Blanche OF ARTOIS (aft1245-1302)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note

Blanche of Artois (1248 – 2 May 1302) was the queen consort of Navarre; after her husband Henry I of Navarre's death, she served as regent from 1274 to 1284 on behalf of her daughter, Joan I. Besides Navarre, she ruled the counties of Brie, Champagne, Troyes et Meaux.

In 1276, she became Countess of Lancaster by marrying into the English royal family.

She was the daughter of Count Robert I of Artois and Matilda of Brabant.

Blanche's paternal grandparents were Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile, and her maternal grandparents were Henry II, Duke of Brabant and Marie of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Philip of Swabia.

Blanche married Henry I of Navarre (ruled 1270–1274) who died in 1274. This marriage was politically adavantageous for Navarre, Blanche having been the niece of King Louis IX of France. Together they had two children:

Theobald - d. 1270 fell from a battlement at the castle of Estella

Joan I of Navarre, who became Queen regnant of Navarre and Queen consort of France

After Henry's death, Blanche married Edmund Crouchback (1245–1296), in 1276, an English prince who was a younger son of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence. Edmund was also a widower, his young wife having died the same year as Blanche's husband.

Edmund and Blanche had four children:

Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster (1278 – 22 Mar 1322)

Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (1281 – 22 September 1345)

John, Lord of Beaufort (c. 1282–1327)

Mary (c. 1284 – c. 1289)

Henry's eldest daughter, Blanche, would be named after her.

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