rekem, and Marie Françoise de Mailly. Béatrix de Granvelle (1636 - died young).
Joseph de Lorraine (October 1637 - February 1638).
Charles Henri de Lorraine (17 April 1649 - 14 January 1723), Prince de Vaudémont and Commercy.