Alain I of Albret called "The Great", was a powerful French aristocrat. He was 16th Lord of Albret

Albret

The lordship of Albret , situated in the Landes, gave its name to one of the most powerful feudal families of France in the Middle Ages...

, Viscount of Tartas

Tartas

Tartas is a commune in the Landes department in Aquitaine in south-western France.-References:* Based on the article in the French Wikipedia....

, the 2nd Count of Graves

Graves

Graves is an important subregion of the Bordeaux wine region. Graves is situated on the left bank of the Garonne river, in the upstream part of the region, southeast of the city Bordeaux and stretch over...

, and the Count of Castres

Castres

Castres is a commune, and arrondissement capital in the Tarn department and Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France. It lies in the former French province of Languedoc....

. He was the son of Catherine de Rohan and Jean I of Albret. He was the grandson and heir of Charles II of Albret

Charles II of Albret

Charles II d'Albret was a French magnate, administrator, and soldier.He was the son of Charles d'Albret and Marie de Sully. His father died in 1415 at the Battle of Agincourt, leaving the younger Charles as lord of Albret and titular Count of Dreux, titular count since after Agincourt the lands of...

, and became head of the House of Albret in 1471.

He was skillful, but also very fickle, greedy, and unscrupulous. During his half century of rule, he took a political course which was more agitated than effective, following his father's example, making him one of the most visible actors on the stage of Europe.

Early career

Alain I initially benefited from his fidelity to King Louis XI of France

Louis XI of France

Louis XI , called the Prudent , was the King of France from 1461 to 1483. He was the son of Charles VII of France and Mary of Anjou, a member of the House of Valois....

, and thereby enlarged his principality. He married Françoise de Châtillon, and this marriage brought him the inheritance of the county of Périgord

Périgord

The Périgord is a former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. It is divided into four regions, the Périgord Noir , the Périgord Blanc , the Périgord Vert and the Périgord Pourpre...

 as well as the viscounty of Limoges

Limoges

Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....

.

He then seized Armagnac

Armagnac (region)

The hilly countship of Armagnac , in the foothills of the Pyrenées between the Adour and Garonne rivers, is a historic countship of the Duchy of Gascony, established in 601 in Aquitaine...

, and married his son John

John III of Navarre

John III , also known as Jean d'Albret, was jure uxoris, King consort of the Queen regnant Catherine of Navarre.He was a son of Alain I of Albret, Lord of Albret, and his wife, Frances of Châtillon-Limoges.-King of Navarre:...

 to Catherine of Navarre

Catherine of Navarre

Catherine was Queen of Navarre , duchess of Gandia, Montblanc, and Peñafiel, countess of Foix, Bigorre, and Ribagorza, and viscountess of Béarn.- Biography :...

, heiress of the counties of Foix

Foix

Foix is a commune, the capital of the Ariège department in southwestern France. It is the least populous administrative centre of a department in all of France, although it is only very slightly smaller than Privas...

 and Bigorre

Bigorre

Bigorre is region in southwest France, historically an independent county and later a French province, located in the upper watershed of the Adour, on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, part of the larger region known as Gascony...

 and of the Kingdom of Navarre

Kingdom of Navarre

The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....

.

The Mad War

At this time, Alain I hoped to consolidate his power by taking control of the Duchy of Brittany by marriage to Anne of Brittany

Anne of Brittany

Anne, Duchess of Brittany , also known as Anna of Brittany , was a Breton ruler, who was to become queen to two successive French kings. She was born in Nantes, Brittany, and was the daughter of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and Margaret of Foix. Her maternal grandparents were Queen Eleanor of...

, the daughter and heir of Duke Francis II. He entered into rebellion against the royal authority in support of the Duchy, during the so-called Mad War

Mad War

The Mad War , also known as the War of the Public Weal, was a late Medieval conflict between a coalition of feudal lords and the French monarchy. It occurred during the regency of Anne of Beaujeu in the period after the death of Louis XI and before the majority of the young king Charles VIII...

. His intrigues were unsuccessful, and he was defeated, having been unable to provide support to the Duke in 1487. The following year, he brought reinforcements by sea, but was defeated by Louis II de la Trémoille

Louis II de la Trémoille

thumb|Portrait of Louis II de la Trémoille by [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]] or one of his assistants.Louis II de la Trémoille was a French general. He served under three kings: Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I...

 at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier

Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier (1488)

The Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier took place on July 28, 1488, between the forces of king Charles VIII of France, and those of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and his allies. The defeat of the latter signalled the end to the "guerre folle" , a feudal conflict in which French aristocrats revolted...

. He continued, however, to claim the legacy of Francis II, occupying Nantes with his Gascon troops. He still hoped to marry Anne and inherit the Duchy but found it expedient to deliver Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

 to the royal army in exchange for an agreement that the French would support his claim to Anne's hand. Anne had no intention of marrying Alain, who she considered crude and brutal. Instead she married the French king, putting an end of Alain's dynastic ambition in Brittany.

Family

Despite his failure in Brittany, Alain established other dynastic links through his daughter, Charlotte of Albret

Charlotte of Albret

Charlotte of Albret, suo jure Dame de Châlus, Duchess of Valentinois , also known as Charlotte d'Albret, was a wealthy French noblewoman of the Albret family. She was the sister of King John III of Navarre, and the wife of the notorious Cesare Borgia whom she married in 1499...

, who married Caesar Borgia in 1500. His great-granddaughter, who married Antoine de Bourbon, was the mother of King Henry IV of France

Henry IV of France

Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....

.

Alain d'Albret died in Castel Jaloux

Casteljaloux

Casteljaloux is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France.-See also:*Communes of the Lot-et-Garonne department...

on 1 (?) October 1522.