WOMEN OF THE REFORMATION: Jeanne d’Albret; Uncommonly
Favoured; Uncommonly Fettered, and Uncommonly Faithful: The Deborah of the
Hugeonots
by
Deejay O’Flaherty
The only one unlike her mother, Marguerite, Queen of Navarre and her cousin and Renee of France (Ferrara) who
came out publically and claimed openly the Protestant faith as her own. Her
mother Queen Marguerite of Navarre was called the Nursing Mother of the
Reformation. She was a Princess, a future queen; given a fine education, and
was born uncommonly favoured.
However her status also came with a price that left
her uncommonly fettered. At age 12 at the demands of her Uncle, King of France
(of whom the opening epistle of Calvin’s institutes was addressed to) she was
betrothed against her will to the Duke of Cleeves as a political pawn, because
her uncle saw it as a hope for a French and German alliance. She made a written
protest against this which even at that age showed her free spirit, and courage
like that of a caged bird longing to be set free. Along with David as she
sighed her silent tears when separated from her parents in the months leading
up to her betrothal she must have wished for the wings of a dove so that she
could fly away and be at rest.
"For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
But the LORD will take me up." ~ Psalm 27:10
Her written protest read:
" I Jehanne de Navarre, continuing my
protests already made, in which I persist, say and declare and protest again by
these presents that the marriage proposed between me and the Duke of Cleves is
against my will, that I have never consented to it, and that I never will.
Anything that I may say or do after this because of which it could be said that
I had given my consent, will have been because of force, against my will, out
of fear of the King [Francis I], of my father the King, and of my mother the
Queen, who had me threatened and beaten by… my governess…. [who said] that I
would be the cause of the ruin and destruction of my mother and father and of
their house. …I do not know to whom to appeal except to God, when I see that my
mother and father have abandoned me. …I have told them that I would never love
the Duke of Cleves and I do not want to have anything to do with him."
After the marriage she was not to live with her
husband as his wife till she was 15 years old and she went back to live with
her parents. Her mother at this point took over her education and brought in
the best of Reformed teachers to bring her up in the Reformed faith. Both
William Farrel and John Calvin were visitors at the royal home. However, 18
months after her marriage, the Duke of Cleeves made an unholy alliance with
Charles V, the Emperor of the [un]holy roman empire, and he renounced his
alliance with France, turned his back on the Protestant faith and sought to get
Catholicism restored. The Duke’s sister however, Sabella stood up against
Charles V and defied him, and defended the city against him while her brother
seemed to make very little resistance. She, another woman, made her stand.
Queen Marguerite and her brother the King
of France were outraged at this turn of events and wanted Jeanne’s marriage
annulled. The Duke of Cleeves also no longer desired Jeanne as a wife. The
marriage had never been consummated and they used her earlier protest which she
had written in staunch defiance as an appeal to the pope as legitimate reason
for annulment, so Jeanne was set free. The next three years, were probably what
would be the most free of the rest of her life. She had many suitors including
the King of Portugal and the infamous Duke of Guise. However she made her own
choice in matrimony in that of the person of Antoine de Bourbon who was ten
years her senior. Jeanne loved him, and for a while they were happily married.
He was a courageous and somewhat remarkable soldier and very dashing in
appearance.
Jeanne’s mother, Margueritte worn out by the battle of
the day, of defending the cause of true religion died only a year after Jeanne
was married. Their first child was born around two years after their marriage,
a son, but he died at around one year old due to the neglect of his nurses. The
second born child died also. Eventually she gave birth to Henry, who would
later become Henry IV of France. Two years after Henry was born, Jeanne’s
father died and she became Queen of Navarre at around 27 years old.
Two months after her father died, inspired by her
cousin Renee of Ferrara (of France) she made a public profession of the
Reformed faith. The Jezebel of the day, Catherine De Medici was plotting to
destroy Jeanne and hatched a plot to separate Jeanne from her husband; her aim
was to try to lure him back to the Roman Catholicism and take away all of their
estate and lands in Navarre.
Jeanne knew what was happening and raised an army to
protect the Kingdom of Navarre. The more she was threatened and persecuted for
her adhering to the Reformed faith, the bolder she was in defending it and
speaking out in favour of it and her God. Her husband however, though strong
and courageous on the battlefield proved weak in this battle and soon went over
to the side of the Guises and went back to Roman Catholicism renouncing the
Reformed faith. He went to Paris, demanding that his wife join him. She didn’t
want to leave her Kingdom which had become a safe haven for the Huguenot’s but
she submitted to her husbands wishes. He then demanded that she go to mass with
him. Catherine De Medici also put pressure on her to do so. Her response to
their demands was: “Had I my kingdom in one hand, and my son in the other I
would throw them both into the depths of the sea rather than go to mass.” For
this act of defiance, Antoine took their son away from her and gave him a Roman
Catholic upbringing, yet the boy remained loyal to his mother.
Antoine became a notorious infidel and was unfaithful
again and again to his wife. Her kingdoms were sought from all sides. Spain
wanted them, as did Rome, yet she stood firm holding onto her Lord and His
cause and never faltered. On the death of her husband she sought to advance the
Reformed faith in her Kingdom of Navarre. Theordore Beza at her request sent a
dozen ministers to preach the gospel in Navarre. One of these preachers said of
her: “The Queen of Navarre has banished all idolatry from her dominion and set
an example of virtue with incredible courage.”
When the Spanish Ambassador told her they would not
tolerate Calvinism so near to the borders of Spain, Jeanne replied: “Although I
am just a little Princess, God has given me the government of this country so I
may rule it according to the Gospel and teach it God’s laws. I rely on God who
is more powerful than the King of Spain.”
Jeanne played a dangerous yet clever game by pitting
all the powers that be that sought her destruction, Philip of Spain, Catherine
De Medici and the pope, against each other by her actions. A kingdom divided
against itself cannot stand. (Matthew 12:25) Both her life and kingdom were held in the balance
by her enemies, yet she trusted in God.
She continued to advance the cause of Christ in her
kingdom and when she heard of the plot for a massacre of the Huguenots she
gathered mountain troops in Navarre, so the St. Bartholomew’s massacre by the
strength and fortitude of this “little Princess” was thwarted for about eight
years. She declared: “The cause of God is dearer to me than my son.”
When forced to flee to La Rochelle she encouraged and
rallied the troops; one young soldier who was protesting against having his arm
amputated, she stood by his side speaking comforting words to him and held his
hand why the surgeons amputated the other one. At the death of one of the great
generals when the morale of the army was very low and she herself was also
grieving over the death of General and dear friend, she re-dedicated herself,
her lands, her wealth her son and her life to God and the Huguenot cause. She
went out to the troops in an attempt to stir them up and encourage morale and
said: “Children of God and of France-make proof of your valour soldiers, I
offer you everything I have; my dominion, my treasure, my life, my child and
all that’s dear to me; I swear to defend to my last the Holy cause that now
unites us.”
She had the New
Testament translated into the language of her people. She personally bore the
financial cost of also having the Geneva Catechism translated and distributed
among her subjects. In a peace treaty she helped form that lasted for two years
she set about restoring her ravished kingdom. Even today she is spoken of as
the good Queen who caused Navarre to prosper.
When Catherine De Medici and her army ordered her to
lay down her arms, Jeanne replied: “We have come to the determination to die,
all of us rather than abandon our God and our Reformed religion which we cannot
maintain unless allowed to worship publically any more than a human body can
live without food or drink.” This defiant stand caused again peace to reign
again for a while, though it was a very tentative peace.
Catherine De Medici wanted Jeanne’s son Henry to marry
her daughter, Marguerite. Jeanne knew that to refuse this flat-out could be the
ruin of the Huguenot’s. She visited Paris to negotiate about the wedding and
was horrified at the wickedness and debauchery rampant in the royal court. She
wrote her son saying they wanted him there to separate him from God and from
herself and that no one could live there in that atmosphere of wickedness and
remain unscathed or get out alive spiritually speaking. However, she agreed to
the marriage as long as Henry took his bride after the wedding and they lived
in retirement from the royal court of the De Medici’s.
Jeanne arrived in Paris for the wedding of her son,
and immediately started to become severely ill. It has since been proven that
she was poisoned; another victim of the evil De Medici’s. One of the last
things she said was “the many afflictions I have bore from my youth, I desire
to retire and leave to be with God.” It is said she died with the sweetest,
most beautiful smile on her lips. Two months after her death, the St.
Bartholomew’s Day massacre finally happened that she had managed to hold off
almost single-handedly for eight years. Once she was gone, the power to stop it
was gone. She gave her all for the cause of Christ. Health, wealth life,
kingdom, ALL. She was the Deborah of the Huguenot’s who lived out that God’s
grace was sufficient, who offered herself as a living sacrifice. She gave it
all, and loved her God with all her heart, soul, and mind, and just like
Deborah she could have also said:`So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But
your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.’ [Judges 5:31]
The legacy of Jeanne d’Albret is that she is a figure
in which we can see she lived out to trust God in all circumstances and
conditions. To not value worldly things above the glory of God or heavenly
things. To be willing to pick up our cross and follow Him even if we lose
everything by so doing.
Her favourite Psalm was Psalm 31 and ironically it
almost is a mirror of her life. Written by a persecuted, harassed, oppressed,
godly King David. And lived out again, by “just a little princess” Jeane
d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, of whom the world was not worthy. A Queen who was
born uncommonly favoured; had a life uncommonly fettered, and remained
uncommonly faithful.
Praise God for the wonderful cloud of witnesses we
have to encourage and strengthen us in our own faith.
About the Author: Deejay O’Flaherty lives in the United Kingdom with her
darling cat, Meanie. She blogs at A Puritan at Heart where she daily posts inspirational Christian quotes by the Puritans.
http://www.theologyforgirls.com/2011/11/women-of-reformation-jeanne.html
http://www.theologyforgirls.com/2011/11/women-of-reformation-jeanne.html
