Charles III of Navarre

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For other uses, see Charles III (disambiguation).
Charles III
King of Navarre and Count of Évreux
Detail of his recumbent effigy on the tomb in Pamplona Cathedral (Janin Lomme de Tournai, 1416)
ReignJanuary 28, 1387 – September 8, 1425
PredecessorCharles II the Bad
SuccessorBlanche I
Born(1361-07-22)July 22, 1361
Mantes-la-Jolie, Kingdom of France
DiedSeptember 8, 1425(1425-09-08) (aged 64)
Olite, Kingdom of Navarre
SpouseEleanor of Trastámara
IssueSee issue
HouseÉvreux
DynastyCapetian dynasty
FatherCharles II the Bad
MotherJoan of Valois

Charles III of Navarre, called the Noble (Mantes-la-Jolie, July 22, 1361 – Olite, September 8, 1425), was King of Navarre (1387–1425), Count of Évreux (1387–1404) and Duke of Nemours (1404–1425). He was the son and successor of Charles II the Bad and of Joan of Valois.

Life

While still an Infante, in 1378, by order of his father (Charles II), he led an embassy to negotiate with Charles V of France. The latter took him prisoner and ordered the seizure of the Navarrese possessions in France, of which only the impregnable Cherbourg was saved. During the interrogation, the Navarrese King's plans to obtain the town of Logroño were uncovered. Alerted, King Henry II of Castile ordered the invasion of Navarre, forcing Charles II to sign the Treaty of Briones. The Infante Charles was released in 1380.[1]

His marriage to Eleanor of Trastámara, daughter of King Henry II of Castile, on May 27, 1375[2] put an end to the conflicts between the two kingdoms and created a friendly relationship that continued in the time of the Kings of Castile John I and Henry III.

In a context of economic crisis, a peaceful foreign policy and the growing aristocratization of society (parallel to that of Aragon), Charles III pursued a policy in keeping with the possibilities and resources of Navarre.

He sought to ease relations with Castile, Aragon, France and England through a policy of collaboration, support for the Avignon Papacy and marriage ties.

With Castile he collaborated in the wars against Granada and promoted the marriages of the Infante John, son of Ferdinand of Antequera, with the Infantas Isabel and Blanche (1412).

He also sought peace with Aragon through the marriage of the Infanta Blanche to Martin the Younger (1402), at that time heir to the Aragonese throne. The same was done with respect to France and England.

The link between Navarre and the French house of Foix (through the marriage of his daughter Joan to John I of Foix) was his doing. This marriage had been arranged before the death of the heir to the Navarrese throne, Charles, and was celebrated afterwards, even though it meant that his son-in-law would add Navarre to his domains, which is interpreted as meaning that the Monarch did not mind his kingdom becoming part of the French feudal world.[3] In any case, Joan's death without issue frustrated that possibility.

Among his political reforms, the creation of the Cort, or supreme court, in 1143 stands out.

The abandonment of his father's expansionism allowed him to embody a process of distancing from France and of "Navarrization" of the Évreux dynasty. Through the Treaty of Paris of 1404, the differences with Charles VI of France were settled by renouncing the French fiefs of his house (Champagne, Brie), and Navarrese were appointed to the main government posts.

In 1423 he instituted the title of Prince of Viana for the heirs to the throne of the Navarrese kingdom. The first to hold this title was his grandson Charles. Also in that year he signed the Privilege of the Union. At the beginning of his reign he created the Order of the White Greyhound, which bore the motto «A Buena Fe» ("In Good Faith").

In 1415 the problem arose of whom to marry his daughter Blanche, now the heiress. The Foix put forward as a candidate the widower of their eldest daughter Joan, John III, and Ferdinand of Antequera proposed his second son, the future John, twelve years younger than his prospective wife. In the end, between becoming embedded in the network of French lordships and continuing as a kingdom (albeit within the political network of Aragon), the Monarch chose the latter.[4] The conditions for the marriage, set out in the treaty of Olite signed on November 6, 1419, and that of Guadalajara on February 18, 1420, were as follows: the throne would go to Blanche (who would receive the Duchy of Nemours) and her descendants, no part of Navarre could be annexed to another kingdom, and public offices were to be held only by Navarrese. The kingdom was thus linked to the powerful Trastámara dynasty, but with safeguards for its continued existence.[5]

He stood out as a patron of the arts, as he completed the reconstruction of Pamplona Cathedral, which had collapsed on July 1, 1380, and had the royal palaces of Tafalla and Olite built, the latter being where he died in 1425 at the age of 64.

Issue

He married Eleanor of Trastámara, daughter of King Henry II of Castile, in Soria on May 27, 1375.[2] They had the following children:

He had several illegitimate children, «born of noble ladies»:[6]

  • Joan of Navarre,[8] the eldest daughter born out of wedlock,[6] with Gracia del Verde.[9] On March 8, 1396, the marriage contract was signed for her wedding to Íñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga, legitimate son of Diego López de Zúñiga, Chief Justice of the King.[10] Both were minors. The betrothal was signed on August 26, 1403,[11] and the marriage was not celebrated until some five years later.
  • Lancelot (c. 1386 – January 8, 1420), vicar general and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Pamplona[6] while it was vacant, between 1408 and 1420.
  • Godfrey, Count of Cortes and Marshal of Navarre.[6] He first married Teresa Ramírez de Arellano, with whom he had a daughter, Blanche, who died young. Once Godfrey arrived in Castile, he married Elvira de Torres de Navarra, his kinswoman, with a great difference in age, but he took an interest in her to secure his influence in Castile and Andalusia, since the House of Torres was among the most powerful. Godfrey had by then lost much influence, his half-sister having come to the throne. With Elvira he had a son, Charles of Navarre, also called Charles of Cortes, who served at the court of Castile. It was he who, accompanying his uncles of the House of Torres, received the Catholic Monarchs with great splendor upon their arrival in the Kingdom of Jaén.[citation needed]
  • Joan of Navarre, namesake sister of the eldest daughter among the children born out of wedlock.[6] She married Louis of Beaumont,[8][6] who was created Count of Lerín by his father-in-law on the occasion of his wedding.
  • Leonel, died after 1441.
  • Maria, a nun.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Charles III of Navarre

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ In January 1406 Queen Doña Eleanor ordered payment "to the convent of friars minor of Olite as alms for the service they performed... over the body of the Infanta Doña María". Yanguas y Miranda, J. (1845) Adiciones al Diccionario de antigüedades de Navarra (Pamplona), Volume II, p. 308, note "caj. 93, n. 3".

References

  1. ↑ Herreros Lopetegui, Susana (1993). "Navarra en la órbita francesa". Historia Ilustrada de Navarra (in español). Pamplona: Diario de Navarra. ISBN 84-604-7413-5.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Agapito y Revilla 1922, p. 176.
  3. ↑ Suárez Fernández 1985, p. 40.
  4. ↑ Suárez Fernández 1985, p. 41.
  5. ↑ Suárez Fernández 1985, pp. 41–42.
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 Agapito y Revilla 1922, p. 177.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tanco Lerga 2011, p. 19.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Tanco Lerga 2011, p. 47.
  9. ↑ "Documentos de Enrique III. Fondo Mercedes Gaibrois de Ballesteros" (PDF). Real Academia de la Historia (in español). Madrid. p. 815, doc. 3082.
  10. ↑ Agapito y Revilla 1922, p. 178.
  11. ↑ Agapito y Revilla 1922, p. 179.

Bibliography

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