misfortunes of the latter, despite the crimes which he had committed, tended to this end, for he had again become a widower, and was blind and alone, for his son, Ferdinand, had remained in Castile after his important marriage with Isabella in 1469. Finally, in 1472, a peace satisfactory to both sides was arranged. It is to be noted that this war had nothing to do with the earlier struggle of the lords against the king, but was sustained rather by the city of Barcelona and the permanent committee, or deputation, representing the _Cortes_ of Catalonia, against the king, being fought mostly in Catalonia, and being involved also with the attempts of the Catalan peasant classes to shake off the social burdens which they had so long been obliged to bear. The former seigniorial stronghold of Aragon proper was in this war the most powerful royalist element. The closing years of Juan’s reign were devoted to a war against France for the reconquest of Cerdagne and the Roussillon, which had previously been granted by Juan to the French king in return for support against the former’s Catalan enemies. This war was still going on when, in 1479, Juan died, and Ferdinand ascended the throne, to rule, jointly with Isabella, the entire realms of Castile and Aragon. Thus had the evil intrigues of Juana Enríquez redounded to the benefit of Spain. _Navarre_ [Sidenote: Navarre re-enters the current of peninsula history.] From 1285 to 1328 Navarre was a French province, but recovered its independence under the house of Evreux on the death of Charles IV of France without succession. The next heir after Charles of Viana was his sister Blanche, but her father, Juan II of Aragon, had her imprisoned, and a younger sister, Leonor, was enthroned in her stead.[34] Leonor and her husband, the count of Foix, established a new dynasty which was destined to be of short duration, for in 1512 Ferdinand of Aragon conquered Spanish Navarre. French Navarre remained for a time under the rule of the house of Foix, but presently became a part of the kingdom of France. _The Basque Provinces_ [Sidenote: Early history of the Basque provinces and their ultimate incorporation in the kingdom of Castile.]