Joan of Navarre ( eu, Joana, es, Juana, french: Jeanne; 1326 – 3 July 1387) was a princess from the French

House of Évreux The House of Évreux was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal house of France, which flourished from the beginning of the 14th century to the mid 15th century. It became the royal house of the Kingdom of Navarre. The House was founded ...

, the eldest child of King Philip III and Queen

Joan II of Navarre Joan II (french: Jeanne; 28 January 1312 – 6 October 1349) was Queen of Navarre from 1328 until her death. She was the only surviving child of Louis X of France, King of France and Navarre, and Margaret of Burgundy. Joan's paternity was dubiou ...

Biography

Joan was born while her parents were still only count and countess of Évreux in northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. As their firstborn child, Joan became

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

to the

Kingdom of Navarre The Kingdom of Navarre (; , , , ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona (), was a Basque kingdom that occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, alongside the Atlantic Ocean between present-day Spain and France. The medieval state took ...

upon her parents' accession in 1328, which made her a desirable bride. In 1329 the royal couple began negotiations with King Alfonso IV of Aragon about Joan's marriage to Alfonso's eldest son, the future Peter IV. The choice illustrated her parents' decision to build closer relations with their Iberian neighbours, but may have also been intended to prevent Peter from marrying a princess of England, France's traditional enemy. The negotiations took years due to Joan's status as heir presumptive. By that time, however, she was displaced in the line of succession by two brothers, Louis and

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

, born in 1330 and 1332 respectively. The possibility that she might inherit the crown one day was nevertheless taken into account when the betrothal was finally agreed in April 1333. Joan's intended marriage never took place. She might have had an illness or a defect that made her younger sister

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

a bride more appealing to Peter IV. In order to make this union possible, Joan had to renounce her succession rights in favour of Maria and move to the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

Abbey of Longchamp Longchamp Abbey (french: Abbaye royale de Longchamp), known also as the Convent of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin, was a convent of Poor Clares founded in 1255 in Auteuil, Paris, by Saint Isabelle of France. The site is now occupied by Longch ...

. As compensation, she received an annual rent of 1000 ''

livres tournois The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

'' from her father's lordship of

Mantes Mantes-la-Jolie (, often informally called Mantes) is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region of north-central France. It is located to the west of Paris, from the centre of the capital. Mantes-la-Jolie is a subpre ...

. Joan was veiled a

Poor Clare The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

on the day of "translation Saint Francis" in 1337, and Maria's marriage to Peter took place the following year. This unusual outcome confused later historians and chroniclers, leading often to confusing Joan with her youngest sister, born in 1343 and also named Joan. Her brother Charles II of Navarre assigned her an additional income of 100 ''livres tournois'' in 1349. Joan died in the nunnery on 3 July 1387.

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* * * {{Authority control House of Évreux 14th-century French nuns French Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns 1320s births 1387 deaths Daughters of kings