Marie d'Albret, Countess of Rethel

Marie d' Albret ( born March 25, 1491 Cuffy, † October 27, 1549 ) was from 1500 to 1525 Countess of Rethel in its own right and through marriage from 1506 Countess of Nevers. She was the eldest daughter of Jean d' Albret - Orval († 1524) and his second wife Charlotte de Valois - Burgundy († 1500), Countess of Rethel. About her father came from Marie of the old and influential aristocratic family Gascon Albret, about her mother the House of Burgundy, which was a collateral line of the royal house of Valois.

Marie's successor in the county of Rethel was by her cousin Engelbert of Cleves ( Engilbert de Clèves ), Count of Nevers, denied. He was a son of her aunt Elisabeth de Valois - Burgundy, which had once inherited Nevers. The counties of Nevers and Rethel had previously always inherited in a hand already for several generations, a tradition that Marie's maternal grandfather was Count Johann II of Nevers -Rethel († 1491 ) broken. The dispute was taken up before the Parliament in Paris, where there was a settlement of the dispute by a compromise. Marie kept the Rethelois and should the son Engilberts, Charles de Clèves, marry, to unite the two counties again.

But even after 1504 the marriage took place, was Marie's legacy continues controversial. For now raised the husband of her younger sister Charlotte, Marshal Odet de Foix, in the name of his wife is entitled to Rethel, referring to the example of inheritance Count John II of Nevers -Rethel. Odet de Foix now reaping the benefit that the family Clèves had fallen to King Francis I of France temporarily out of favor, and Charles de Clèves died a prisoner in the Louvre on August 27, 1521. So Marie was forced on 1 July 1525 their rights to Rethel, as well as on the reigns of Donzy and Rosoy to Odet de Foix to sell. However, this had to explain to the house Clèves as testamentary heirs in the event of a total extinction of his family in return. This case should soon join actually after Odets son Henri in 1540 and daughter Claude had died in 1553 erbenlos. Marie's son François I de Clèves subsequently went the legacy of the Foix family and united with it again Nevers and Rethel.