Theobald II of Navarre

Theobald II of Navarre, the Younger (Provins, December 6-7, 1239 – Trapani, December 4, 1270) King of Navarre and Count of Champagne and Brie as Theobald V of Champagne. He was the son of Teobaldo I "el Trovador" and his third wife, Margarita de Borbón.

Biography

He inherited the throne when he was only fourteen years old, under the regency of his mother and the tutelage of Jaime I of Aragon, having to face state problems from the outset.

On November 27, he swore the Fueros de Navarra, setting limits to the rich men of the kingdom, since until Teobaldo was twenty-one years old he could not judge without the advice of a tutor, and this in turn, without hearing twelve rich -men of the kingdom who would act as jury. However, he did not accept submitting to the Fueros and obtained from the Pope the introduction of the anointing and coronation rites (in 1257 and 1259) to justify the divine origin of kings.

The bourgeoisie supported the monarch by paying extraordinary taxes and the king, in return, provided them with prestige and political power. He extended the jurisdiction of Pamplona to Lanz and that of Estella to Tiebas (January 23, 1264) and Torralba. He founded Espinal in 1269.

He continued with the improvement of the administration of income and expenses of the kingdom already started by his predecessor, carrying out the first count of the population of the kingdom, whose approximate figure was placed at more than 30,000 fires, about 150,000 inhabitants. The accounts of 1266 allow us to conclude that 6.75% of the income was dedicated to civil bureaucracy, 33.84% to military administration and 59.6% to the king and his management.

He found support in Saint Louis of France. Teobaldo had requested the hand of Isabel, the daughter of Luis, with whom he married on April 6, 1255. From that date Luis IX of France acted as arbitrator in the problems of Navarrese. When the daughter of Alfonso X el Sabio got engaged in marriage with the son of the French king, on January 1, 1256, the Castilian-Leonese monarch ceded to Teobaldo, while he lived, the use of the ports of Fuenterrabía and San Sebastián for export of Navarre products.

Campaign in Africa: Eighth Crusade

Due to the good personal and political relations between the king of Navarre and that of France, the former agreed to help the latter in his military campaign driven by the doctrines of the crusades. Saint Louis formally took the cross on March 24, 1267 in an assembly before his nobles. A second ceremony took place on June 5, 1267 before a papal legate at Notre-Dame in Paris, where King Theobald II of Navarre, who had also taken the cross, was present.

On July 1, 1270, a large and well-organized fleet set sail from Aigues-Mortes under the command of Louis IX. The next day a second fleet under the command of the King of Navarre set sail from Marseilles. The two fleets joined at Cagliari, on the southern coast of Sardinia.

On July 13, 1270, Louis IX announced that the first objective of the crusade was Tunis and on July 15, 1270, they left for Tunis. The expedition was diverted to Tunisia, probably at the political instigation of Carlos de Anjou, who wanted to create the Kingdom of Africa to expand his domain and appease the trade of the Crown of Aragon in that area of the Mediterranean in the Tunisian area. Be that as it may, the Franco-Navarre expedition arrived in Tunisia on July 18.

On August 25, the French king dies of illness during the siege of Tunis. Carlos de Anjou arrives with troops in the area after the death of the French king, but the Navarrese king gives up the military enterprise and decides to command the Navarrese and French troops on their march back to the European continent.

On November 1, Teobaldo "the Younger" signs a commercial contract with the sultan of the Hafsid Emirate of Tunisia, Abû `Abd Allah Muhammad al-Mustansir. After that, he directs the remains of the expedition to Sicily, where they arrive on November 22.

A couple of weeks later, on December 4, 1270, Theobald II died in Trapani (an important Sicilian seaport from where he directed the return of the expedition), before having returned to the Iberian Peninsula.

Ancestors

Teobaldo II de Navarra (Palacio de Navarra)

Predecessor: Teobaldo I de Navarra

King of Navarre Count of Champagne and Brie 1253-1270

Successor: Enrique I de Navarra

Sequences

Predecessor: Teobaldo I de Navarra	Conde palatino de Champaña 1253 - 1270 (17 years)	Successor: Enrique I de Navarra
Predecessor: Teobaldo I de Navarra	King of Navarre 1253 - 1270 (17 years)	Successor: Enrique I de Navarra