The Queens Regnant of Navarre

Succession, Politics, and Partnership, 1274-1512

Elena Woodacre

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781137339157
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire moderne

The five queens of Navarre were the largest group of female sovereigns in one European realm during the Middle Ages, but they are largely unknown beyond a regional audience. This survey fills this scholarly lacuna, focusing particularly on issues of female succession, agency, and power-sharing dynamic between the queens and their male consorts.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION: GEOGRAPHY AND GENDERED RULE

The Pyrenean kingdom of Navarre, now a semiautonomous region in the northeast corner of Spain, was a realm that “was born and lived in the Middle Ages.”¹ Although it was smaller than its Iberian neighbors, Castile and Aragon, its comparatively diminutive size belies the kingdom’s historical significance. Navarre’s location gave it dominance over the most accessible, and therefore the most important, Pyrenean passes that controlled land traffic between the Iberian Peninsula and Continental Europe. Its central position on the famous pilgrimage route from Continental Europe to the shrine at Santiago de Compostela brought travelers and traders from across Europe. The kingdom was also a locus for cultural interaction as the junction between the Iberian Peninsula, France, and the Basque region.

However, Navarre’s strategic position was not its only significant feature. The Kingdom of Navarre had the largest group of female sovereigns in any one realm during the Middle Ages, with five women reigning in their own right between 1274 and 1512. Although many European realms theoretically permitted female succession in the absence of male heirs, the accession of women to the throne was fairly rare. No other European kingdom produced more than two queens regnant during this period, and many had none at all.² Moreover, Navarre was under nearly continuous female rule between the period of 1425 to 1512, with the exception of one fourteen-year interlude.

The unusual size of this particular cohort of queens provides an unparalleled opportunity to investigate developments in gynocracy in the Middle Ages. By examining them as a cohesive group, it is possible to evaluate the overall effect of female rule on the kingdom and gain an increased understanding of how women were able to access and exercise power as monarchs, both individually and in conjunction with their king consort. Moreover, the important familiar and political connections that the queens of Navarre had in Western Europe, and particularly in France and Iberia, make their situation incredibly significant to the wider context of medieval queenship.

Placing the Queens of Navarre in Their Historical Context

The foundations of the kingdom began with the rise of Kingdom of Pamplona, which began to be known as the Reino de Navarra, or Kingdom of Navarre, around the eleventh century.³ The early Middle Ages saw an expansion of Navarrese territory and influence that reached its zenith under the Sancho Garces III el Mayor who ruled from 1004 to 1035. This period saw an almost entirely Iberian focus for dynastic marriages, with the exception of a few royal brides who came from their French Pyrenean neighbors. However, the marriages of two Navarrese princesses, Berengaria and Blanche, in the late twelfth century, had an important impact on the future of the realm. Berengaria was married to Richard I of England, while her sister Blanche married Thibault of Champagne, a powerful French count, whose family was connected to the French crown and to the throne of Jerusalem. Blanche’s son, Thibault, eventually became Teobaldo I of Navarre after the death of his uncle, Sancho VII, without issue. The accession of Teobaldo I forged a union between Navarre and his own counties of Champagne and Brie, which greatly increased the size of the royal domains and their overall wealth. This connection also radically changed the diplomatic outlook of the realm, forcing it to look north, bringing new connections in France and beyond. As one of the most important magnates in France, it is unsurprising that the Champenois kings chose almost exclusively French brides, in fact from 1234 to 1387, none of the rulers of Navarre had an Iberian spouse.

The French entanglement became much more permanent at the end of the thirteenth century. The last Champenois king, Enrique I, died in 1274, leaving his infant daughter, Juana, as his heir. Her mother, Blanche of Artois, struggled to secure the realm for her daughter as her Iberian neighbors moved in with predatory intent and the kingdom became increasingly unstable. Only months after her husband’s death, Blanche fled across the Pyrenees and appealed for support from her relative Philip III of France to help her infant daughter keep her newly acquired crown. The Treaty of Orleans, in May 1275, provided a marriage agreement between his son Philip and the young queen that would eventually unite the crowns of France and Navarre. This gave the French king a strategic toehold in Iberia, while it ensured that Juana would retain her throne. Perhaps more importantly, it also brought the young queen’s rich Champenois lands into the royal fold. The Capetians held the throne of Navarre until 1328 as the throne passed through all three of the couple’s sons. During this period, Navarre was governed remotely from Paris with a team of French governors and officials installed in Pamplona.

The year 1328 was crucial in Navarrese history. Juana’s eldest son, Louis, died in 1314 and was succeeded in both France and Navarre by his brothers Philip and Charles in turn. Although Louis’s daughter Juana had been bypassed for the French succession due to her extreme youth, sex, and disputed parentage, by Navarrese law and custom, she was considered to be the rightful queen of Navarre. The Navarrese tolerated the rule of Louis’s brothers, but when Philip of Valois eventually claimed the French crown on Charles’s death in 1328, there was no possibility of allowing him to claim Navarre as he lacked any blood tie to the royal Navarrese line. Juana was finally acknowledged as queen of Navarre, and she and her husband, Philip d’Evreux, went to Pamplona to receive the crown.

The advent of the Evreux dynasty severed the direct linkage between the crowns of Navarre and France, although it did not entirely remove the entanglement in French politics. Juana II’s son, Carlos II of Navarre (often referred to as Charles le Mauvais or Charles the Bad), still saw himself as a potential claimant to the French throne and his involvement in the Hundred Years War was both destructive and costly. However, the Evreux dynasty did involve itself considerably more in Iberian politics and the running of the realm than their Capetian predecessors. They built bonds of alliance and marriage with Aragon and Castile, and although they were forced to divide their time between their French and Iberian holdings, they did reside for long periods in Navarre in contrast to the practice of the Capetians.

The reign of Carlos III saw an increasing shift into the Iberian sphere. Although some historians have argued that he saw himself as more of a French prince than an Iberian king, an examination of his reign shows an ever-increasing Iberianization.⁴ His marriage to Leonor de Trastámara solidified the realm’s links to Castile and brought a strong Iberian influence to the court.⁵ The marriages of Carlos’s daughters and sisters also showed a healthy balance between protecting his own frontiers and building wider diplomatic links. Carlos used matrimonial diplomacy effectively, his female relatives were contracted in marriages with English kings, Iberian princes, and French lords to build a wide-ranging network of alliances. Carlos also married his illegitimate offspring to key nobles within the realm to ensure their support and loyalty.

However, his daughter and eventual heir Blanca’s marriages demonstrate a definite Iberian emphasis of Carlos’s foreign policy. Her first marriage was to Martín the Younger, King of Sicily and heir to the throne of Aragon. The death of her husband and infant son ultimately led to the Compromise of Caspe and the advent of the Trastámara dynasty in Aragon. Carlos decided to renew the connection with Aragon with Blanca’s second marriage to the Infante Juan. However, the decision to retain the marital alliance with Aragon failed to guarantee peace with their Spanish neighbors.

Juan of Aragon eventually drew Navarre into a war with Castile due to his continual interference in the Castilian politics. The Treaty of Toledo in 1436 attempted to restore Iberian harmony through a marriage between the young Castilian heir and Blanca and Juan’s eldest daughter.⁶ Blanca’s children were comfortably placed to ensure Iberian hegemony, with her son as the heir to Navarre and Aragon, her daughter Blanca set to become Queen of Castile, and her youngest daughter, Leonor, as the Countess of Foix. However, after her death in 1441, Juan of Aragon used a codicil in her will to prevent their son Carlos, the Principe de Viana, from acceding to the throne of Navarre, and instead favored the claim of his son Ferdinand, by his second wife, for the throne of Aragon. The quarrel between Juan and Carlos gave rise to a civil war in Navarre that continued long after both men died. The kingdom never managed to fully recover from the effects of this prolonged upheaval and conflict. Matters were made worse by Enrique IV’s decision to repudiate his Navarrese bride in 1453. Upon her return to Navarre, the princess Blanca joined her brother in his struggle against their father.

The marriage of the youngest daughter, Leonor, to Gaston IV of Foix was not originally intended to unite the realm with its Pyrenean neighbors. However, Juan’s decision to favor Leonor’s claim over that of her older siblings, and the shadowy deaths of the Principe de Viana and the Infanta Blanca changed the direction of Navarrese history. Leonor was promoted to heir apparent, and she governed Navarre as Juan’s lieutenant from 1455 to 1479. Her marriage created a union with the house of Foix-Béarn which pulled the loyalties of the Navarrese crown back toward France and created a situation where the ruling dynasty was struggling to manage a large territorial amalgamation on both sides of the Pyrenees.

The creation of a Pyrenean bloc was a risky strategy, but it was not without logic or merit. In theory, increasing their territorial size should have made them less vulnerable and prevented them from being caught up in the perpetual tug-of-war between France and its Iberian neighbors. However, the creation of this impressive Pyrenean block or “núcleo pirenaico” built by the marriages of Navarrese queens to the lords of Foix and Albret was a potentially dangerous strategy that upset the delicate equilibrium in the region.⁷

The damage done by the civil war triggered by Juan and Carlos’s struggle split the country into rival camps, the Agramonts and the Beaumonts. This lack of cohesion was exacerbated by the addition of the territories of the Foix and Albret consorts, whose interests, customs, traditions, and languages had little in common with the Iberian kingdom that they were joined to. It only remained for their predatory neighbors to exploit the destabilization of the Pyrenean realm in order to secure their own frontiers against their rivals. In 1512, Ferdinand of Aragon was able to invade and annex Navarre during the reign of Catalina I, leaving the queen and her descendants with an empty title and their remaining territorial possessions in France.

As this summary has demonstrated, Navarre’s location made the realm an incredibly strategic territory, which France, Castile, Aragon, and to some extent England, all sought to control. The realm was subject to influence and interference from both Iberia and France, and the marriages of its rulers, particularly the queens regnant, drove the foreign policy of the kingdom. Thus the kingdom’s destiny during the Middle Ages was shaped, to a significant degree, by the combination of its position at the crossroads between Iberia and France and the advent of its female rulers.

Female Rule and Partnership

Despite the fact that the queens regnant of Navarre form such a uniquely large group, they have attracted little academic investigation outside of their own region and have never been explicitly studied in the context of female rule. This study will provide a unique perspective and a deeper analysis of the political careers and partnerships of these significant but previously overlooked sovereigns. It will identify the factors that enabled so many women to rule in one kingdom, demonstrate how the foreign policy of the kingdom was shaped by the marriages of its queens, characterize different modes of partnership between the queens and their consorts, and finally evaluate the overall impact of female rule on Navarre in the Middle Ages.

The study of queenship is a field that has developed rapidly in recent years although its origins stem from a long-standing interest in notable female figures, many of whom, such as Isabel of Castile, Elizabeth of England, and Eleanor of Aquitaine, were queens.⁸ In the late 1960s it began to develop as a distinctive discipline under the umbrella of Women’s and later Gender Studies with sur...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1 Introduction: Geography and Gendered Rule
• 2 Juana I: The Vacant Throne
• 3 Juana II: The Queen Returns Home
• 4 Blanca I: The Peacemaker
• 5 Leonor: Civil War and Sibling Strife
• 6 Catalina I: Unequal to the Task?
• 7 Conclusions
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index