Statue of Jeanne d'Albret, the Reines de France et Femmes in Paris.
https://www.amazon.com/Jeanne-dAlbret-Letters-Declaration-MEDIEVAL/dp/086698545X/?tag=2022091-20
Jeanne d'Albret was born on 16 November 1328, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Jeanne's father, Henry II d'Albret, never lost hope of regaining Upper Navarre, confiscated by Spain in 1512. Her mother, Marguerite d'Angouleme, a sister of Francis I of France, was a patron of the Reformers.
Jeanne d'Albret was educated by a humanist scholar with unorthodox religious ideas, which no doubt predisposed her to Calvinism.
At age twenty she was married to Antoine de Bourbon, first prince of the blood, whose lineage placed him in the front ranks of those eligible for the French crown if the Valois line failed. She became the queen of Navarre.
Antoine de Bourbon was killed in combat the same year that the Wars of Religion (1562-1598) began. With his death, Jeanne became, on behalf of her nine-year-old son, ruler of the last great French feudal state. From that time on she involved herself more and more openly in battle, aligning herself against Catherine de Medici, who was to a certain extent her counterpart on the Catholic side.
From 1562 she had as an adversary Monluc, who was charged by Catherine de Medici with maintaining order in Guyenne. Monluc was eager to invade Bearn and also publicly declared his desire to find out "if it was as good to go to bed with queens as with other women." But Jeanne escaped from him and after 1563 slowly imposed Calvinism in her kingdom, despite having to subdue a number of rebellions. Confronted with increased threats from France against herself and her son, she took refuge in 1568 at La Rochelle, where with Conde she directed the war against the army of King Charles IX. When Conde was killed in combat at Jarnac in 1569, she became the true leader of the Protestants, even if officially her young son Henry of Navarre and Henry of Conde (under the authority of Coligny) were chiefs. That same year she repulsed an attempted invasion of her kingdom by the Catholics, and despite the Peace of Saint-Germain, the Protestants remained on a war footing.
At the beginning of 1572, Jeanne agreed to the marriage of her son to Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Catherine de Medici and sister of Charles IX. Jeanne traveled to Paris for the ceremony, but died there of tuberculosis two months before the celebration of the marriage. One rumor, revived and augmented by Alexandre Dumas in Queen Margot (1845), made Catherine de Medici responsible for her death by the agency of poisoned gloves. As for Henry, he escaped the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (24 August 1572) by agreeing to convert to Catholicism. He remained essentially a prisoner at court until 1576 but later prevailed against his competitors and reigned as King Henry IV.
Jeanne publicly declared her conversion to Protestantism in 1560, imposed the same on her son, Henry (later king of France), and founded a Calvinist community at Béarn.
She made Protestantism made it the official religion in her kingdom of Navarre.
Like her mother, Jeanne was a skilled author and enjoyed writing poetry. She also wrote her memoirs in which she justified her actions as leader of the Huguenots.
Quotes from others about the person
Agrippa d'Aubigne: "Jeanne is a woman only in body, her entire soul is manly, her heart invincible to adversity."
At the age of twelve, Jeanne became a pawn in the game of international diplomacy: her uncle, Francis I, king of France, arranged a marriage to which Jeanne strenuously objected; when the king’s foreign policy aims shifted, she was granted an annulment. In 1548, she married a suitor of her own choosing, Antoine de Bourbon. Two years after she gave birth to her son Henry.
(18 April 1503 – 25 May 1555)
(28 July 1516 – 5 January 1592)
In 1541 Jeanne married William, I of Cleves. Their marriage was annulled in 1545, with no children.
(22 April 1518 – 17 November 1562)
It was reported that Jeanne was much in love with him, but his subsequent actions show that he had little loyalty to her.
(13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610)
Henry IV was the first monarch in the Bourbon dynasty, which ruled France until the French Revolution of 1789. One of France's most popular leaders, Henry united the country after the Wars of Religion in the late 1500s and helped bring peace between Catholics and Protestants in France.
(7 February 1559 – 13 February 1604)
