Jane Margaret of England (Blooming Roses)

Jane, Queen of France and Navarre (Jane of England) (30 June 1557 - 1 January 1602) was Queen of France and Navarre as the wife of Henry VI. She was the oldest living child of Isabella of Cleves  and Edward VI by minutes, being the twin sister of Arthur, Prince of Wales. Her birth was greeted by much joy after a miscarried brother a year earlier. She was renowned as the "palest rose" for having blonde hair instead of the distinctive red known for the Tudors.

Early Life
Jane (born Jane Margaret) was born on 30 June in 1557. She had a twin brother, Arthur, who died in childhood. She was known to be one of her father's favorite children. As the eldest daughter of a sovereign, she was a highly valuable prize, in the event of her brothers' issue failing the succession would pass to her heirs, (a prospect that declined greatly at the time of her death). The French ambassador wrote of her in 1566, "The King's eldest daughter is graceful and stands out greatly beside her two young sisters. Her eyes are like that of a clear sky and her hair is light to where it appears white. Although she appears as an apparition, she is beautiful, the palest rose." It is said that her pale appearance inclined her mother to name her Jane, after her paternal grandmother. Her governess was Ruth Howard and she shared a nursery with her sisters, Anna and Constance. She did not have a grasp for languages and only learned French fluently, but she could embroider well, a skill she was said to have inherited from her namesake. She had a strained relationship with her mother, who was exasperated with her daughter's inability to speak multiple languages. Her mother often complained that she was slow witted and that she was an embarrassment. She grew to resent her younger sister Constance, who was her mother's favorite daughter, although she had a close relationship with her sister Anna. She grew closer to Constance after her marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor proved to be miserable.

Marriage
Jane had been betrothed to Henry of Navarre since the age of 5 to secure an alliance between the two Protestant nations. Isabella hoped for a love match and often invited the Navarrese nobility to England to foster a connection between the two. In 1572, her mother broke the betrothal, fearing that the French Wars of Religion would harm her fifteen year old daughter. She decided to offer Jane to Sebastian of Portugal in place of her younger sister Anna. However, Jane was determined to marry Henry, and he was equally determined to avoid being married to Margaret of Valois, the bride being offered in her place. He sent a small boat to sail her to Navarre and then married her. Her parents were not informed of the marriage until it was certain that she was pregnant. A year later, she gave birth to a daughter named Madeleine Elisabeth. Her mother was scandalized, and the rocky relationship with her mother deteriorated further. Jane's marriage was a love match, although relations between Jane and Henry became rocky when she struggled to provide a male heir for France after Henry's ascension in 1589. She had given him a second daughter, Charlotte Louise and three sons: Henry, Charles, and Louis who had all died around the age of 1. After the birth of Gaston, Jane and Henry were relieved when the baby boy lived past age 1, when their other three sons all expired. Soon after, Blanche Marie was born, followed by two stillborn sons that seemed to render Jane infertile.

Navarre
Until Gaston was born, Madeleine Elisabeth was the heiress of Navarre and had been groomed as such. Jane had grown fond of Navarre and didn't want it to be absorbed by France. She demanded to her husband that Madeleine inherit Navarre and Gaston inherit France to prevent a personal union of France and Navarre. Henry refused initially, but he was persuaded by Jane and Madeleine Elisabeth to allow his eldest daughter to become queen regnant as his mother had been. When Madeleine Elisabeth was 18 in 1591, Henry had the nobles of Navarre and eight year old Gaston swear to him that Madeleine Elisabeth would be recognized as Queen of Navarre when he died and that Charlotte Louise would be her heir if she died without issue, and Blanche Marie would be her heir. In the event that all three daughters died without issue Navarre would fall to Gaston.

Death
Jane died in France at the age of 45 in 1602. She died months before her mother. Henry was heartbroken by her death, although he tenatively sought to remarry, but later changed his mind. He was assassinated in 1610 and was succeeded by Gaston in France and Madeleine Elisabeth in Navarre.