Absent in (life and) death? Examining the tombs of Navarre’s regnant queens and the shaping of their memory

Navarre has long been seen as a liminal state, torn between influence and interference from its French and Iberian neighbors. The five regnant queens of Navarre exemplify this situation through their own lives which saw them pulled politically and even physically between France and Iberia—from Juana I who lived the whole of her life in France, to queens like Juana II and Catalina I who moved back and forth over the Pyrenees during their reign, to the queens Blanca I and her daughter Leonor who spent their reigns (though not their whole lives) largely in Iberia. The diverse location of these queens’ death and burial reflect the geographical context of their lives—significantly, none of the regnant queens of Navarre are buried in their own capital city of Pamplona and only one is buried in Navarre itself. This article will examine the tombs of these five women, unpicking the situational, dynastic and political context which resulted in their virtual absence from the kingdom they ruled in death and the individuals and factors involved in the shaping of their memory.