Jeanne d'Albret (Spanish: Juana de Albret; Basque: Joana Albretekoa; Occitan: Joana de Labrit; 16 November 1528 – 9 June 1572), also known as Jeanne III, was Queen of Navarre from 1555 to 1572.
Jeanne was the daughter of Henry II of Navarre and Margaret of Angoulême (and thus the niece of Francis I of France). In 1541, she married William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. The marriage was annulled in 1545. Jeanne married a second time in 1548, to Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme. They had two surviving children, Henry and Catherine.
When her father died in 1555, Jeanne and Antoine ascended the Navarrese throne. They reigned as joint rulers until Antoine died in 1562 from wounds suffered while besieging Protestant-held Rouen during the French Wars of Religion.
After her public conversion to Calvinism in 1560, however, Jeanne had become the acknowledged spiritual and political leader of the French Huguenot movement and thus a key figure on the opposing side to that of her husband in the French Wars of Religion. During the first and second war she remained relatively neutral, but in the third war she fled to La Rochelle, becoming the de facto leader of the Huguenot-controlled city. After negotiating a peace treaty with the French queen mother Catherine de' Medici and arranging the marriage of her son to Catherine's daughter Marguerite, Jeanne died suddenly in Paris. Her son, Henry, succeeded her first as Henry III of Navarre, and then later as Henry IV of France, the first Bourbon king of France.
Jeanne was the last active ruler of Navarre. Her son inherited her kingdom, but as he was constantly leading the Huguenot forces, he entrusted the government of Béarn to his sister, Catherine, who held the regency for more than two decades. In 1620, Jeanne's grandson Louis XIII annexed Navarre to the French crown.
Early years and first marriage
Jeanne was born in the royal palace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, at five o'clock in the afternoon on 16 November 1528, the daughter of Henry II, King of Navarre, by his wife Marguerite of Angoulême. Her mother, the daughter of Louise of Savoy and Charles, Count of Angoulême, was the sister of Francis I of France and had previously been married to Charles IV, Duke of Alençon. She was also a writer of some talent.
Jeanne's birth was officially announced the following January 7, when King Francis gave his permission for the addition of a new master in all cities where there were incorporated guilds "in honour of the birth of Jeanne de Navarre, the king's niece". Since the age of two, as was the will of her uncle King Francis who took over her education, Jeanne was raised in the Château de Plessis-lèz-Tours in the Loire Valley (Touraine), thus living apart from her parents. She received an excellent education under the tutelage of humanist Nicolas Bourbon.
Described as a "frivolous and high-spirited princess", she also, at an early age, displayed a tendency to be both stubborn and unyielding. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V offered to have her married to his son and heir, Philip, to settle the status of the Kingdom of Navarre. On 13 June 1541, when Jeanne was 12, Francis I, for political reasons, forced her to marry William "the Rich", Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, who was the brother of Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England. Despite having been whipped into obedience, she nevertheless continued to protest and had to be carried bodily to the altar by the Constable of France, Anne de Montmorency. A description of Jeanne's appearance at her wedding revealed that she was sumptuously attired, wearing a golden crown, a silver and gold skirt encrusted with precious stones, and a crimson satin cloak richly trimmed with ermine. Before her wedding, Jeanne signed two documents which she had officers of her household sign, declaring: "I, Jeanne de Navarre, persisting in the protestations I have already made, do hereby again affirm and protest by these present, that the marriage which it is desired to contract between the duke of Cleves and myself, is against my will; that I have never consented to it, nor will consent..."
Four years later, after the duke signed an agreement with Charles V to end his alliance with France in return for the Duchy of Guelders, the marriage was annulled on the grounds that it had not been consummated and that Jeanne had to be forcibly married against her will. She remained at the royal court.
After the death of Francis in 1547 and the accession of Henry II to the French throne, Jeanne married Antoine de Bourbon, "first prince of the blood", at Moulins in the Bourbonnais on 20 October 1548. The marriage was intended to consolidate territorial possessions in the north and south of France.
Jeanne's marriage to Antoine was described by author Mark Strage as having been a "romantic match". A contemporary of Jeanne said of her that she had
no pleasure or occupation except in talking about or writing to [her husband]. She does it in company and in private… the waters cannot quench the flame of her love".
Antoine was a notorious philanderer. In 1554, he fathered an illegitimate son, Charles, by Louise de La Béraudière de l'Isle Rouhet, a court beauty known as "La belle Rouet".
The couple had five children, of whom only two, Henry IV, king of France (1589 to 1610) and king of Navarre (1572 to 1610), and Catherine de Bourbon, lived to adulthood.
On 25 May 1555, Henry II of Navarre died, at which time Jeanne and her husband became joint rulers of Navarre. On accession to the throne, she inherited a conflict over Navarre and an independent territorial hold on Lower Navarre, Soule, and the principality of Béarn, as well as other dependencies under the suzerainty of the crown of France.
On 18 August 1555 at Pau, Jeanne and Antoine were crowned in a joint ceremony according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The previous month, a coronation coin commemorating the new reign had been minted. It was inscribed in Latin with the following words: Antonius et Johanna Dei gratia reges Navarrae Domini Bearni (Antoine and Jeanne, by the grace of God, monarchs of Navarre and lords of Béarn). Antoine's frequent absences left Jeanne in Béarn to rule alone and in complete charge of a household which she managed with a firm and resolute hand.
Jeanne was influenced by her mother, who died in 1549, with leanings toward religious reform, humanist thinking, and individual liberty. This legacy was influential in her decision to convert to Calvinism. In the first year of her reign, Queen Jeanne III called a conference of beleaguered Protestant Huguenot ministers. She later declared Calvinism the official religion of her kingdom after publicly embracing the teachings of John Calvin on Christmas Day 1560. This conversion made her the highest-ranking Protestant in France. She became designated as an enemy of the Counter-Reformation mounted by the Catholic Church.