ALBRET, Jeanne D'

(1528-1572)

Queen of Navarre and mother of France's monarch Henri IV, Jeanne d'Albret was a champion of Calvinism in both France and Navarre. The only surviving child of Henri d'Albret and Marguerite de Navarre,* Jeanne d'Albret was born on 16 November 1528. Throughout her early life, Jeanne remained a pawn in the political struggles between her father and her uncle, Francois I,* the king of France, concerning Henri's desire to reestablish Navarre as a separate country. After much political wrangling and one dissolved marriage to the duke of Cleves, in 1548 Jeanne married Antoine de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme, heir to the French throne in the event that the king had no sons. The couple had only two children who survived infancy, Henri and Catherine.

Upon her father's death in 1555, Jeanne became queen of Navarre, and through her insistence, Antoine was made king. The two of them continued Henri's attempts to establish Navarre as a separate country, but gradually Jeanne became committed to a new cause, Calvinism, to which she converted openly in 1560. Her mother, Marguerite, although Catholic, had been known for her beliefs in reform and for her protection of Protestant leaders. Jeanne was to eclipse her mother's role and become one of the leaders of the Calvinist move­ment in France and Navarre.

Her influence as one of the highest-ranked Calvinists in France inspired many to convert to the new religion, and Jeanne aspired to make Navarre a Protestant country. Her decision led her into great difficulties with Catholic France and Spain, and when Pope Pius IV excommunicated Jeanne in 1563, only the ob­jections of Catherine de' Medici,* queen mother of France, who protested that the pope was transgressing on French sovereignty, protected her. In exchange for that aid, Jeanne was forced to make concessions that curtailed her personal and national independence.

When civil wars broke out in France between the Catholics and Protestants, Jeanne originally remained neutral. However, as pressure mounted on her sov­ereignty, she became one of the leaders of the third civil war, serving as both propagandist and military leader. Upon the war's ending, conditional on the marriage negotiations between Jeanne's son Henri and Marguerite de Valois,* the king's sister, Jeanne acted as a diplomat, working out the tortuous details of the peace and a marriage she opposed. The incredible strain of the negotia­tions weakened Jeanne, and she fell prey to one of the bouts of tuberculosis that had plagued her throughout her life; she died on 9 June 1572. Although rumors surfaced that Catherine de' Medici had her poisoned, the idea was almost uni­versally discredited. Her death was a great loss to the Protestant cause, and years later, in order to assume the French throne, her son Henri converted to Catholicism.

Bibliography

N. L. Roelker, Queen of Navarre: Jeanne d'Albret, 1528-1572, 1968.

Erin Sadlack