Renée Of France - Defying the Inquisition

Renée de France was born in Blois on October 25, 1510, and died in Montargis on June 12, 1574. She is the youngest daughter of Louis XII Of France and his second wife, Anne Of Brittany.
Furthermore she was the sister-in-law of François I of France, aunt of Henri II of France, and the great-aunt of the three kings François II, Charles IX and Henri III Of France. At the age of 18 she married Duke Ercole II d'Este. Consequently she spent spent thirty-two years of her life in Ferrarra, Italy.
When her older sister, Claude de France, married to François d'Angoulême, the future François I Of France, she could have claimed the ducal throne of Brittany. She was married off to the Duke of Ferrarra in order to prevent her from doing so.
Renée embraced Protestantism in the 1530s, Renée received and kept up correspondence with Jean Calvin, the leader of the theocratic Republic of Geneva. When her husband forbade Calvinism in his states in 1554, she was pressured into abandon her religious views. After the death of her husband in 1559, she moved to Montargis, France, where she founded a Reformed church. She welcomed many Protestant refugees during the Wars of Religion.

Music:
Adventure by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...