Sancho III divided his kingdom among his three sons in 1035 into Aragon, Castile and Navarre. While the two neighbouring kingdoms grew steadily, Navarre became smaller and smaller until it just encompassed the territory of the present-day region of Navarre in Spain and the department of Pyréneés-Atlantiques in France. Navarre’s rapprochement with France began in 1229 with Thibaut I. Then, in the 15th century, it looked as if Navarre might pass to Spain. Eleanor I of Navarre was a stepsister of Ferdinand II of Aragon. He married her granddaughter Germaine de Foix in second marriage, but their only common son died at birth in 1509. In 1511, Ferdinand II obtained the Pope’s permission to invade the small neighbouring kingdom. On 21 July, Spanish troops entered Navarre and conquered the part that lay south of the Pyrenees.
When Henri II became King of Navarre in 1512, he had lost not only a large part of his kingdom but also the capital Pamplona at the hands of Ferdinand II. The seat of the Navarrese king therefore had to be moved to Pau. In 1527 Henri II married Marguerite d’Angoulême, the sister of the French King François I. Marguerite was a very fun-loving, highly educated woman who also took an active part in politics. She made the court in Navarre a cultural and scientific centre of Europe. There she hosted Calvin and Melanchthon, among others, but remained a Catholic. Marguerite also had literary ambitions. Her best-known work is the Heptameron, influenced by the Decamerone.
Jeanne, the daughter of Henri II and Marguerite, married Antoine de Bourbon, the first prince du sang, in 1548. Their son Henri de Navarre became King of Navarre in 1572 and King of France in 1594, uniting the two kingdoms.
