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- BIOGRAPHY
Madeleine was born at Tours on 1 December 1443, the daughter of Charles VII, king of France, and Marie d'Anjou. On 7 March 1461 at Saint-Jean-d'Angély she married Gaston de Foix, prince de Viana, vicomte de Castelbon, son of Gaston IV, comte de Foix, and Leonor, queen of Navarre, infanta of Aragón. Of their two children François Phoebus and Catherine, the latter would have progeny, marrying Jean, seigneur d'Albret, comte de Penthievre.
Her husband died in 1470, predeceasing his father Gaston IV; accordingly, when Gaston IV died in 1472, his possessions were inherited by Madeleine's son François Phoebus. François became the heir of Navarre in 1479 upon the death of his great-grandfather Juan II, king of Aragón and Navarre, who left Navarre to the rightful heir, Madeleine's mother-in-law Leonor, but she only spent a few weeks as queen before she herself died; François Phoebus became king, and his mother acted as regent until his death at age 17 in 1483; Madeleine then acted as regent for her daughter Catherine until 1494. During this regency she was forced to battle her brother-in-law Jean de Foix, comte d'Etampes, vicomte de Narbonne, who claimed the throne of Navarre as male heir of François Phoebus, by appealing to the Salic Law which had never been applied in Navarre.
Madeleine was taken hostage by Fernando II 'the Catholic', king of Aragón in 1494. She died in Pamplona on 21 January 1495; her death provoked fresh conflict.
With the death of Charles VIII of France (Madeleine's nephew), the descendants of Charles VI of France ceased to occupy the French throne. By the death in 1522 of Anne of France, daughter of Madeleine's brother Louis XI, Madeleine's descendants, along with those of her elder sister Yolande, wife of Amadeo IX 'the Happy', duke of Savoy, became the last surviving legitimate descendants of their father Charles VII. Her great grandson Henri III of Navarre would become king of France as Henri IV in 1589, returning the descendants of Charles VI and Charles VII to the French throne.
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