List of Navarrese monarchs


This is a list of the kings and queens of Pamplona, later Navarre. Pamplona was the primary name of the kingdom until its union with Aragon. However, the territorial designation Navarre came into use as an alternative name in the late tenth century, and the name Pamplona was retained well into the twelfth century.

House of Íñiguez, ? 824–905

The Íñiguez dynasty are credited with founding the Navarrese kingdom in or around 824 when they are said to have risen against an attempt to extend Frankish authority into the region. The Cordoban sources referred to them as sometimes-rebellious vassals, rather than in the manner used to refer to the Christian realms outside their control. They were supplanted in 905 when an anti-Cordoba coalition placed the succeeding Jiménez dynasty in power.
NamePortraitBirthMarriagesDeath
Íñigo Arista
? 824–851/2		4 children851/2
García Íñiguez
851/2–882		son of Íñigo Arista5 children882
Fortún Garcés
882–905		son of García ÍñiguezAuria
5 children		922

House of Jiménez">Jiménez dynasty">Jiménez, 905–1234

In 905, a coalition of neighbors forced Fortún Garcés to retire to a monastery, and enthroned in his place a scion of a new dynasty. Under their reign, the name Navarre began to supplant that of Pamplona.

House of Champagne">Champagne, France">Champagne, 1234–1284

The death of Sancho VII, the last of the Jiménez kings, led to the crown of Navarre being inherited by the son of his sister Blanche, Countess of Champagne, she having been regent during much of her brother's reign.

[Capetian dynasty], 1284–1441

[House of Capet], 1284–1349

Henry's unexpected death left his infant daughter Joan as the only heir to the throne. Joan's mother Blanche of Artois served as regent for the next ten years. In 1284 Joan was married to the future Philip IV of France, ending Blanche's regency. Philip assumed the throne of France a year later as "King of France and Navarre".

[House of Évreux], 1328–1441

After the deaths of Louis and his infant son John, his brothers Philip and Charles held the crowns of France and Navarre until their own deaths. At that time, the crown of France passed to Philip of Valois, a distant cousin who was not descended from Joan I, and the crown of Navarre was allowed to pass to Louis' daughter Joan II. Joan reigned together with her husband Philip III until his death, and then alone until her own death.

[House of Trastámara], 1425–1479

Blanche reigned together with her husband John II. In 1458, John additionally inherited the crown of Aragon from his older brother; after his death, the Navarrese crown was given to Eleanor, the only living child of him and Blanche, while his Aragonese crown was given to Ferdinand II of Aragon, son of John and his second wife Juana Enríquez.

Titular King and Queen of Navarre

After Blanche's death in 1441, John retained the crown of Navarre for himself until he died 38 years later, keeping it from his son and elder daughter, Charles and Blanche. Conflict with his son led to the Navarrese Civil War. Though some of the sources regard Charles and Blanche as the legitimate monarchs, the de facto king of Navarre was still John II. Eleanor didn't claim to be the queen until her father's death.

House of [Foix], 1479–1517

Eleanor, who had allied with her father against her brother and sister, outlived her father by only three weeks. By that time she was the widow of Gaston IV, Count of Foix, and their oldest son Gaston of Foix, Prince of Viana had also died. She was thus succeeded by her grandson Francis.

House of [Albret], 1484–1513

Catherine reigned together with her husband John III. After his death, she reigned alone for 8 months until her own death. During their reign, Navarre was defeated by Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1512, resulting in the loss of all its territory south of the Pyrenees, including the royal capital of Pamplona. Ferdinand, the son of John II and his second wife and thus the half-brother of Catherine's grandmother Eleanor, was then crowned King of Navarre, and that branch of the title descended through the Aragonese and Spanish monarchs. Catherine and John III were left with Lower Navarre, that small fraction of the kingdom's former territory that is on the north side of the Pyrenees, which was united with other lands in France that were under their control.

House of [Trastamara], 1513-1516

Division of Kingdom

[Lower Navarre]

In 1530, Charles V decided to renounce definitively any claim to Lower Navarre due to the impossibility of controlling it, and because it was being ruled effectively by Henry II. However, Charles V and his mother Joana III continued as kings in Upper Navarra.
Catherine and John III were left with that small fraction of the kingdom's former territory that is on the north side of the Pyrenees, which was united with other lands in France that were under their control.

House of [Albret], 1513–1572

[House of Bourbon], 1572–1620

Jeanne III reigned together with her husband Antoine until his death, and then alone until her own death. Their son Henry became King of France in 1589, taking possession of the kingdom in 1593 as the French Wars of Religion came to a close. Thereafter the crown of Navarre passed to the kings of France. In 1620, the Kingdom was merged into France; however, the French kings continued to use the title King of Navarre until 1791, and it was revived again from 1814 to 1830 during the Bourbon Restoration.

Upper Navarre">Navarre">Upper Navarre

House of [Trastamara], 1516-1555

House of Austria">Spanish Habsburg">House of Austria, 1516-1700

[House of Bourbon], 1700-1833

Current claimants