Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/27

Rh about the Restoration. It is said, she afterwards carried on a very lucrative trade in selling offices. A bitter enemy to lord Clarendon, she prevailed on her husband to assist in the ruin of that great man, though one of his best friends. She was a woman of vulgar manners, homely person, and violent temper.

contracted, while a child, to the duke of Cleves, by her uncle, Francis I. king of Navarre; but, as this marriage was disagreeable to the young princess, as well as to many of her friends, the Pope was afterwards prevailed upon to cancel it, though the ceremony had been performed.

At twenty years of age, she was married to Anthony de Bourbon, duke de Vendome, by whom she had three sons. The two first dying in consequence of the improper management and carelessness of their nurses, the king of Navarre was anxious to take the charge of the last upon himself; and prevailed on, his daughter, when her time drew near, to leave her husband, whom she had accompanied to the wars in Picardy, and return to him for this purpose.

Jane had been long anxious to see the will of her father. It was in a large gold box, on which was also a chain of gold, that would pass twenty or thirty times times round the neck. She asked him to grant her this favour; and he promised it, upon condition, that, on the birth of her infant, she would sing a Bernese song. In the night of the 13th of December, 1553, Henry, afterwards the IVth of France, was born, and Jane had resolution enough to fulfil her engagement, beginning a little