Beatrice of Portugal ( or – 1382) was Countess of Alburquerque as the wife of Sancho Alfonso of Alburquerque. She was the daughter of Peter I of Portugal and his second wife Inês de Castro, and the paternal aunt of Beatrice, Queen of Castile.
Life Sources disagree on Beatrice's birth year, giving either 1351 or 1354.
Beatrice's entitlement to be considered an Infanta of Portugal is debated, and modern scholarship is not consistent on the question. Historian César Olivera Serrano describes her at one point as an illegitimate ("bastarda") daughter of Peter I, while elsewhere in the same work referring to her as "the Infanta Beatriz" without addressing the distinction.
On 12 June 1360, five years after inheriting the throne, Peter I declared before witnesses in Cantanhede that he had secretly married Inês de Castro around seven years earlier. Two further witnesses corroborated the claim six days later in Coimbra. According to the chronicler Fernão Lopes, many present did not believe the declaration. Peter subsequently petitioned Pope Innocent VI to ratify the marriage and legitimize his children by Inês. The Pope's reply declined the request, stating that the Holy See did not customarily grant such dispensations except to great and noble persons.
Peter I dictated his will at the Monastery of São Francisco in Estremoz late on Sunday 17 January 1367 and died in the early hours of 18 January. Peter ordered that the Quinta de Canidelo, which had belonged to Inês de Castro, be delivered to her children.. He bequeathed Beatrice 100,000 libras "for her marriage" , more than any of his other children received individually. His daughter Maria, then in Aragon, received 20,000 libras, and Beatrice's brothers João and Dinis received 20,000 libras each. Ferdinand was named heir to the other goods of the kingdom and headed the will's eight executors. The other seven were João Afonso (count of Barcelos), the prior of the Order of the Hospital, the master of the Order of Christ, the master of the Order of Santiago, João Esteves, Gonçalo Vasques (the king's privy scribe) and Friar Vicente Amado (his Franciscan confessor).
Beatrice married Sancho de Alburquerque, a half-brother of Henry II of Castile, as one of three matches arranged between the Portuguese and Castilian royal families under the 1373 . The couple received the lordship of Alburquerque. Sancho died the following year, in 1374, during a brawl in Burgos. The marriage produced one legitimate daughter, Eleanor of Alburquerque, later Queen of Aragon. Sancho also fathered an illegitimate daughter, who became prioress of the convent of Sancti Spiritus in Toro and remained in contact with her half-sister Eleanor. Beatrice died in 1382 and was buried in Burgos Cathedral.
Children Beatrice and Sancho Alfonso of Alburquerque had one legitimate daughter from her marriage:
Eleanor of Alburquerque (–). Married Ferdinand I of Aragon.
It was rumored that she also had an illegitimate daughter from an incestuous relationship with her half-brother, Ferdinand I Isabel of Portugal, Lady of Viseu (c. 1364 – 4 April 1435). Married Alfonso Enríquez, Count of Gijón and Noreña, natural son of Henry II of Castile.
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