Charles the Noble K. of Navarre _d._ 1425 | 1. Blanche = Juan I, K. of Aragon = 2. Juana Henriquez _d._ 1441 | _d._ 1479 | _d._ 1468 | | +---------+----+------------+ +----------------------+ | | | | Charles of Viana Blanche Leonora = Gaston XI of Béarn | heir to Navarre poisoned by _d._ 1479 | Count of Foix | _d._ 1461 her sister | | 1464 (_See Table I_) | | +-----------------+ | Isabella = Ferdinand the heiress of Catholic, K. of Castille Aragon and _d._ 1504 Castille _d._ 1516] Roger Bernard and Margaret had a grandson, Gaston IX of Béarn. At the age of eighteen he was married to Eleanor of Cominges, a lady considerably older than himself. Some one without tact remarked to the Countess on the disparity of their ages. “Disparity of ages!” exclaimed she, “Why, I would have waited for him till he was born.” The young husband fell fighting against the Moors in 1343. By his elderly wife he left a son, Gaston Phœbus, of whom more when we come to Orthez. Gaston Phœbus was succeeded by a cousin, Matthew de Castelbon, who died in 1398, without issue, and he was followed by his sister Isabella, married to Archibald, Captal de Buch, a just and worthy ruler. They had a son, John of Béarn, who succeeded his mother in 1426. He captured the antipope, Benedict XIII, and threw him into a dungeon in one of his castles, where he died of ill-treatment, and then John denied Christian burial to his body. This so delighted Pope Martin, the rival of Benedict, that he conferred on John the title of “Avenger of the Faith.” Jean was succeeded by his son Gaston, who placed his sword at the disposal of Charles VI. At Bordeaux with his aid the English underwent a signal defeat. He was married to Eleanor of Navarre, through whom the claim to the title of King of Navarre came to her descendants. How that was, and the crimes that brought it about, must now be told.