Joanna III of Navarre
| Jeanne III | |
|---|---|
Jeanne III of Navarre
painted by François Clouet, 1570 |
|
| Queen of Navarre | |
| Reign | 25 May 1555 – 9 June 1572 |
| Coronation | 18 August 1555 at Pau |
| Predecessor | Henry II |
| Successor | Henry III |
| Born | 16 November 1528 Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France |
| Died | 9 June 1572 (aged 43) Paris |
| Burial | Ducal Church of collégiale Saint-Georges, Vendôme |
| Spouse |
William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg Antoine, King of Navarre |
| Issue |
Henry IV, King of France Catherine de Bourbon |
| House | Albret |
| Father | Henry II, King of Navarre |
| Mother | Margaret of Angoulême |
| Religion | Reformed |
Jeanne d'Albret (Occitan: Joana de Labrit; Basque: Joana Albretekoa; 16 November 1528 – 9 June 1572), also known as Jeanne III, was the queen regnant of Navarre from 1555 to 1572. She married Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, and was the mother of Henry of Bourbon, who became King Henry III of Navarre and IV of France, the first Bourbon king of France. She became the Duchess of Vendôme by marriage.
Jeanne was the acknowledged spiritual and political leader of the French Huguenot movement, and a key figure in the French Wars of Religion. After her public conversion to Calvinism in 1560, she joined the Huguenot forces. 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. After negotiating a peace treaty with Catherine de' Medici and arranging the marriage of her son, Henry, to Catherine's daughter, Marguerite, she died suddenly in Paris.
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 de Bourbon, who held the regency for more than two decades. In 1620, Jeanne's grandson Louis XIII annexed Navarre to the French crown.
Jeanne was born in the palace of the royal court at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France at five o'clock in the afternoon on 16 November 1528, the daughter of famed author Marguerite of Angoulême and her second husband, Henry II of Navarre. Her mother, the daughter of Louise of Savoy and Charles, Count of Angoulême, was the sister of King Francis I of France. The birth was officially announced the following 7 January 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.
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