Françoise Bette (1593–1666) was, from 1637 to 1666, the 26th abbess of

Forest Abbey Forest Abbey (french: Abbaye de Forest) or Vorst Abbey ( nl, Abdij van Vorst) was a Benedictines, Benedictine abbey located in the Brussels List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality of Forest, Belgium, Forest, Belgium ...

. She was born in

Lede Lede may refer to: * Lead paragraph (US English), the first paragraph of a composition Places * Lede, Belgium, a municipality in Flanders * Lède, a river in France * Lede Formation, a geologic formation in Belgium People * Marquess of Lede of ...

, in the

county of Flanders The County of Flanders was a historic territory in the Low Countries. From 862 onwards, the counts of Flanders were among the original twelve peers of the Kingdom of France. For centuries, their estates around the cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypr ...

, the daughter of Adrian Bette, knight, and Agnes de Merode de Rummen. Her cousin,

Guillaume de Bette Guillaume de Bette, 1st Marquess of Lede (c.1600– 23 June 1658), Baron of Péronne, Lord of Impe, Knight of Santiago, was a military commander and diplomat from the Spanish Netherlands. Life Bette was born at Lede around the beginning of the 17t ...

, 1st

Marquess of Lede The Marquess of Lede ( es, Marquesado de Lede) was a Flemish title in use during the Ancien Régime. Lede is a city in Flanders, Belgium. History Jacques, son of Adrian Bette, Lord of Angrelles inherited the Heerlijkheid of Lede, of his father ...

, was a knight of the

Order of Santiago The Order of Santiago (; es, Orden de Santiago ), is a religious and military order founded in the 12th century. It owes its name to the Patron Saint of Spain, "Santiago" ( St. James the Greater). Its initial objective was to protect the pilgr ...

with links to the Habsburg court. As abbess she faced financial strains, which she attempted to meet by selling off part of the abbey's land. She also attempted to reform the monastery, which had acquired a reputation for loose discipline. She was not notably successful in either effort. In 1644 she commissioned a precious

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including ''wikt:phylactery, phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it i ...

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style to house the relics of

Saint Alena Saint Alena (also written Alène
Accessed 2012-05-10. or Alina

. This was probably paid for by her family. It is now in the parish church of

Forest, Belgium ( French, ) or (Dutch, ), is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the southern part of the region, it is bordered by Anderlecht, Ixelles, Uccle, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the Flemish municipal ...

.Bart Fransen, "Recherches historiques / Historisch onderzoek", ''Bulletin'' of the

Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA, for ''Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium - Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique'') is a Belgian federal institute of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO). The ins ...

, 32 (2006-2008), pp. 95-101.

References

1593 births 1666 deaths Benedictine abbesses Nuns of the Spanish Netherlands Belgian Benedictines Belgian nobility {{Europe-noble-stub