ABSTRACT
Charlotte de Bourbon was about twenty-five years old when she made the dramatic decision to leave the convent in which she had lived since she was a child. The daughter of Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, and his first wife Jacqueline de Long-Wy, she was professed as a nun in 1559, at the age of twelve or thirteen, in the convent of Our Lady at Jouarre. At the time of her profession, Charlotte de Bourbon took the precaution of making a public oral protest, which she later confirmed in a formal written “protestation.” She alO leged that she was taking the veil against her will, under threat from her mother, and through fear of disobeying her father (Delaborde 8-9). Her father was indeed a leader in the Catholic cause in France, but her mother’s role is less clear, since she is known to have assisted Huguenots at the court of Catherine de Medicis (Roelker, “The Role of Noblewomen”; Couchman 1997, 113-114 n. 16).
