Family of Henry I + and Blanche + of ARTOIS

Husband:	Henry I + (1244-1274)
Wife:	Blanche + of ARTOIS (1248-1302)
Children:	Joan I + of NAVARRE (1273-1305)
	Theobald of NAVARRE ( -1270)

Husband: Henry I +

Name:	Henry I +
Sex:	Male
Nickname:	The Fat
Father:	Theobald I + of NAVARRE (1201-1253)
Mother:	Margaret + of BOURBON (1211-1256)
Birth	1244	Troyes, Aube, Champagne, France
Occupation		King of Navarre
Title	frm 1270 to 1274 (age 25-30)	King of Navarre
Title	frm 1270 to 1274 (age 25-30)	Count of Champagne
Death	22 Jul 1274 (age 29-30)	Pamplona, Navarre, Spain

Wife: Blanche + of ARTOIS

Name:	Blanche + of ARTOIS
Sex:	Female
Father:	Robert I + (1216-1249)
Mother:	Matilda + (1224-1288)
Birth	1248	Arras, France
Title		Queen Consort of Navarre
Death	2 May 1302 (age 53-54)	Paris, Seine, Ile-de France,France

Child 1: Joan I + of NAVARRE

Child 2: Theobald of NAVARRE

Name:	Theobald of NAVARRE
Sex:	Male
Death	1270
	Cause: fell from a battlement at the Castle of Estrella

Note on Husband: Henry I +

Henry I the Fat (French: Henri le Gros, Spanish: Enrique el Gordo) (c. 1244 – 22 July 1274) was the Count of Champagne and Brie (as Henry III) and King of Navarre from 1270. After a brief reign, characterised, it is said, by dignity and talent, he died in July 1274, suffocated, according to the generally received accounts, by his own fat.

 

Henry was the youngest son of Theobald I of Navarre and Margaret of Bourbon. During the reign of his older brother Theobald II he held the regency during many of Theobald's numerous absences and was declared heir by his childless brother, whom he succeeded in December 1270. His proclamation at Pamplona, however, did not take place till March of the following year (1271), and his coronation was delayed until May 1273. His first act was the swear to uphold the Fueros of Navarre and then go to perform homage to Philip III of France for Champagne.

 

In 1269 Henry had married Blanche of Artois, daughter of Robert I of Artois and niece of Louis IX of France. He was thus in the "Angevin" circle in international politics. He came to the throne at the height of an economic boom in Navarre that was not happening elsewhere in Spain at as great a rate. But by the Treaty of Paris (1259), the English had been ceded rights in Gascony that effectively cut off Navarrese access to the ocean (since France, Navarre's ally, was at odds with England).

 

Henry allowed the Pamplonese burg of Navarrería to disentangle itself from the union of San Cernin and San Nicolás, effected in 1266. He also granted privileges to the towns of Estella, Arcos, and Viana, fostering urban growth. His relations with the nobility were, on the whole, friendly, though he was prepared to maintain the peace of his realm at nearly any cost.

 

Henry initially sought to recover territory lost to Castile by assisting the revolt of Philip, brother of Alfonso X of Castile, in 1270, but eventually declined, preferring to establish an alliance with Castile through the marriage of his son Theobald to a daughter of Alfonso X. This failed with the death of the young Theobald in after he fell from a battlement at the castle of Estella in 1273.

 

Henry did not long outlive his son. He died with no male heir; the male line of the house of Champagne became extinct. He was thus succeeded by his only legitimate child, a one-year-old daughter named Joan, under the regency of her mother Blanche. Joan's 1284 marriage to Philip the Fair, the future King of France, in the same year united the crown of Navarre to that of France and saw Champagne devolve to the French royal domain.

 

In the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, a younger contemporary, sees Henry's spirit outside the gates of Purgatory, where he is grouped with a number of other European monarchs of the 13th century. Henry is not named directly, but is referred to as "the kindly-faced" and "the father-in-law of the Pest of France".

Note on Wife: Blanche + of ARTOIS

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.