Muertes sospechosas y procesos políticos en torno a los reyes capetos de Navarra (1302-1317)

Abstract

Four alleged crimes are studied, two committed against Blanche of Artois, Queen of Navarre, and her daughter Joan I, Queen of Navarre and France (1302, 1305), and two against Louis X and his son John I, Kings of France and Navarre (1316). The crimes against the women were attributed to the revenge of Guichard, Bishop of Troyes; and Mahaut, Countess of Artois, who wanted to facilitate access to the throne for her son-in-law, Philip V, was accused for the crimes against the men. They form part of a French «epidemic» of scandals in the first third of the fourteenth century, involving ecclesiastical dignitaries and the high nobility, who were accused of poisoning and witchcraft. The two processes (taking place between 1308-1313 and 1316-1317), manipulated by those in power, were an instrument of propaganda used by the monarchy and transmit an «inquisitorial» perception of royal justice, competent to repress the crimes of lese-majesty (in the case of the attacks with poison) and crimes against the faith (witchcraft). The descriptions of the sources and current medical knowledge allow us to establish for the first time the natural causes of the four royal deaths.