Gaston IV (27 November 1422 – 25 or 28 July 1472) was the sovereign Viscount of Béarn and the Count of Foix and Bigorre in France from 1436 to 1472. He also held the viscounties of Marsan, Castelbon,

Nébouzan Nébouzan (; Gascon language, Gascon: ''Nebosan'' ) was a small province of France located in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, in the southwest of France. It was not a contiguous province, but it was made up of several detached territories ...

, Villemeur and Lautrec and was, by virtue of the county of Foix, co-prince of Andorra. From 1447 he was also Viscount of Narbonne. Through his marriage to

Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It was the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages">Provençal dialect ...

, heiress of the

Kingdom of Navarre The Kingdom of Navarre ( ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, with its northernmost areas originally reaching the Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay), between present-day Spain and France. The me ...

, he also held the title of Prince of Navarre. Gaston was a son of John I, Count of Foix and Jeanne d'Albret. His maternal grandparents were Charles d'Albret,

Constable of France The Constable of France (, from Latin for 'count of the stables') was lieutenant to the King of France, the first of the original five Great Officers of the Crown (along with seneschal, chamberlain, butler, and chancellor) and the commander-in ...

and co-commander of the French army, killed at the

Battle of Agincourt The Battle of Agincourt ( ; ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected victory of the vastly outnumbered English troops agains ...

, and his wife Marie de Sully. Gaston married Infanta Eleanor of Navarre in 1441. Her parents were John II and

Blanche I of Navarre Blanche I (, ; 6 July 1387 – 1 April 1441) was Queen of Navarre from the death of her father, King Charles III, in 1425 until her own death. She had been Queen of Sicily from 1402 to 1409 by marriage to King Martin I, serving as regent of Si ...

. At the time, Eleanor appeared to have few prospects: her father was a younger son and brother of kings of Aragon, and she had two older siblings,

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 ''* ...

and Blanche, standing between herself and the throne of Navarre. However, family dissent and death eliminated both her siblings; Eleanor's father usurped the Navarrese crown, to which he added in 1458 the throne of Aragon (his older brother having died without legitimate children). Following the deaths of Charles and Blanche, King John promised the succession to Navarre to Eleanor and Gaston in return for their loyalty to him, which was given. When Gaston IV died in 1472, his eldest son Gaston, Prince of Viana had already died, and he was succeeded as Count of Foix by the latter's son Francis Phoebus who was only 5 years old, under the regency of his grandmother and Gaston IV's wife Eleanor of Navarre.
First Eleanor, and then Francis Phoebus also became Queen and

King of Navarre This is a list of the kings and queens of kingdom of Pamplona, Pamplona, later kingdom of Navarre, Navarre. Pamplona was the primary name of the kingdom until its union with Kingdom of Aragon, Aragon (1076–1134). However, the territorial desig ...

in 1479, linking the fate of the County of Foix to that of the

until their incorporation into the Kingdom of France in 1607.

Children

Gaston and Eleanor had: * Gaston de Foix (1443–1470), (sometimes called “Gaston V of Foix”), Viscount of Castelbon, Prince of Viana (1462–1470), lieutenant general of Navarre (1469), married Magdalena of Valois. ** Francis Phoebus (1467-1483), King of Navarre, Count of Foix, Viscount of Bearn, died without issue. **

Catherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...

(1468–1517), Queen of Navarre, Duchess of Gandia, Montblanc, and Peñafiel, Countess of Foix, Bigorre, and Ribagorza, and Viscountess of Béarn. * Jean de Foix (1446–1500), Viscount of Narbonne (1468–1500), Count d'Étampes (1478–1500). He claimed the throne of Navarre upon the death of his nephew François Phébus. He married in 1476 Marie of Orleans, sister of the future King of France

Louis XII Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second ...

. * Marguerite de Foix (1449–1486), married at Clisson on 27 June 1471 Francis II, Duke of Brittany. They were parents of

Anne of Brittany Anne of Brittany (; 25/26 January 1477 – 9 January 1514) was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She was the only woman to have been queen consort of Fran ...

, twice queen of France as consort to both Charles VIII and

. * Pierre de Foix (7 February 1449 – 10 August 1490), (sometimes called “Pierre II of Foix”), called Pierre the Young, cardinal (1576), viceroy of Navarre (1479–1484) * Marie de Foix (c. 1452–1467), married Guglielmo VIII, Marquis of Montferrat, son of Giangiacomo of Montferrat and his wife Jeanne de Savoie * Jeanne de Foix (c. 1454 – c. 1476), married in August 1469 in Lectoure, to Jean V of Armagnac (1420-1473). * Catherine de Foix (c. 1460 – before 1494), married in 1469

Gaston de Foix, Count of Candale Gaston de Foix (1448 – 25 March 1500), Earl of Kendal and Count of Benauges, was a French nobleman in the last decades of the Middle Ages. He was a cadet member of the important Foix family in Southern France. He was a son of John de Foix, 1 ...

(c. 1440–1500), (sometimes called “Gaston II of Foix”). * Isabel de Foix (after 1462). * Leonor de Foix (after 1466 – died young). * Jacques de Foix, Infante de Navarra (1469 – in France 1500), Count de Montfort. Married in 1485 and divorced in 1494 Ana de Peralta, daughter of Pedro de Peralta, 1st Count de Santisteban y Lerín and his second wife Isabelle de Grailly. Married secondly in 1495 Catherine de Beaumont, daughter of Louis de Beaumont, 2nd Count de Lerín and his wife Leonor de Aragón. Jacques and his second wife had one child: Jean de Foix, abbot of Saint-Volusien-de-Foix. Jacques also had two illegitimate children by unknown mistresses: Frederic de Foix (d. 1537), Seigneur d'Almenèches, and Jacques de Foix (d. 7 Apr 1535), Bishop of Oloron and Lescar.

Ancestry

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Children

Ancestry

References

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Further reading