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Please attach the profiles of French Huguenots who were born in Béarn. If possible, also add their names into the text below, according to their country of emigration.
Background History of Béarn
In 1564, Queen Jeanne III of Navarre (Jeanne d'Albret), firmly opposing Rome, declared Catholicism outlawed and disbanded monasteries, confiscating church property. When Jeanne's son, Henry II (III of Navarre), became King Henry IV of France in 1589, he kept all his estates distinct from the French royal domain. He re-appointed his sister, Catherine, his regent in Navarre and Béarn. It was only in 1607, after Catherine's death (1604), that he acceded to the demands of the Parlement of Paris, and reunited with the French crown his domains of Foix, Bigorre and Comminges, including Quatre-Vallées and Nébouzan, conforming to the tradition that the king of France would have no personal domain.
However, he refused the Parlement's demand that he unite Béarn and Lower Navarre with the French crown, since these territories were not French estates, but separate realms. Had these principalities been united with France, the Edict of Nantes (1598) would have applied to them and Catholic property would have had to have been restored. Nonetheless, Henry, now a Catholic, consented to restore Catholic rights of worship in certain towns. The estates of Béarn continued to conduct business in Occitan and laws were enacted in the same.[10] Prior to the 1601, the Duc de Rohan was the heir to Navarre and Béarn, since the Salic law of France did not apply there.
After Henry IV's death, Calvinists from Béarn attended the Huguenot conference at Saumur in 1611 in an effort to enlist their support for Béarnese and Navarrese independence. In 1614, the same year he came of age, Henry IV's successor, Louis XIII, was confronted by a Huguenot uprising supported by Béarn. In a meeting of the French Estates General that year, the Third Estate petitioned for the union of all sovereign provinces with France. In 1616, Louis issued an edict uniting the principality with France, but it was ignored.
On 3 May 1616, the Treaty of Loudun gave the Huguenots, who had supported the rebellion of the Prince of Condé, the right join their churches with those in Béarn. Louis's edict of June 1617 ordering the restoration of property confiscated from Catholics was also ignored. In 1620, Louis marched into Béarn with a large army, convoked the estates and, sitting on his Béarnese throne, issued an edict of union with France, thus removing the principality's sovereignty.
Louis preserved the freedom of worship of the Calvinists, the right of the estates to negotiate their taxes and the obligation of the king of France to swear to uphold the customary law of Béarn on his accession. He also united Béarn and Navarre: thenceforth the Parlement of Navarre and Béarn had authority over both regions and would sit at Pau.
Source: Viscounty of Béarn
Countries of Dispersal
South Africa
North America
Britain
Ireland
The Netherlands
References & Resources
- Jeanne d'Albret
- Bibliographie du protestantisme Béarnais (in French)
- Protestantism in the Béarn region