At the same time Luther was lecturing to the seminary students in Wittenburg on the meaning of the prophet Isaiah in their personal lives, a marriage took place in France that was to have far-reaching impact on the future of the Protestant Reformation. Margaret of Angouleme, sister of King Francis I, married Duke Henry of Navarre, whose family name was Bourbon. Navarre today lies in Spain in the Pyrenees, where the Basques live. I’ve been there to visit Basque friends of mine. Touring their churches and villages, local townsfolk told me how they remembered the days of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, when their friends were machine-gunned to death in local bistros. Yes, they remember; they do not forget.

The Bourbons come from that part of the world. A thousand years ago, after the kin…