Blanche of Artois
Blanche d' Artois (* 1248, † May 2, 1302 in Paris) was a regent of Navarre and Champagne Brie. She was a daughter of Count Robert I of Artois († 1250) and his wife Matilda of Brabant ( † 1288). About her father she was a granddaughter of King Louis VIII of France.
Blanche was married in 1269 in Melun with Prince Henry of Navarre -Champagne, with whom she in 1270 became the successor in the kingdom of Navarre and the County of Champagne Brie. After her husband died in 1274, Blanche took over the regency for her underage daughter and heiress Joanna I. During the same year broke in Pamplona an uprising of the people against the French influence in Navarre, Blanche to forced her daughter to the court of her cousin King Philip III. to flee from France. Through the influence of his uncle Charles of Anjou Blanche transferred in May 1275 Orléans legal custody of her daughter to the French king, by whom she had pledged military support which resulted in the defeat of the uprising until 1276. Furthermore, her daughter was engaged to Prince Philip, this was in 1276 after the death of his elder brother Crown Prince and should be itself in 1285, when Philip IV, King of France. The wedding of the couple was committed already in 1284, the same year ended Blanches regency.
Blanche married already in 1276 the English prince Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster ( † 1296 ), with whom she had four more children:
- Thomas Plantagenet, 2nd Earl of Lancaster ( * 1278, † beheaded on March 22, 1322 in Pontefract )
- Henry Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, (* 1281, † September 22, 1345 in Leicester)
- John Plantagenet, Lord of Beaufort -en -Champagne ( * before 1286, † before 1327 in France)
- Mary Plantagenet († young in France)
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- Personal Data (English)
- King (Navarra )
- Graf ( Champagne)
- House France -Artois
- Born in 1248
- Died in 1302
- Woman