Born January 7 1528, brought up in the French court by her uncle King Francis I of France.
When she was 13 her Uncle forced her to marry a German prince. Jeanne was adamant against the engagement and twice wrote official protests against it. Even so she was eventually carried bodily to the alter and married against her will. She did not live with her husband for he went straight off to war and she retuned home.
Her husband the Duke soon turned against the French King. Her Uncle then “remembered” her protests and had the marriage annulled.
Around the age of 20 more suitors came including Antoine de Borbon heir to the French throne to whom she was married in 1548.
Living with her husband in France, (He now being the King of France and she now the Queen of Navarre) on Dec 5 1560 they openly declared themselves to be of the Reformed Faith. Antoine however, went back to Catholicism a little later.
Many tried to force Jeanne to go to Mass, others tried to kill her, so to escape this persecution she fled back to Navarre, returning later only to rescue her 13 year old son Henry so he would not be raised Catholic.
Jeanne and her son Henry fought for the Huguenots of France who asked the now 16 year old Henry to become a Huguenot leader, but the time was not right for that yet. Later though, one of the great Huguenot leaders (the prince of Conde) died in battle and the army began to despair. Gaspard de Cologney knew how respected Jeanne was and called her to come and help rally the troops. This she did with great success, putting forward her son and the son of Conde as new leaders. She supported her son right to the walls of Paris where in 1570 the Huguenots forced the Catholics to make peace. This peace lasted only two years.
Jeanne died suddenly in Paris during the midst of her son’s marriage negotiations and did not live to see the conclusion of the wedding plans —or the brutal slaughter of thousands of Protestants on the 24 of August 1572 who had came to Paris for the wedding (This is known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre where an estimated 50,000 Huguenots were murdered throughout France)
Recognising the importance of Scripture, Jeanne, throughout the wars, funded the translation and publication of the New Testament in the Basque and Bearnese languages
John Calvin said of her:
“She has banished all idolatry from Navarre and has set an example of virtue”
Phillip of Spain (one of her worst persecutors) noted: “She is too much of a woman to have as a daughter-in-law” But Jeanne was not afraid of him “I rely on God, Who is more powerful than the King of Spain”
Jane was born the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset, and his wife Lady Frances Brandon. Jane Grey had two younger sisters, Katherine and Mary; the three sisters were great-nieces of Henry VIII. Jane received a good education, and studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as French and Spanish. Through the teachings of her tutors, she became a committed Protestant.
Jane had a difficult childhood. Her mother was abusive, cruel, and domineering, and held her under a strict disciplinary regime. Jane's meekness and quiet, unassuming manner irritated Frances, who sought to 'harden' the child with regular beatings.
Jane preferred a single life, but her mother made her submit to an engagement to Lord Guilford Dudley. The couple were married at Durham House on 21 May 1553.
Young King Edward VI died on 6 July 1553.
Four days later, Northumberland had Lady Jane Grey proclaimed Queen of England after she had taken up a secure residence in the Tower of London, where English monarchs customarily resided until coronation. Jane refused to name her husband Dudley as king and deferred to Parliament. She offered to make him Duke of Clarence instead.
Parliament declared Mary the rightful queen and denounced and revoked Jane's proclamation as having been coerced. Mary imprisoned Jane and her husband in the Tower of London, although their lives were initially spared.
The Protestant rebellion of Thomas Wyatt in January 1554 started as a popular revolt; Jane's father (the Duke of Suffolk) and other nobles joined the rebellion, calling for Jane's restoration as queen. Philip and his councilors pressed Mary to execute Jane to put an end to any future focus for unrest. Five days after Wyatt's arrest on 7 February 1554, Jane and Guilford were executed.
Jane gave a short speech of her innocence, and then recited Psalm 51 in English. The executioner asked her forgiveness, and she gave it. She pleaded the axeman, "I pray you dispatch me quickly". She then blindfolded herself. Jane had resolved to go to her death with dignity, but once blindfolded, unable to find the block with her hands, began to panic and cried, "What shall I do? Where is it?" An unknown hand, possibly Feckenham's, then helped her find her way and she retained her dignity at the end. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" She was then beheaded.
In 1730 a fifteen-year-old Huguenot girl was arrested and taken from her home. Her name was Marie Durand; her crime was to have a brother who was a Protestant minister.
In 1729 soldiers raided a neighbours’ home where a group had gathered to worship. The house was destroyed, and Marie’s mother was taken away, never to be heard from again. Her brother, who was leading the service, escaped and eventually entered Switzerland, where he studied for the ministry.
Unable to lay hands on Pierre, the government arrested Marie's father in 1728. Before he was taken to prison, Etienne Durand married his daughter to Matthew Serres, whom he hoped could protect her. But both Marie and Matthew were arrested, and Matthew was imprisoned with his father-in law at a fort. In 1732, after a sizeable reward was put on Pierre’s head, Pierre was betrayed and arrested. He was recorded to have walked to his execution singing Psalms.
The Tower of Constance had been transformed into a woman’s prison. The prisoners were kept in the upper room. A little light and air came through narrow windows. In the center of the floor was an opening onto the guardroom below. The authorities thought this the perfect place to hold and torture heretics.
But at least one prisoner refused to yield. Inscribed on the wall is "Resister," meaning "Resist!"
Marie became the tireless Christian focus of the Tower and remained the spiritual leader of the prisoners for thirty-eight years. She nursed the sick, wrote letters for those who couldn’t write, and encouraged her fellow-prisoners to sing Huguenot hymns. Not all the women were Christians. But the prisoners knew her family; they sympathized with her youth and they respected her for her piety. All were blessed through her.
Marie wrote to churches and government officials with appeals for better prison conditions. Her appeals were even relayed to the philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau. Thanks to her efforts, the prisoners were allowed a copy of the Psalms and permitted to take air on the rooftop.
Disgusted with prison conditions, the governor of Languedoc ordered the captives released despite the objections of King Louis XV. In 1767, after 38 years in the tower, she was released. Her father, brother and husband were dead. A church supported her until she died in 1776.
Margaret Wilson was the eldest of three children and her father, Gilbert, was a tenant farmer at Glenvernock in the parish of Penninghame to the north of Newton Stewart. Her parents said that ‘they were more than happy to worship the way the King wants’. But the three children (Margaret 16 years old; Thomas 14 and Agnes only 11) Agreed that the King was wrong. Two years later, the siblings ended up living in the hills with other Covenanters all through the winter of 1684-85. Whenever they could, they attended conventicles where to hear the Bible preached faithfully.
While Thomas stayed up on the snowy hillside and awaited their return, Margaret and Agnes decided to risk a secret visit to friends in the small town of Wigton. There they saw Bailie Patrick Stewart, their father's friend, who invited them to his home. They accepted, not knowing that Stewart was strongly against the Covenanters and all they stood for. He deliberately toasted the king at the meal and, when the girls remained silent, he betrayed them to the authorities and they were imprisoned in the Thieves’ Hole, in the same cell as a sixty-three year old widow woman, Margaret MacLachlan.
The girls were there for seven long weeks. On the 13th of April, Margaret and Agnes Wilson, Margaret MacLachlan and a servant girl stood on trial. The verdict was pronounced guilty. The two Margarets were sentenced "to be tied to palisades fixed in the sand, within the flood mark of the sea, and there to stand until the flood overflowed them and drowned them.” The date of the execution was set for the 11th of May. During the month of waiting, Mr Wilson journeyed to Edinburgh (over 100 miles away) and gained the reprieve of Agnes, on payment of £100 (a huge sum in those days) and she was released.
There was a crowd of several hundred on the shore near the mouth of the Bladnoch Burn that day to stand witness to Margaret's death on a lovely May morning. The stake to which she was tied was close enough for people to speak to her - and many tried to persuade her to swear
the Abjuration Oath – just to "say the words". But Margaret remained firm and it was remarked on how cheerful her voice sounded. As she watched the older Margaret drown, she began to sing Psalm 25 and afterwards to repeat the wonderful verses from Romans 8: 35-39.
The persecution of her parents continued after Margaret's death and the imposition of fines and the weekly journeys to pay them eventually ruined her father and he lost the farm and died in utter poverty. Her mother had to be cared for by friends. Thomas joined the army of William of Orange, but when he at last came home, there was nothing left for him.
Born in Noyon in the year 1509. As a Frenchman and the son of a lawyer, he developed a love for scholarship and literature.
In 1523 he went to the University of Paris where he studied theology. To maintain himself while a student, Calvin secured a small chaplaincy attached to Noyon Cathedral.
In deference to his father, Calvin went in 1528 to Orleans to study Law, and a year later to Bourges also to study law. After the death of his father in 1531 Calvin resumed his religious studies.
At some point between 1528 and 1533 Calvin wrote that "God subdued my soul to docility by a sudden conversion".
In 1536 the first edition of "Institutes of the Christian Religion" was published in Basle. This systematic explanation of Christianity was revised and expanded several times, the final edition was published in 1559.
In July 1536, Calvin was travelling to Strasbourg and planned to pass through a Swiss city called Geneva, but Guillaume Farel (a Protestant leader in the city) spoke very strongly to him and convinced him to stay. Geneva became his home.
In 1538 however, there was division in the city, and the Libertines expelled Farel and Calvin who fled to Strasbourg until September 1541 when the new city officials of Geneva begged Calvin to return.
Friends began to urge Calvin to marry. He specified that a wife of his must be “chaste, obliging, not fastidious, economical, patient, and careful for his health”. Fellow laborer Martin Bucer recommended Idelette de Bure, a widow who had two children from her first marriage. They were married in August 1540. Three children were born to Calvin and Idelette, but they all died in infancy.
Idelette died in 1549 after a lengthy illness. Calvin grieved deeply for his wife. He wrote to Pierre Viret “I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life”
By the mid-1550's, Geneva had become an important Protestant center in Europe. Protestants driven out of their native countries (France, England, Scotland, and the Netherlands) all came to Geneva to take refuge.
Calvin Died 27 May 1564. But his influence through his teaching and writings has continued for centuries. He was a tireless polemic and apologetic writer, finishing commentaries on most books of the Bible as well as theological treatises and confessional documents. He had preached over 2,000 sermons! http://www.photoblog.com/charmagne/2009/10/26/john-calvin.html
Gaspard was born in France in 1519.
His family line had long served the French royalty and he early made friends in the French Court
In 1543 Gaspard distinguished himself in battle and the next year he was knighted.
It is said he displayed great courage, resolution and strength of character.
He was taken prisoner in 1557, and was released two years later. During this time he avidly read the works of John Calvin and by his release in 1559 he had become a fervent Huguenot.
Coligny was leading patron for the failed French colony of Fort Caroline (1562-1566) in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. Fort Caroline was intended as a refuge for Huguenots, but due to hostilities with the local Spanish settlements combined with complication from the French wars, it did not succeed.
Gaspard placed himself with Louis, Prince of Condé, at the forefront of the Huguenot party, fighting for liberty to worship God aright, and to break away from Catholic tyranny. When, in 1569 the Prince of Condé died in battle, Gaspard suddenly became the sole leader of the now despairing Protestant armies. He then called on Jeanne d’Albret to support this cause and help rally the troops.
On 15 October 1547 Gaspard married Charlotte de Laval, they had three children including Louise de Coligny who would later marry William I of Orange.
His wife Charlotte died in 1568.
Gaspard married for a second time to Jacqueline de Montbel, but he was assassinated before their daughter was born.
On 22 August 1572 Gaspard was shot in the street by a man called Maurevert, the bullets however, only tore a finger from his right hand and shattered his left elbow. The would-be assassin escaped. The King sent his own physician to treat Gaspard and even visited him.
There were many Hugenots in the city for the wedding of the Protestant Henry, King of Navarre, and Marguerite de Valois, the French King's sister, and the Catholics feared retaliation for the attempt on Coligny's life. Thus, two nights later (on the 24th of August) Gaspard was attacked in his house, plunged through with a sword, thrown out of a window and there in the street had his head cut off by the enemies of Protestantism.
With Coligny dead, the Catholics then proceeded to carry out the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in which thousands of Protestant Hugenots were slaughtered.
Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII of England, is nicknamed “Bloody Mary,” for her rule saw large numbers of Christians put to death for their acceptance of Protestantism.
Three squares in Christchurch, New Zealand are named after some of these martyrs, men who are foremost in the history of the Reformation in England. These squares are Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley. (Ridley being the original name of “Cathedral Square”)
Thomas Cranmer had tremendous influence on the development of the Reformation in England. He was an advisor to the Catholic Henry VIII, and to his Protestant son, the young Edward VI.
As a young man between 1520 and 1532 his views were becoming more and more reformed through his study of Luther, but it was political events that changed his ambitions for reform from the academic to the practical. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Cranmer approached this question from the Scriptural view of forbidding marriage to the wife of a deceased brother. (Catherine was the widow of Henry’s elder brother)
In 1533 Cranmer was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury and resolved the matter for the King against the opinion of the Pope, with this Scriptural argument, pronouncing Catherine’s marriage void, and Anne’s valid. This paved the way for future events, for Catherine was the mother of Mary I, an avid Roman Catholic, while Anne gave birth to Elizabeth I who was brought up Protestant.
The King had no desire to change the shape of the Church of England, he rejected Reformed teachings while Cranmer was conforming more and more to the Reformation. Yet Henry both liked and trusted Cranmer for he was not greedy, devious or self seeking like so many that opposed him. This “curious attachment” of King Henry’s saved Cranmer from at least three plots on his life.
During the short reign of Henry’s only son, Edward VI, Cranmer continued his work of transforming the worship of the Church of England but the death of Edward VI in his twenties and Cranmer’s support of Lady Jane Grey brought his downfall. Mary’s upon her succession tried to destroy the Reformation in England. She was determined that Cranmer should die for promoting Protestantism.
Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer were all tried for heresy. Cranmer was forced to witness the first two being burnt at the stake and was then persuaded to sign a recantation of his beliefs, in faint hope of mercy. This recantation was published in the hope that it would wreck Protestantism in England, but it did not save his life. On March 21, 1556 he was taken out to be burnt. Here though, the Queen’s representatives over-reached themselves. They required Cranmer to confirm his recantation publicly. To the shock of his enemies, Cranmer instead boldly withdrew his recantation, reasserting that the pope had no right to power in the realm of England, and that transubstantiation was untrue. Then he steadfastly held what he considered as his ‘traitorous’ right hand in the flames, so that this hand, which had offended by signing his previous recantation, should be consumed first by the flames. “His brave and dignified end made an enormous impression... and at one blow, Cranmer undid all that government propaganda had achieved, and restored heart to the surviving reformers.”
Margaret was won to faith by the preaching of LeFevre around the year 1512
Margaret influenced her brother Francis King of France to protect Protestantism. Her influence went only so far, however, and he later banned reformed books and began allowing persecution, only putting a halt to executions when his sister Margaret was in Paris.
Margaret was able to secure the release of many preachers and Christian poets who were imprisoned for declaring the Truth of the Gospel.
One example of Margaret’s influence is with Berquin, a French nobleman and a vocal Protestant, he was arrested in 1523 then released at the request of Margaret. Two years later Berquin is once again in trouble and examined severely but he continued strong saying: “I will not yield a single point.” Again he was liberated because of Margaret’s influence. He was finally arrested in 1529 and this time none of Margaret’s efforts could get him released – he was put to death for refusing to agree with the Papists.
In 1527 Margaret married Henry the Catholic King of Navarre. He began to show disapproval of her practicing Protestantism and treated her harshly for her faith. When her brother (who was always very fond of her) heard of this he threatened war with Navarre. This made King Henry afraid so he promised to allow Reformed worship. Then becoming curious, he looked further into his wife’s beliefs and was soon converted from Roman Catholicism to the protestant faith!
Margaret died December 21 1548 praying that her children would continue working for Reformed freedoms.
Margaret’s prayer was answered in her daughter Jeanne d’Albret and Grandson Henry II.
Margaret of Navarre's speech at the Palmerston North Reformation Day celebrations
Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen
My name is Margaret of Navarre.
I was born April 11, 1492 in France and I plan to go back to my homeland before I die.
My father was a direct descendant of Charles V, and a claimant to the crown, if both Charles VIII the presumptive heir, and Louis, Duke of Orléans, failed to produce male offspring.
On 16 February 1488, My father, Charles, married my mother Louise when she was 11, she was the daughter of Philip II of Savoy and Margaret of Bourbon, My mother named me after my grandmother "Marguerite"
My father died when I was nearly four; my year-old brother became heir presumptive to the throne of France. Thanks to my mother, who was only nineteen when she was widowed, I was tutored from my earliest childhood by excellent teachers and I even learnt Latin. (Amo, ….) When I was ten, my mother tried to marry me to the Prince of Wales, later Henry VIII of England; but this was "declined with thanks".
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) died while our guest (my brother and me) after designing a large château for us.
I was married at the age of seventeen to Charles IV of Alençon, when he was aged twenty, by decree of King Louis XII (who also arranged the marriage of his ten year old daughter, Claude, to my brother Francis). I was forced to marry a generally kind, but practically illiterate, man for political expediency—"I,the radiant young princess with violet-blue eyes ... had become the bride of a laggard and a dolt".I had been bartered to save Louis' royal pride, by keeping the County of Armagnac in the family.
I was won to faith by the preaching of LeFevre around the year 1512
I became the most influential woman in France, with the exception of my mother, when my brother acceded to the crown as Francis I in 1515. I tried to be very kind, gentle, gracious, charitable, a great dispenser of alms and friendly to all.
I influenced my brother Francis King of France to protect Protestantism. My influence went only so far, however, and he later banned reformed books and began allowing persecution, only putting a halt to executions when I was in Paris.
I was able to secure the release of many preachers and Christian poets who were imprisoned for declaring the Truth of the Gospel.
One example of my influence is with Berquin, a French nobleman and a vocal Protestant, he was arrested in 1523 then released at my request. Two years later Berquin is once again in trouble and examined severely but he continued strong saying: “I will not yield a single point.” Again he was liberated because of my influence. He was finally arrested in 1529 and this time none of my efforts could get him released – he was put to death for refusing to agree with the Papists.
My most remarkable adventure involved freeing my brother, King Francis, captured in the Battle of Pavia, Italy, 1525, and held prisoner in Spain by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. (A Venetian ambassador of that time praised me as knowing all the secrets of diplomatic art, hence to be treated with deference and circumspection.) In a critical period of the negotiations, I rode horseback twelve hours a day, for many days, through wintry woods, to meet a safe-conduct deadline, writing letters at night.
After the death of my first husband in 1525, I married Henry II of Navarre in 1527. (Ferdinand II of Aragon had invaded the Kingdom of Navarre in 1512, and Henry ruled only Lower Navarre.) Henry was a Catholic, he began to show disapproval of me practicing Protestantism and treated me harshly for my faith. When my brother (who was always very fond of me) heard of this he threatened war with Navarre. This made King Henry afraid so he promised to allow Reformed worship. Then becoming curious, he looked further into my beliefs and was soon converted from Roman Catholicism to the protestant faith!
My only son, was born in Blois on 7 July 1530, when I was thirty-eight, middle-aged if not already old by 16th century standards. But he died on Christmas Day that same year. Scholars believe that my grief motivated me to write my most controversial work, in 1531. Anne Boleyn (who was, if nothing else, a catalyst for the English Reformation) was a lady-in-waiting my sister-in-law. (This was all before Anne returned to England and became Queen to Henry VIII. (Actually……Anne was in service to me rather than to my sister-in-law Claude) and that Anne Boleyn became a friend, admirer and a disciple of mine and took on my views about Christianity. I have a letter from Anne Boleyn after she became Queen with strong expressions of affection to me. I gave Anne the original manuscript of my most controversial poem at some point. Then in 1545 (after Anne Boleyn's execution by her husband Henry VIII), Anne's daughter, Elizabeth I (1533–1603) translated this very same poem by me into English when she was just twelve years old, and presented it, written in her own hand, to her then step-mother, the English Queen Katherine Parr. (This literary connection between myself, Anne, Katherine Parr and the future Queen Elizabeth I suggests a link between the legacy of reformist religious convictions, with me as mentor.)
Although I encouraged reform within the Catholic Church, I was not a Calvinist. I did, however, do my best to protect the Reformers and dissuaded Francis I from intolerant measures as long as I could.
I seemed to live in both the Renaissance and the Reformation. I liked to be involved in charity work. I would walk unescorted in the streets of Navarre, allowing any one to approach me and would listen at first hand to the sorrows of the people. I was really concerned for the poor. Henri, my husband, King of Navarre, believed in what I was doing, even to the extent of setting up a public works system that became a model for France. Together he and I financed the education of needy students."
I am praying that my children will continue working for Reformed freedoms.
About 80 people gathered at the Reformed Church in Palmerston North to celebrate Reformation Day.
Gaspard de Coligny opened the evening for us reminding us all that It is very important to remember the time of the Reformation.
He also introduced a few other reformers who joined us for the evening:
"We are here this evening to honour and remember those who gave their very lives for their faith such as Joan Boughton who was burnt at the stake, also Margaret Wilson and Marie Durand.
I thank the Lord for William of Orange and his wife who have done much for the Huguenot cause. Margaret Queen of Navarre was one of the very first royal persons to become a hueguenot, her daughter Jeanne D'Albret who was much respected by the Huguenot army and Jeanne's son Henry IV, who fought much for protestant freedoms."
Thanks to everyone who came, helped, and contibuted to the evening!
Craig and Barbara Smith and their 8 home educated children and 3 Grandchildren: Genevieve (born 1980) and Pete (married 2008 with Natalie 2008 and...); Zachariah (1981) and Megan (married 2005 with Cheyenh 2007 and Dusti 2009); Alanson (1984); Charmagne (1987); Jeremiah (born Mitchell 1992 and now adopted); Jedediah (born 1997 and now adopted); Kaitlyn (born 2000 and now adopted); Grace (born 2005 guardianship).
We use a Biblical/Hebrew/Classical approach to our home education.
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