Jeanne d'Albret: Biography, Facts and Career

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.

Quick facts about Jeanne d'Albret

• Full name: Jeanne d'Albret
• Born: 1528-01-07
• Nationality: Kingdom of Navarre beyond the Pyrenees
• Known as: Author
• Wikidata ID: Q229286

Profile compiled from public Wikipedia and Wikidata data. Details can change over time.