Ursula Germaine of Foix (c. 1488 – 15 October 1536) was an early modern French noblewoman from the House of Foix. She was the daughter of John, Viscount of Narbonne, and Marie of Orléans and granddaughter of Queen Eleanor of Navarre. By marriage to King Ferdinand II of Aragon (Eleanor's half-brother), she was Queen of Aragon, Majorca, Naples, Sardinia, Sicily, and Valencia and Princess of Catalonia from 1505 to 1516 and Queen of Navarre from 1512 to 1516. She was Vicereine of Valencia from 1523 until her death in 1536, jointly with her second and third husbands, respectively Johann of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria. By her third marriage, she was Duchess of Calabria.
Ancestry
Ursula Germaine of Foix was born around 1488, possibly in Mazères, Kingdom of France. Her father was John of Foix, Count of Étampes and Viscount of Narbonne, and her mother was Marie d'Orléans, the sister of Louis XII of France. Germaine had one sibling, a younger brother, Gaston of Foix, Duke of Nemours, who was an acclaimed military commander in the Italian Wars. Germaine's paternal grandmother, Queen Leonor of Navarra, was the older sister of Ferdinand the Catholic King, so Germaine was the great-niece of her future husband. Although part of the royal house of Navarre, she spent her childhood in association with the French monarchy. As both her son and her grandsons had already died, the Crown of Castile was inherited by her eldest living daughter, Joanna of Castile ("Joanna the Mad"; 1479–1555) and Joanna's husband, Archduke Philip of Austria, Lord of the Netherlands and Duke of Burgundy (Philip the Handsome; 1478–1506). King Ferdinand II of Aragon, Isabella's widower and Joanna's father, thus lost control of the countries that he had only ruled jure uxoris (Latin: "by right of [his] wife").
His main concern was that with his own death, the Crown of Aragon would also be inherited by Joanna and Philip, passing most of the Iberian peninsula to the House of Habsburg. This could have been prevented by the birth of a male heir to Ferdinand, who would have displaced Joanna from at least the order of succession of Aragon. The marriage led to a short period of peace between France and Aragon, but was badly received in Castile, where the majority of people had previously supported Ferdinand's claims, but saw his remarriage as a betrayal of their late queen, his first wife Isabella. The older king was a considerate, tender, and respectful husband, who reportedly had much sexual desire for his young wife, as well as for other women. Ferdinand convinced the cortes that Queen Joanna was too mentally ill to govern, and was appointed her guardian and regent of her countries. On 3 May 1509, Germaine gave birth to a son, Infante John, Prince of Girona, who died shortly after his birth. The couple did not have another child. If John had lived, or if they had had another son, the Crown of Aragon would have split from the Crown of Castile again, after being semi-united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. arrived in Castile in 1517, and Germaine moved from Aragon to be closer to his court, and lived in the Monastery of El Abrojo near Valladolid. At first, her stepgrandson, only 12 years her junior, showed much respect for her, rising from his seat and uncovering his head if she entered the room and addressing her kneeling, but soon abandoned this courtesy. He did, however, grant her Olmedo and Madrigal de las Altas Torres on 19 June 1517 and Arévalo on 15 March 1518. Around this time, she was described as "not very beautiful, somewhat lame, a great lover of lounging around and going to banquets, orchards, gardens, and parties".
Vicereine of Valencia
thumb|A 19th or early 20th century depiction of a scene from the revolt by [[Marcelino de Unceta.]]
thumb|Depiction of her third husband, the Duke of Calabria.
In 1523, Charles appointed the couple viceroys of Valencia.
A few days after Germaine's death, her husband sent a copy of the will to Empress Isabella with a cover letter noting "that Your Majesty can see the bequest of pearls that she left to the Most Serene Infanta."
In 1998, Jaime de Salazar y Acha cited the will and cover letter as evidence that Infanta Isabel may have been the daughter of Germaine and Charles V. Historian Manuel Fernández Álvarez agreed with this interpretation but did not provide any further evidence.
The claim was controversial and other historians have not accepted it. In her biography Germana de Foix (2003), Rosa Ríos Lloret pointed out that the will shows that Charles had a daughter named Isabel, but does not name her mother. Jaime de Salazar y Acha asserted that "the recent theory that Queen Germana left illegitimate offspring is completely unfounded."