Jeanne d'Albret

Queen of Navarre from 1555 to 1572

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Lived 1528–1572, aged 44France

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45 languages
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Era
1528–1572
Aged 44

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

She converted to Calvinism in 1560 and became the spiritual and political leader of France's Huguenot movement — while her husband fought on the Catholic side. The Queen of Navarre from 1555, she turned a small kingdom into the engine of Protestant resistance during the Wars of Religion.

Biography

About

Jeanne d'Albret was born 16 November 1528, daughter of Henry II of Navarre and niece to Francis I of France. After an annulled first marriage to William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg in 1541, she married Antoine de Bourbon in 1548; they had two children, Henry and Catherine. She ascended the Navarrese throne with Antoine in 1555 when her father died, but her public conversion to Calvinism in 1560 split them — he died besieging Protestant-held Rouen in 1562, fighting for the other side. By the third war she'd fled to La Rochelle and led the Huguenot-controlled city. She negotiated peace with Cath…

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