| Germaine of Foix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Queen consort of Aragon, Majorca, Valencia, Sardinia,Naples andSicily Countess consort of Barcelona | |||||
| Tenure | 19 October 1505 – 23 January 1516 | ||||
| Queen consort of Navarre | |||||
| Tenure | 24 August 1512 – 23 January 1516 | ||||
| Duchess consort of Calabria | |||||
| Tenure | August 1526 – 15 October 1536 | ||||
| Born | c. 1488 Mazères(?),Kingdom of France | ||||
| Died | 15 October 1536 (aged 48) Llíria, Valencia,Kingdom of Valencia | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Spouses | |||||
| Issue Detail | John, Prince of Girona | ||||
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| House | Foix | ||||
| Father | John of Foix, Viscount of Narbonne | ||||
| Mother | Marie of Orléans | ||||
Ursula Germaine of Foix[a] (c. 1488 – 15 October 1536) was anearly modernFrench noblewoman from theHouse of Foix. She was the daughter ofJohn, Viscount of Narbonne, andMarie of Orléans and granddaughter of QueenEleanor of Navarre. By marriage to KingFerdinand II of Aragon (Eleanor's half-brother), she wasQueen of Aragon, Majorca, Naples, Sardinia, Sicily, and Valencia and Princess of Catalonia from 1505 to 1516 andQueen of Navarre from 1512 to 1516. She wasVicereine of Valencia from 1523 until her death in 1536, jointly with her second and third husbands, respectivelyJohann of Brandenburg-Ansbach andFerdinand, Duke of Calabria. By her third marriage, she wasDuchess of Calabria.
Ursula Germaine of Foix was born around 1488, possibly inMazères,Kingdom of France. Her father wasJohn of Foix, Count ofÉtampes and Viscount ofNarbonne, and her mother wasMarie d’Orléans,[1] the sister ofLouis XII of France. Germaine had one sibling, a younger brother,Gaston of Foix, Duke of Nemours, who was an acclaimed military commander in theItalian Wars. Germaine's paternal grandmother, Queen Leonor of Navarra, was the older sister of Ferdinand the Catholic King, so Germaine was the great-niece of her future husband. Although part of the royal house of Navarre, she spent her childhood in association with the French monarchy.[2]
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On 26 November 1504,Isabella I,Queen Regnant of the countries of theCrown of Castile andQueen Consort of those in theCrown of Aragon (1451–1504), died.[3] As both her son and her grandsons had already died, the Crown of Castile was inherited by her eldest living daughter,Infanta Joanna ("Joanna the Mad"; 1479–1555) and Joanna's husband,Archduke Philip of Austria,Lord of the Netherlands andDuke of Burgundy ("Philip the Handsome/Fair"; 1478–1506).[4] KingFerdinand II, Isabella's widower and Joanna's father, thus lost control of the countries that he had only ruledjure uxoris (Latin: "by right of [his] wife").[5][6]
His main concern was that with his own death, the Crown of Aragon would also be inherited by Joanna and Philip, passing most of theIberian peninsula to theHouse of Habsburg. This could have been prevented by the birth of a male heir to Ferdinand, who would have displaced Joanna from at least theorder of succession of Aragon.[6] As part of an alignment with theKingdom of France, he agreed to marry Germaine of Foix, niece of KingLouis XII. Theirengagement was established on 12 October 1505, in2nd Treaty of Blois, in which Louis XII ceded his claims to theKingdoms of Naples andJerusalem to his niece, provided that she had a son from the marriage. Naples was already under Ferdinand's control, while the Kingdom of Jerusalem was practically nonexistent by this time. Through the union, Ferdinand hoped to father a male heir andgain accession to the throne of Navarre.
Germaine married Ferdinand byproxy on 19 October 1505 inBlois.[7] She was 17 and he was 53. Germaine entered her new country atHondarribia, where she was received byAlonso de Aragón,Archbishop of Zaragoza, her new husband'sillegitimate son. She met her husband on 18 March 1506 in Dueñas, where the marriage wasconsummated; great celebrations followed inValladolid.[2] The marriage led to a short period of peace between France and Aragon,[8] but was badly received inCastile, where the majority of people had previously supported Ferdinand's claims, but saw his remarriage as a betrayal of their late queen, his first wifeIsabella.[9] The elderly king was a considerate, tender, and respectful husband, who reportedly had much sexual desire for his young wife, as well as for other women.[2]
Our [k]ing, if he does not rid himself of his appetites, will soon give his soul to the [C]reator and his body to the earth; he is already in the 63rd year of his life and does not allow his wife to separate from him and she is not enough for him, at least in his desire.
— Pedro Mártir de Anglería, de Salazar y Acha, Jaime. "Germana de Foix". Real Academia de la Historia (in Spanish)
Ferdinand's son-in-law,Philip, had died on 25 September 1506.[10] Ferdinand convinced thecortes that Queen Joanna was too mentally ill to govern, and was appointed her guardian andregent of her countries.[11][12] On 3 May 1509, Germaine gave birth to a son, Infante John, Prince of Girona, who died shortly after his birth.[13] The couple did not have another child. If John had lived, or if they had another son, theCrown of Aragon would have split from theCrown of Castile again, after being semi-united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella.[6] On 28 January 1513, the King granted his wife the Viscounty ofCastellbó, a former possession of her family, theHouse of Foix. While Germaine was not very politically active, she did represent her husband at the 1512CortesGenerales and the 1515Cortes of Aragon. She was presiding over the latter when she received news of her husband dying, and she rushed to his deathbed inMadrigalejo.[2]
After two years of health problems, King Ferdinand died on 23 January 1516. In his will he left GermaineSyracuse, Sicily, the towns ofTàrrega,Sabadell and Villagrasa inCatalonia, andBasilicata inNaples,[2] and ordered his grandsonArchduke Charles to take care of her.[2] Charles,Queen Joanna's son who had been raised in theHabsburg Netherlands,[14] arrived inCastile in 1517, and Germaine moved fromAragon to be closer to his court, and lived in theMonastery of El Abrojo nearValladolid. At first, her stepgrandson, only 12 years her junior, showed much respect for her, rising from his seat and uncovering his head if she entered the room and addressing her kneeling, but soon abandoned this courtesy. He did, however, grant herOlmedo andMadrigal de las Altas Torres on 19 June 1517 andArévalo on 15 March 1518. Around this time, she was described as "not very beautiful, somewhat lame, a great lover of lounging around and going to banquets, orchards, gardens, and parties".[2]
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In 1519, Charles travelled to Aragon to take hisoath as king, and Germaine went with him.[citation needed] While inBarcelona, Charles arranged a marriage for Germaine withMargraveJohann of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Viceroy of Valencia, a landlesscadet of theHouse of Hohenzollern. He was a cousin ofJoachim I Nestor,Prince-elector of theMargraviate of Brandenburg, whose vote Charles needed in order to beelectedHoly Roman Emperor.[2] Germaine and Charles then travelled together to Germany where she was married.[citation needed]
Prior to it, in May 1520 Germaine accompanied Charles V to England where he met Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor, Queen of France (Henry's sister) in Canterbury.
Germaine and Charles may also had an affair which resulted in an illegitimate child, although this is disputed.[15]
In 1523, Charles appointed the coupleviceroys of Valencia.[2] In this position, Germaine had to solve the problem of the 1519–1523Revolt of the Brotherhoods (Catalan:Revolta de les Germanies), ananti-monarchist, anti-feudal autonomist revolt of artisan guilds ("germanies"), inspired by theItalian republics.[2] She imposed harsh punishments on participants, known asagermanats, and is thought to have signed theexecution warrants of 100 former rebels.[citation needed] This was the opposite of the more lenient approach of her predecessor,Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Count of Melito and Lemus (1469–1536), who had worked for reconciliation.[citation needed] In December 1524, Germaine signed a pardon that officially ended the persecution of allagermanats, but fines imposed on guilds and guild-aligned cities would take many years to pay.[citation needed]
Germaine's second marriage was unhappy and abusive, Johann being a violent person engaging in various forms of debauchery. They had no children, and he died in 1525.[2] Germaine remarried a year later, in August 1526 inSeville toFerdinand, Duke of Calabria (1488–1550), the eldest son ofFrederick IV, the deposed king of Naples. The couple werepatrons of literature and music at their court. The poetsJuan Fernández de Heredia (circa 1310 – 1396),Luis de Milán (circa 1500 – circa 1561), andBaltasar de Romaní (circa 1485 – 1547) were among their protégés. They also collected Greek and Latincodices.[2] Germaine worked towards the gradualintegration of Valencia intoCastile-dominatedSpain. It has been suggested by Valencian historians[who?] that Germaine's move to Valencia was the first step towards the degradation of the reputation of theValencian language, as the higher classes started usingCastilian Spanish instead of their first language to please her.[citation needed]
Germaine died on 15 October 1536 inLlíria, Valencia, at the age of 48, probably due to anedema caused byobesity.[citation needed] She was buried in theMonasterio de San Miguel de los Reyes ("Saint Michael of the Kings Monastery"), which she had founded. Her third husband survived her by 14 years and remained Viceroy of Valencia until his death in 1550. He remarried to a widow,Mencía de Mendoza (1508–1554) in 1541 with whom he continued his patronage of arts.[2]
In her will, Germaine de Foix included a major legacy:[16][17]
Item, we bequeath and leave the string of 133 large pearls, which is the best that we possess, to the Most Serene Infanta Isabel of Castile, daughter of His Majesty the emperor, my son and my lord, on account of the great love that we feel for His Highness.
A few days after Germaine's death, Duke Calabria sent a copy of the will to Empress Isabella with a cover letter noting "that Your Majesty can see the bequest of pearls that she left to the Most Serene Infanta."[16]
In 1998, Jaime Salazar used the will and cover letter to suggest the possibility that Infanta Isabel of Castile was the daughter of Germaine and Charles V. Historian Manuel Fernández Álvarez agreed with this interpretation[18] but did not provide any further evidence.[16]
The claim was controversial and other historians have not accepted their interpretation. In her biographyGermana de Foix (2003), Rosa Rios Lloret points out that the will shows that Charles had a daughter named Isabel but does not name her mother. Jaime de Salazar y Acha states that "the recent theory that Queen Germana left illegitimate offspring is completely unfounded."[2]
In his 2019 biography of Charles V, Geoffrey Parker demonstrates that in Valencia the emperor's daughter,Maria was known as Isabel. Parker states, "the emperor did not sire a daughter named Isabel; neither with Queen Germaine nor with anyone else."[16]
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| Preceded by | Queen consort of Aragon,Majorca,Valencia, andSicily,Countess consort of Barcelona Queen consort of Naples 1505–1516 | Succeeded by |
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