Chapter 10 - Architecture and Legacy in Medieval Navarre
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2021
Summary
THE MAGNIFICENT TOMB built by Johan Lome for Charles III the Noble and Eleanor of Castile, and intended for Pamplona Cathedral (1413–1419), was inscribed with an epitaph which starts at the back of the canopy of the sovereign and continues along the edge of the black stone slab on which the royal statues rest:
Here lies, buried, Charles III (King) of Navarre and Duke of Nemoux, of good memory, descendent in direct line from the emperor St. Charlemagne and St. Louis, king of France; and who, in his time, recovered a great part of boroughs and castles of his kingdom which were in the hands of the king of Castile as well as his lands in France which were under the power of the kings of France and England. He, in his time, ennobled and exalted in dignities and honours many barons, knights, and noblemen who were his subjects; and he constructed many notable buildings in his kingdom; and he was very pious and merciful; and he reigned as king for thirty-eight years; and died on the eighth day of September of the year 1426.
The text, in the form of a concise report, relates the king's good deeds during his time on earth. It begins with his ancestry. Charles being descended “in a straight line” (en recta lignea) from two ancestors who embodied the medieval monarchical ideal, both powerful, both regarded as saints: The “emperador sant Karlos Magno” and St. Louis of France. Only five generations separated him from the latter (Louis IX being the great grandfather of Philippe of Evreux, who was Charles the Noble's grandfather). It then tells of his foreign policy. This facet praises the restoration of the integrity of the kingdom thanks to the recovery of sovereignty in areas that had, in recent years, been controlled by the kings of France, England, and Castile. Thirdly, it tells of his achievements in domestic politics. This is summed up through the ennoblement of many knights, which shows the enormous disparity in mentality between those times and ours.
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- Memory in the Middle AgesApproaches from Southwestern Europe, pp. 253 - 270Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021