Charles II (Navarre)

Timeline

1. 1332–1349Évreux · NormandyBorn at Évreux on October 10, 1332, to Philip of Évreux and Queen Joan II of Navarre. After his father died in 1343 he inherited the county of Évreux; after his mother died in 1349, he was crowned King Charles II of Navarre at Pamplona the following year, while retaining his Norman fiefs.
2. 1352–1356Rouen · NormandyIn 1352 he married Jeanne, daughter of John II, but the marriage failed to settle disputes over fiefs and dowry. In 1354 he had the king's favorite, Charles of La Cerda, assassinated, then secretly corresponded with the English. In April 1356 John II had him arrested at a banquet in Rouen and held him until after the Battle of Poitiers.
3. 1356–1364Paris · FranceAfter John II was captured, the dauphin Charles served as regent. Charles II was released, joined forces with Étienne Marcel and the reformist party in the Estates-General, entered Paris in 1358, and demanded the cession of Champagne, Normandy, and other lands; during the Jacquerie he was first appointed by the nobles to lead the suppression, then he and Marcel used each other. In 1364 his forces were defeated by Du Guesclin at Cocherel, halting his Norman expansion.
4. 1364–1387Pamplona · NavarreAfter the defeat at Cocherel and repeated treaties with King Charles V, his room for maneuver in northern France shrank; he spent more time governing Navarre and continued limited opportunism with England and Castile. In 1367 he allowed the Black Prince's army to cross Navarre en route to Nájera, though he himself did not take the field. He died at Pamplona on January 1, 1387, and was succeeded by his son Charles III.