SeaCastle Magazine SeacastleMagazine n.2 agosto 2017 | Page 21

LE DONNE DELLA NOSTRA STORIA / WOMEN OF OUR PAST
S
he was a powerful woman,
endowed by obstinacy, strong
will and great managerial skills. She
belonged to the Rosso Spatafora
House and was the heiress of the
County of Sclafani and the barony of
Caltavoturo. In 1464 she married Carlo
De Luna Count of Caltabellotta who
also owned the castle and the Barony
of Castellammare, the “Loader”
belonged to his brother Sigismondo
instead . Beatrice had been the
protagonist of a sensational event.
In 1473 she left her husband and
retired in her castle at Sclafani. When
her husband tried to reach her She
ordered to bar the doors of the castle,
refusing every further relationship
with him. The Count Carlo immediately
took a legal action against her, because
she had left him, asking he could have
the “pacific possession of his wife”.
As an answer Beatrice asked for the
annulment of the marriage because
it hadn’t been consummate for the
impotence of her husband.
On decision of the Court, The
countess was submitted to a medical
examination by seven honest and well
known midwives who, on oath over
the holy Gospels, stated that Beatrice
was still virgin. As a consequence the
Court annulled the marriage but, the
surprised had not finished yet. Two
weeks after the verdict the Countess
Beatrice signed a new wedding
contract with the former brother in
law Sigismondo De Luna. Beatrice
brought as a dowry the County of
Sclafani and Caltavuturo, Sigismondo
promised the future wife, in case of
dissolution of the marriage or if he
died first, the county of Bivona and the
port of Castellammare.
Sigismondo De Luna, however, couldn’t
enjoy his marriage for a long time. He
died 4 years later in 1480, when two
sons had already born. The Countess
Beatrice, according to the wedding
contract signed with her husband, at
his death became the owner of the
“Loader” of Castellammare.
The vicissitude of the Countess asks
different questions. Carlo De Luna was
really impotent or such a charge had
been built to mask Beatrice’s interest
in Sigismondo? Beatrice, forced to
marry a man she didn’t love, chose
the hard road of annulment of the
marriage to marry the man she had
fallen in love with? Such a behavior,
almost modern, by women was very
rare at that time.
It has been made a third hypothesis.
The failure of the marriage between
Carlo and Beatrice because of the
absence of children or the impotence
of the husband, brought to a crisis
the two among the most important
families for role and fortune in Sicily.
It probably was the same house of De
Luna, with the approval of the King, to
impose on Beatrice the duty to marry
the former brother in law Sigismondo .
The whole operation had a hidden
director: Pietro De Luna Archbishop
of Messina, Carlo and Sigismondo’s
brother and a very influential person
at Court.
It’s very interesting to follow the next
events of Countess Beatrice. She had
such a prestige that Gaspare Spes ,
appointed life Viceroy in Sicily, asked
her as his wife (1483). The countess
brought as a dowry the “Loader” of
Castellammare. She skillfully managed
the trade of grain, assuring regular
supplying of grain from her “Loader”
to Catalonia.
She was not involved in the successive
vicissitudes of Gaspare Spes who was
discharged and deprived of all his
possessions in 1488.
S ea C astle M agazine 21