Philip III of Navarre

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Coat of arms of Philip III
Coat of arms of Philip III

Philip III (27 March 1306 – 16 September 1343), Count of Évreux (1319 – 1343) and King of Navarre (1328 – 1343), was the eldest son of Louis of Évreux and Marguerite d’Artois and therefore a grandson of King Philip III of France. Because of this descent, he was a possible heir to the throne of France.

[edit] Inheritance

In due course, he inherited the County of Évreux, in Normandy, from his father, and ten years later became Philip III, king consort of Navarre, on the death of his cousin Charles IV of France. On 18 June 1318, he had married the heiress Joan II. She held extensive fiefdoms in northern France, as well as Navarre. Because of their lands and their many royal relatives, Philip and his wife were influential in both France and Navarre and spent much of their lives going back and forth between them.

[edit] Military achievements

He participated in the Flemish campaign of Philip VI of France and was at the Battle of Cassel on 23 August 1328, at which the king professed to owe him his victory and his life. In Navarre shortly after, Philip was consecrated and crowned king with his wife on 5 March 1329 by Arnaldo de Barbazan, bishop of Pamplona, in the cathedral of Santa María la Real there. In June 1329, he accompanied the king of France to Amiens, where Edward III of England was giving the oath of homage for his French lands.

In 1331, he was appointed to the king's council. He went to Avignon with the king to take up the cross from Pope Benedict XII and go on crusade with the kings of Bohemia and Aragon. The crusade was never realised.

In 1335, Philip was at war with Aragon. The war ended with the marriage of his eldest daughter Mary to Peter IV of Aragon.

By the Treaty of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon of 14 March 1336 he received the counties of Angoulème and Mortain in the peerage of France, and the castles of Benon in Aunis and Fontenay-l'Abattu in Poitou. In 1339, he was at the side of the kings of France, Bohemia (John), and Scotland (David II), relieving the cities of Cambrai and Tournai, besieged by the English. This was part of the opening of the Hundred Years' War.

Aside from that war on French soil, Philip actively participated in the Reconquista in Iberia. He joined the adventure begun by Alfonso XI of Castile against the Kingdom of Granada and was mortally wounded by an arrow and died at the siege of Jerez de la Frontera.

[edit] Marriage and children

By his wife Joan, he had eight children:

Preceded by
Louis d'Évreux		 Count of Évreux
1319–1343		 Succeeded by
Charles II of Navarre
Preceded by
Joan II		 King of Navarre (jure uxoris)
With Joan II
1328–1343		 Succeeded by
Charles II