33 Facts About Jeanne d'Albret

Jeanne d'Albret, known as Jeanne III, was Queen of Navarre from 1555 to 1572.

Jeanne d'Albret married a second time in 1548, to Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome.

Jeanne d'Albret's son inherited her kingdom, but as he was constantly leading the Huguenot forces, he entrusted the government of Bearn to his sister, Catherine, who held the regency for more than two decades.

Since the age of two, as was the will of her uncle King Francis who took over her education, Jeanne d'Albret was raised in the Chateau de Plessis-lez-Tours in the Loire Valley, thus living apart from her parents.

Jeanne d'Albret received an excellent education under the tutelage of humanist Nicolas Bourbon.

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 d'Albret had to be forcibly married against her will.

Jeanne d'Albret was influenced by her mother, who died in 1549, with leanings toward religious reform, humanist thinking, and individual liberty.

Jeanne d'Albret later declared Calvinism the official religion of her kingdom after publicly embracing the teachings of John Calvin on Christmas Day 1560.

Jeanne d'Albret became designated as an enemy of the Counter-Reformation mounted by the Catholic Church.

Jeanne d'Albret commissioned the translation of the New Testament into Basque and Bearnese for the benefit of her subjects.

Jeanne d'Albret was described as "small of stature, frail but erect", her face was narrow, her eyes light-coloured, cold and unmoving, and her lips thin.

Agrippa d'Aubigne, the Huguenot chronicler, described Jeanne d'Albret as having "a mind powerful enough to guide the highest affairs".

The historian Mark Strage suggested that Jeanne d'Albret was one of Catherine's main detractors, contemptuously referring to her as the "Florentine grocer's daughter".

Catherine de' Medici, in an attempt to steer a middle course between the two warring factions, pleaded with Jeanne d'Albret to obey her husband for the sake of peace but to no avail.

Jeanne d'Albret stood her ground and staunchly refused to abandon the Calvinist religion, and continued to have Protestant services conducted in her apartments.

Jeanne d'Albret issued orders to Blaise de Lasseran-Massencome, seigneur de Montluc to have her arrested and returned to Paris where she would subsequently be sent to a Catholic convent.

Jeanne d'Albret resumed her journey after leaving Vendome and managed to elude her captors, safely passing over the frontier into Bearn before she could be intercepted by the seigneur de Montluc and his troops.

Jeanne d'Albret often brought him along on her many progresses through her domains to oversee administrative affairs.

Jeanne d'Albret refused an offer of matrimony issued by Philip II of Spain who had hoped to marry her to his son, on the condition that she return to the Catholic faith.

Jeanne d'Albret's response was to reply that "the authority of the Pope's legate is not recognised in Bearn".

Jeanne d'Albret was summoned to Rome to be examined for heresy under the triple penalty of excommunication, the confiscation of her property, and a declaration that her kingdom was available to any ruler who wished to invade it.

Jeanne d'Albret had visualised the province of Guyenne as a "Protestant homeland" and played a leading role in the military actions from 1569 to 1570 with the aim of seeing her dream come to fruition.

Jeanne d'Albret used her own jewellery as security in a loan obtained from Elizabeth I of England, and oversaw the well-being of the numerous refugees who sought shelter within La Rochelle.

Jeanne d'Albret often accompanied Admiral de Coligny to the battlefield where the fighting was at its most intense; together they inspected the defences and rallied the Huguenot forces.

Jeanne d'Albret established a religious seminary in La Rochelle, drawing the most learned Huguenot men in France within its walls.

Jeanne d'Albret established a loan of 20,000 livres from England, using her jewels as security, for the Huguenot cause.

That same year, as part of the conditions set out in the peace treaty, a marriage of convenience Jeanne d'Albret reluctantly agreed to was arranged between her son and King Charles IX's sister, Marguerite.

Jeanne d'Albret found the atmosphere at Chenonceaux corrupt and vicious, and wrote letters to her son advising him about the promiscuity of the young women at Catherine's court, whose forward and wanton behaviour with the courtiers scandalised Jeanne d'Albret's puritanical nature.

Jeanne d'Albret set up residence in Paris where she went on daily shopping trips to prepare for the upcoming wedding.

An autopsy proved that Jeanne d'Albret had died of natural causes.

Jeanne d'Albret was buried beside her husband at Ducal Church of collegiale Saint-Georges.

Jeanne d'Albret wrote her memoirs in which she justified her actions as leader of the Huguenots.

In 1541 Jeanne d'Albret married William, Duke of Julich-Berg-Ravensberg-Kleve-Mark, a marriage that was annulled in 1545 by Pope Paul III, with no children.