A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Albret, Jeanne d'

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ALBRET, JEANNE D',

Daughter of Henry d'Albret, king of Navarre, and his wife, the illustrious Margaret of Navarre, sister of Francis the First of France, ranks high among women distinguished for their great qualities. In 1539, when Jeanne was only eleven, she was married, against her own and her parents' wishes, to the duke of Cleves, by her uncle Francis, who feared lest her father should give her in marriage to Philip, son of the emperor of Germany, Charles the Fifth. The nuptials were never completed, and were soon declared null and void by the pope, through the intercession of the king of Navarre.

In October, 1548, Jeanne was" again married, at Moulins, to Antoine de Bourbon, duke de Vendome, to whom she bore two sons, who died in their infancy. Her third son, afterwards Henry the Fourth of France, was born at Pau, in Navarre, December 15th. 1553. The king of Navarre, from some whimsical ideas respecting the future character of the child, had promised his daughter to show her his will, which she was anxious to see, if, during the pangs of childbirth, she would sing a Bearnaise song. This Jeanne promised to do, and she performed her engagement, singing, in the language of Bearn, a song commencing—

"Notre Dame du bout du pont, aidez moi en cette heure."

On the death of her father, May 25th. 1655, Jeanne became queen of Navarre. Like her mother, she was the protectress of the reformed religion, of which, it is believed, she would, with her husband, have made a public profession, but for the menaces of Henry the Second of France, and the pope. In 1668, in consequence of the dangers that threatened them, they were compelled to make a visit to the court of France, leaving their son and their kingdom under the joint care of Susanne de Bourbon, wife to Jean D'Albret, and Louis d'Albret, bishop of Lescar. About this time, Jeanne, young, gay, and lovely, began to display less zeal than her husband in the cause of the reformers. Fond of amusements, and weary of preaching and praying, she remonstrated with her husband respecting the consequences of his zeal, which might prove the ruin of his estates. Eventually, however, Jeanne became the protectress of Calvinism, which her husband not merely renounced, but persecuted the reformers, gained over by the stratagems of Catharine de Medicis and by advantages proposed to him by Philip the Second, and the court of Rome. Jeanne resisted the entreaties of her husband, and, resenting his ill-treatment of the reformers, she retired from France.

In November, 1562, the king of Navarre died of a wound he received at the siege of Rouen, regretting, on his death-bed, his change of religion, and declaring his resolution, if he lived, of espousing more zealously than ever the cause of the Reformation. On the following Christmas, the queen made a public proclamation of her faith, and abolished popery throughout her dominions. At the same time, she fortified Beam against the Spaniards, who, it was reported, were plotting to surprise the city. The offices of the Roman Catholic church were prohibited throughout Bearn, its altars overthrown, and its images destroyed. Twenty ministers were recalled to instruct the people in their own language, academies were established, and the affairs of the state, both civil and ecclesiastical, were regulated by the queen.

In 1563, Jeanne had been cited to Rome by the pope; the Inquisition, in case of her non-appearance, declared her lands and lordships confiscated, and her person subjected to the penalties appointed for heresy. But the court of France revoked the citation, conceiving it militated against the liberties of the Gallican church. By the insurrections of her Roman Catholic subjects, Jeanne was kept in continual alarm; but, holding the reins of government with a vigorous hand, she rendered all their projects abortive.

In 1568, she left her dominions to join the chiefs of the Protestant party. She mortgaged her jewels to raise money for the troops, and going, with her young son, Henry, devoted from his birth to the cause of the Reformation, to Rochelle, she assembled and harangued the troops; and addressed letters to foreign princes, and particularly to the queen of England, imploring their pity and assistance.

In the meantime, the Roman Catholics of Beam, assisted by Charles the Ninth, taking advantage of the absence of the queen, seized on the greater part of the country of which, however, the count de Montgomery dispossessed them, and violated the articles of capitulation, by causing several of the leaders of the insurrection to be put to death. This breach of honour and humanity admits of no excuse.

An alliance was proposed, between Henry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois, sister of Charles the Ninth, to which, by specious offers and pretences, Jeanne was induced to lend an ear; having taken a journey to Paris for the preparation of these inauspicious nuptials, she was seized with a sudden illness, and, not without suspicions of poison, expired soon alter, June 10th. 1572, in the forty-fourth year of her age.

She was accustomed to say, "that arms once taken up should never be laid down, but upon one of three conditions—a safe peace, a complete victory, or an honorable death." Her daughter, Catharine, wife of the duke de Bar, continued a Protestant all her life. Jeanne possessed a strong and vigorous understanding, a cultivated mind, and an acquaintance with the languages. She left several compositions in prose and verse.