Blanche of Artois

Blanche of Artois (; – 2 May 1302) was Queen of Navarre and Countess of Champagne and Brie during her marriage to Henry I of Navarre. After his death she became regent in the name of their infant daughter, Joan I. She passed on the regency of Navarre to Philip III of France, her cousin and her daughter's prospective father-in-law, but retained the administration of Champagne. She later shared the government of Champagne with her second husband, Edmund, until her daughter reached the age of majority. Queenship Blanche was the elder child and only daughter of Robert I, Count of Artois, and Matilda of Brabant. A fraternal niece of King Louis IX of France, Blanche was probably born in 1248. By February 1269, having received a papal dispensation, she was married to Henry, the brother of King Theobald II of Navarre. The ceremony took place in Melun near Paris. Her brother-in-law, in turn, was married to her cousin, Isabella of France. Henry was governing his brother's realm when King Theobald and Queen Isabella left to join the Eighth Crusade. When the king died in December 1270, followed by his widow within a few months, Blanche's husband became King of Navarre and Count of Champagne. King Henry and Queen Blanche were a young couple with a son, Theobald, and the future of the House of Blois seemed bright. In 1273, however, they lost their son in an accident when the young Theobald was dropped by his nurse over the castle battlements. A daughter named Joan, born the same year, remained the royal couple's only child and was recognized as heir presumptive by the King and the Estates. The following year, on 22 July, King Henry himself died. The death of two kings within five years and accession of an infant queen, the first woman to rule Navarre and Champagne alike, triggered a political crisis.