d'Albret

The House of d'Albret took its name from the lordship of Albret in the Landes of Gascony, where it was established in the ninth century. Vassals of English Aquitaine, the family supported the English cause at the start of the Hundred Years' War before transferring its allegiance to France.

Arnaud Amanieu, Lord of Albret, helped the French reconquer Guienne, and his son Charles was killed commanding the French army at Agincourt in 1415. In 1470 the family inherited Périgord and Limoges. Alain the Great's son John became King of Navarre in 1484 by marrying Queen Catherine of Foix, but the Spanish invasion of 1512 left them only Lower Navarre.

Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre and the last of the line, married Anthony of Bourbon and was the mother of Henry IV, who carried the Albret inheritance into the French crown.