European Kingdoms

Kingdom of Navarre / Nafarroa
AD 840 - 1512

A pocket kingdom, Navarre was founded no later than AD 737 as a Frankish march county up alongside the Western Pyrenees. It was isolated from early contact with the Islamic invaders and was less involved with the Reconquista than other states. Initially under the domination of the Franks, it was also open to influence by the native Basque (Euskeran) peoples, and was, essentially, a Basque kingdom in pre-Spanish Spain (hence the Basque name, Nafarroa).

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in Genes, Peoples, and Languages (University of California Press, 2000) states (pp.120-121): '...the Basques once inhabited a much larger territory than today... During the last Palaeolithic period the Basque region extended over almost the entire area where ancient cave paintings have been found. There are some [clues] that Basque descends from a language spoken 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, during the first occupation of France by [Homo sapiens]... The artists of these caves would have spoken a language of the first, pre-agricultural Europeans, from which modern Basque is derived.'

c.737 - 840

Navarre is a Frankish march county in the face of the Islamic control of most of the rest of Iberia.

840 - c.851

Enneco / Inigo Arista

First king.

c.851 - c.880

Garcia I Iniguez

c.880 - 905

Fortuno / Fortun Garcés

905 - 925

Sancho I Garcés

925 - 970

(Jimeno) Garcia II Sanchez I

Acquired the county of Aragon, formerly in Francia.

970 - 994

Sancho II Garcés II Abarca

Count of Aragon (948-994).

994 - 1000

Garcia III Sanchez II

1000 - 1035

Sancho III the Great

1029 - 1035

Overlordship of the county of Portugal falls to Navarre. With the death of Sancho III in 1035, the county of Aragon is detached as a separate kingdom and Portugal goes to Castile.

1035 - 1054

Garcia IV

1054 - 1076

Sancho IV

1076 - 1134

Ruled by Aragon.

1134 - 1150

Garcia V Ramirez

1150 - 1194

Sancho VI the Wise

1194 - 1234

Sancho VII the Strong

1212

Caliph Muhammad suffers a devastating defeat by the Christian Iberians of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and Portugal at Los Navos de Tolosa. Humiliated, they are forced to give way, and their army never fully recovers from the disaster. In the east, the empire fades as local tribes begin to rebel against Almohad rule and control over more territory is gradually lost, along with domination of the western Mediterranean Sea.

Ongoing battles between the Almohads and the Iberian Christians would end up in North African defeat at the Battle of Los Navos de Tolosa in 1212

1234 - 1253

Teobaldo I of Champagne

1253 - 1270

Teobaldo II

1270 - 1274

Henry I

1274 - 1305

Juana / Jeanne I

m Philip IV of France.

1305 - 1316

Luis the Stubborn

Louis X of France.

1316 - 1322

Philip

Brother. Philip V of France.

1322 - 1328

Charles I

Brother. Charles IV of France.

1328 - 1349

Juana / Jeanne II

Dau. Disqualified from French throne by Salic Law.

1349 - 1387

Charles II the Bad

1369

The death of Pedro of Castile triggers a fight for the throne. Charles is among the competitors, as are the kings of Aragon, Portugal, and John of Gaunt, English duke of Lancaster. In the end it is Pedro's illegitimate brother who gains the throne, and all parties seek peace talks from Pope Gregory XI.

1387 - 1425

Charles III the Noble

Son.

1425 - 1479

Blanca / Blanche

Dau. m John I.

1425 - 1479

John I

Joint rule. King of Aragon (1459-1479).

1479

Leonor / Eleanore

Granddaughter.

1479 - 1481

Francis Febo / Francis Phoebus

Grandson.

1481 - 1512

Catalina / Catherine

Sister. m John II.

1483 - 1512

John II

Joint rule.

1512

Most of the kingdom is seized by Aragon and then Castile under Ferdinand of Navarre and then his son, Charles I of a united Spain.

French Navarre

Following the seizure of most of Navarre by Aragon in 1512, the remainder of the kingdom, known as French Navarre, was located in a tiny fragment of territory based at Pau in the French Department of Bearn.

1512 - 1517

Catalina / Catherine

1512 - 1516

John II

Joint rule.

1516 - 1555

Henry II

Son. Joint rule.

1555 - 1572

Jeanne III

Dau. m Anthony, duke of Vendome.

1555 - 1562

Anthony

Joint rule.

1562 - 1589

Henry III

Son. Succeeded to the throne of France as Henry IV Bourbon.

1589

With Henry III's accession to the French throne, Navarre becomes parts of France.