THE NUN OF JOUARRE
The Abbess who became Princess of Orange
by Sylvia Lacoski

When she was only thirteen years old, Charlotte de Bourbon was taken from her mother, her home and all she loved and packed off against her will to the convent of Jouarre in Normandy.

Charlotte was one of the daughters of the Duke of Montpensier, a stern and ardent Romanist.  Knowing she would be unable to change her husband's mind, her mother, who followed the Reformed faith, used what time they had together to instruct her daughter in the Gospel and pray for her.  She also encouraged Charlotte to sign a protestation against her enforced submission to convent life.

It was the middle of the sixteenth century and they were troubled times in France for those who sought to worship God in "spirit and in truth" John 4:24.  The New Testament had been translated into the French language in 1512.  It was eagerly read and rejoiced over, and as men and women turned from worshipping idols of "Our Lady" to worshipping the only Saviour, so Rome sought all cruel means to crush the Huguenots - the French Protestants - torture, massacres, the stake.  The "religious system" that calls itself the one true church could sell indulgences to murderers and thieves, while non-observance of a so-called "holy-day" fast meant death.

The years passed on.  The endless round of empty ritual must have been wearying to Charlotte, and the loss of her liberty keenly felt when her mother died and she was prevented from attending the deathbed.  However, her mother's prayers were not forgotten before God.  Several Reformed tracts and possibly a New Testament came into the convent.  She read them, and they brought back to her mind her mother's teachings, her prayers and tears.  The light of God's Word shone into that dark nunnery.

It was now 1572, the year of the St Bartholomew's Day massacre, when a papal medal was struck depicting the destruction of the Huguenots, Rome thus preserving for all time the evidence of her crimes.  The noise of battle was heard at Jouarre, the doors of the convent were flung open, and the nuns were free.  Charlotte de Bourbon took flight, passing from one place to another in disguise, for there was danger in travelling in France in those days.  She eventually arrived at Heidelberg in Germany by the goodness of God, and found refuge at the court of the Elector, Frederick III, which was a stronghold of the Reformed faith.

A nun had fled!  Her disappearance from Jouarre caused a tremendous stir.  That a lady Abbess, the daughter of a duke, and of the royal house of France should publicly abjure the Roman Catholic faith caused confusion and debate.  Her father, the Duke of Montpensier, who was foremost in the war against the Huguenots, threatened he would never forgive her.

Charlotte spent three years at the court at Heidelberg and it was here she met William the Silent, Prince of Orange.  In 1575 they were married, and Charlotte's father sent her a generous gift!  It was a very happy marriage between this Protestant Prince and his escaped nun.  She provided a loving home for William and for their six little girls, a Christian upbringing.  Her gentleness and gracious disposition made her loved by all.

Dark shadows gathered.  Philip II of Spain offered a reward to any who should kill William and what Charlotte had so much dreaded came to pass; he was shot through the neck by an assassin while in his own house.  For some time he lay in danger from the wounding, but he recovered and a service of thanksgiving was held in Antwerp.  But the rejoicing was to quickly turn to sorrow.  Weakened by anxiety and the constant nursing of her husband, Charlotte's own health began to fail; she developed pleurisy and in 1582 she died.  A great wave of sympathy went out for William at the death of his beloved Charlotte, the sometime Abbess of Jouarre.
 



(Taken from the July/August 1990 edition of "The Reformer", the official organ of the Protestant Alliance. Reproduced with permission.)

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