Henry I Navarre

December 31, 2013

Fat Henry

Dead Henry

Henry the Fat was my 20th great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He is also found on my father’s side of the tree.  He was in the obesity vanguard..actually suffocated on his own fat long before it was fashionable.  It was notable that he was the Count of Champagne and Brie.  He sounds like a human foie gras experiment.

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 ofPhilip, 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”.

References

• Suárez Fernández, Luis. Historia de España: Edad Media. Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1970.
• Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Henry I, King of Navarre

Henry I Enrique I LeGros Navarre (1244 – 1274)
is your 20th great grandfather
JOANNA NAVARRE (1273 – 1305)
daughter of Henry I Enrique I LeGros Navarre
Isabella France DeFrance House Capet (1292 – 1358)
daughter of JOANNA NAVARRE
Edward III – King of England – Plantagenet (1312 – 1377)
son of Isabella France DeFrance House Capet
John of Gaunt – Duke of Lancaster – Plantagenet (1340 – 1399)
son of Edward III – King of England – Plantagenet
Joan DeBeaufort (1375 – 1440)
daughter of John of Gaunt – Duke of Lancaster – Plantagenet
Duchess of York Lady Cecily DeNeville (1415 – 1495)
daughter of Joan DeBeaufort
Henry Holland (1485 – 1561)
son of Duchess of York Lady Cecily DeNeville
Henry Holland (1527 – 1561)
son of Henry Holland
John Holland (1556 – 1628)
son of Henry Holland
Francis Gabriell Holland (1596 – 1660)
son of John Holland
John Holland (1628 – 1710)
son of Francis Gabriell Holland
Mary Elizabeth Holland (1620 – 1681)
daughter of John Holland
Richard Dearden (1645 – 1747)
son of Mary Elizabeth Holland
George Dearden (1705 – 1749)
son of Richard Dearden
George Darden (1734 – 1807)
son of George Dearden
David Darden (1770 – 1820)
son of George Darden
Minerva Truly Darden (1806 – 1837)
daughter of David Darden
Sarah E Hughes (1829 – 1911)
daughter of Minerva Truly Darden
Lucinda Jane Armer (1847 – 1939)
daughter of Sarah E Hughes
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
son of Lucinda Jane Armer
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor