The Powerful Women of Navarre
Fran Glaría | Traveling Steps
Navarre is the region I call home. Situated on the western side of the Pyrenees, the mountain range that separates Spain from France, the Kingdom of Navarre has been a key player in the history of Spain since the Middle Ages. You have to understand that we controlled both sides of the lowest pass in the Pyrenees—if you wanted to trade, invade or just visit the other side, you would have to negotiate with Navarre. Let's face it, when we say negotiate, we really mean pay for your passage…
Iberian Peninsula of the 1500s
Map created by Fran Glaría
In this macho world that we live in today, many cultures still hold the belief that women are inferior to men—inconsequential, second-rate. Even in so-called “civilised” societies the battle for women’s equality is not yet won. In the words of former US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Women belong in all places where decisions are made….It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
Yet in the small kingdom of Navarre, since the beginning of time, women have not only had their own identity and freedom, but most importantly, power. Many times, they have had to demonstrate their strength with grace, but not always with mercy.
Let me introduce you to some of these powerful ladies.
QUEEN TODA
Queen Toda
Image | British Library
In the 800s AD, one of the characteristics of Navarre society was matriarchy. While men dedicated their attention to wars and conquests, it was the women at home who took care of business. Navarre women were respected and their authority was totally accepted. Their bearing was haughty and imposing, many of them had blond hair and light eyes, and they wore their hair short as a sign of differentiation.
At this time Spain was occupied by the Moors, and Muslim men—accustomed to more docile, darker-skinned women—were very attracted to these Naverre women. In stark contrast to other Kingdoms, the Moors didn’t enter Navarre by force, killing or setting villages on fire, but rather through alliances and marriages.
In the time of the great Umayyad Caliph Abderramán III, leader of the Muslim Empire when the kingdom of Navarre was still called the Kingdom of Pamplona, there was a Christian Queen named Toda (876-958 AD). Related to Abderramán by marriage, Toda was astute enough to recognize how advanced the Moors were in their knowledge of medicine, astrology and mathematics. She understood that it was a far better option to get along with them, than fight against the might of their Empire. She hatched a plan to create a personal bond with Abderramán.
Queen Toda´s grandson, Sancho the Crassus, had an obesity problem. In Córdoba, the capital of the Muslim Empire at that time, there was an important doctor who could help her with this. It was the perfect excuse to move all her court—maids, gentlemen, lackeys, cooks, musicians, cupbearers, chaplains and guards—to Córdoba where she was welcomed by Abderramán, who was impressed by her knowledge of Muslim traditions. After a year in Córdoba, she returned to Navarre with a peace agreement…and a fat grandson!
A very slim Sancho “the Fat”
Image | Históriate Blog
Queen Toda had dared to establish good political relations with the “enemies” of Christianity, even if it meant going against the rule of Pope Agapito II. Message to Pope: never underestimate a Navarre woman!
There is a beautiful book by Angeles de Irisarri titled El Viaje de la Reina (The Journey of the Queen) where she tells us about the adventures of this exceptional woman. It’s worth reading because apart from the historical documentation it’s also a lot of fun.
Throughout the Middle Ages, while our Kings were engrossed in their struggles for the reconquest of the Christian kingdoms, it was the Queens who were left in charge of protecting the dynastic rights of their children—legitimate or not. Tough times require tough measures, and so in order to compensate for all the bad things the Queens had to do to control the conspiracies against the Kingdom, the Church made them build monasteries and churches to atone for their sins. This way, they would be considered good Christians and their afterlife assured. Their legacy lives on in our fine buildings.
QUEEN LEONOR OF TRASTAMARA
From the 1200s, the Kings of Navarre were almost entirely French born. They would only travel to the kingdom of Navarre to be crowned and inherit their title, before returning to their courts in France.
At the beginning of the 1400s, a great King, Carlos III reigned. He was born in France but was the exception in that he decided to rule Navarre from within. He wanted the Kingdom to have the same luxury and social importance as the French courts. A refined man who appreciated the good things in life, he pacified the city of Pamplona, restored the Cathedral and ordered the construction of several palaces, including the most famous one —The Royal Palace of Olite.
Royal pantheon of Carlos III and Leonor in Pamplona’s Cathedral
Image | Pamplona City Hall, Twitter
His wife, Leonor de Trastamara, was a beautiful, well-educated Castilian noble lady. Let's say that she was unusual for her time! She was known to have a devilish temper and stubborn character and was used to controlling the intrigues of their Kingdom of Castile. She expected to do the same in her husband's new Kingdom of Navarre, but while she wanted power, her husband King Carlos didn't quite agree with this. He was expecting a beautiful, quiet and compliant wife—big mistake my friend! Eleanor was so angry that she returned to her homeland in Castile where she lived for several years.
Negotiations were tough. King Carlos, who was very much in love with her, offered her all the tithes and first fruits of the lands of Puente la Reina—a rich and flourishing region on the Camino de Santiago—if she would only return to Navarre. That wasn’t enough for Leonor, she also negotiated control of part of her husband´s army, and having achieved what she wanted, she returned to Navarre and lived happily ever after. To make this “love story” even better, she proceeded to give her husband 8 children. Have I forgotten to mention that not all of the 8 kids were conceived by the King?
The 1500s may have been a period of significant change but not in the strength of the women of Navarre!
In 1469 Ferdinand (from Aragon) and Isabel (from Castile) were married. With this marriage they unified their kingdoms and so began the dynasty of Catholic Kings. However, it wasn’t until 1521 that the small kingdom of Navarra was conquered, and what we now know as Spain was created.
Isabel and Ferdinand—the beginning of the Spain’s Catholic Kings
Image | National Geographic
TRIO OF QUEENS—A ROYAL WINNING HAND
So, what happened to the Navarrese monarchy? Well, as they could no longer live in their Spanish territory, they had to move to the Lower Navarre, the part of their kingdom on the other side of the Pyrenees. The Castle of Pau became the new headquarters for these evicted royals. Despite being nestled in the wild and rural Pyrenees and now being much smaller in size, the strategic location of the Kingdom of Navarre meant that it was still highly coveted by both France and Spain.
It fell to three great queens to defend the Kingdom of Navarre and keep it free from external influences—their serene Majesties; Margarite de Angouleme (1492-1549), Juana D’Albret (1528-1572) and Margarite de Valois (1553-1615)
These wise and intrepid women promoted a social movement called Navarrism that aimed to reform medieval society and in particular to keep Navarre free from the influence of extremely conservative Catholic Kingdoms. They elevated their kingdom to the highest peak of humanism, despite the confrontation this entailed with Spain, France, and in particular, the Pope.
Margarite of Angouleme (1492-1549)
Margarita de Angulema
Image | Jean Clouet, Wikimedia Commons
Sister of Francois I, the King of France, Margarite was a highly educated woman who studied at the Sorbonne. She was a passionate reader of everything related to the new open ideas that were beginning to circulate around Europe. She hosted clandestine meetings in her Castle of Pau at which new ideas around science, letters and religion were discussed and where esotericism and the study of the Kabbalah were practiced.
She became the patron of such renowned writers as Rabelais and Marot, and she herself wrote several literary and poetry books. Her most famous work is The Heptameron, written in the manner of Giovanni Bocaccio´s Decameron. Margarite invited three men and three women to ten days of “arts and pleasure.” They dedicated their time not only to earthly pleasures, but most importantly, to telling stories of all kinds. While in Bocaccio´s creation, men are the ones who lead the stories and women are merely the sidekicks, in Margarite´s take, women take central stage and men, many times, are ridiculed both intellectually and sexually.
Juana D’Albret (1528-1572)
Queen Juana de Albret
Image | Casa Real Navarra
She was the daughter of Margarite of Angouleme and succeeded her as Queen of Navarre. She continued her mother's work and consolidated what would be called El Navarrismo. She married Antonio de Borbón for love and not at the arrangement of her parents, and with this marriage the Borbón (Bourbon) dynasty starts in both Spain and France.
She was a more austere woman than her mother but no less powerful a queen. In fact, she embodied the values that define what we consider as feminism today. She was intellectual, brave, and strong—a free-thinker, consistent with her ideas. When she had to make any decision regarding the kingdom, she would seek advice from the people who she considered to be wiser than her. This included her husband, who was well-trained in military matters. But while she might ask for his advice, she never needed his approval. Remember that she was the ruler, not her husband.
As Juana was an austere woman, her religious beliefs shifted towards Luther's reformed Protestant religion. While she never broke completely with the Catholic Church, she established laws for freedom of conscience and commissioned the translation of the Bible to the Basque language so that everyone could now access the word of God. She promoted culture and ensured that no one in her kingdom would be deprived of an education for financial reasons, by creating what today would be considered a very affordable student loan.
Juana organized the wedding of her son Henry III of Navarre with Margarite de Valois - daughter of Catherine de Medici, regent Queen of France and a staunch Catholic with a deep disapproval of the Lutheran influence Juana had introduced to the Navarre royal court. On the way to Paris, the royal entourage stopped overnight in Blois where they were welcomed by a committee sent by the regent queen Catherine de Medici. Juana was offered the most delicate perfume designed especially for her by Catherine´s private parfumier (perfume maker)—it had a base of orange blossoms, a touch of rose extracts and, unfortunately, some poisoned ointments that, when rubbed on her skin, destroyed Juana’s lungs in a few hours. So, Game of Thrones!
Margarite of Valois (1553-1615)
Queen Marguerite de Valois
Image | National Galleries
The famous queen Margot, sister of King Francis I of France - she lived to be 83 years old despite her dissolute life and excesses! Her marriage to Henry III of Navarre was one of convenience, but fate would dictate that when Francis I died at a young age, her husband Henry III of Navarre would inherit the throne of France to become the great French King Henry IV.
Their marriage was short-lived due to her sterility and inability to produce an heir to the throne (and in part also due to her scandalous affairs and licentious lifestyle). When she agreed to sever their union, she established the condition that she would never lose the title of Queen of Navarre and that she would be allowed to return to live in Pau. Happy days after the contempt with which she had been treated at Court in Paris.
Margarite found in Navarre a modest but liberal court that allowed her to continue with her frenetic way of life. Not shy with her lovers, she loved to wear vertigo cleavages and a blonde wig. She welcomed artists and writers, free-thinkers, scholars and like her predecessors, she continued to champion El Navarrissimo. She produced several literary works, and in one, she wrote a eulogy in honor of her predecessor Margarite of Angouleme. In it, she recognises that with no heir to follow her, the reign of the Margarites —or “Daisies” in Spanish—is over and writes: "After me the paradise of court pleasures will disappear, the flower of Daisies, the flower of France"
She wasn't wrong. Upon her death, Louis XIII (the son of Henry IV's second marriage with Maria de Medici) succeeded to the throne of France. This would end the Kingdom of Navarre by incorporating it into the French crown in 1620.
Thus ended the reign of the great Queens of Navarre who had done so much for their Kingdom. They understood science and funded new agricultural techniques including irrigation; they denounced the abuses of the Catholic Church and introduced the Protestant religion; they demonstrated respect for the native language so that educated citizens of the Kingdom spoke both Latin and Euskera (the Basque language). Perhaps most importantly, they defended feminism against all male powers so that it wasn’t simply an idea but a reality. Ideas coming from women had the same importance as those coming from men—an indicator of any civilised society.
