fjt_08336 - NAVARRE ET BÉARN - CATHERINE DE BOURBON Catherine de Bourbon 1588

NAVARRE AND BÉARN - CATHERINE DE BOURBON

(1558-13/02/1604)

Catherine was born in Paris in 1558 from the union of Antoine, King of Navarre and Jeanne d'Albret; she is the sister of the King of France Henri IV. In 1599, her brother forced her to secretly marry Henry I of Lorraine. Pope Clement VIII, having learned of this marriage, excommunicated Henry of Lorraine because Catherine was a Protestant. She remained none the less in love with her cousin the Comte de Soissons; this love gave rise to novels from the beginning of the 18th century: Mlle Caumont de la Force, Secret History of Catherine de Bourbon, Duchess of Bar, Nancy, 1703. On February 13, 1604, Catherine de Bourbon died in Nancy childless. In 1604, Henry I of Lorraine obtained a papal pardon.