BLANCHE I OF NABARRE

Blanche I. Born 6 July 1387 in Pamplona and died on 1 April 1441, at 53 years old in Santa Maria la Real de Nieva, Castile. Was Queen of Nabarre from 1425 to 1441. She became queen regnant upon the death of her father King Charles III of Nabarre. She was married twice, but only had surviving issue from her second husband, King John II of Aragon, as her only son by Martin I of Sicily died in early infancy.





COAT OF ARMS OF BLANCHE I




QUEEN REGNANT OF NABARRE


Reign: 8 September 1425 to 1 April 1441. (15 years, 205 days).

Coronation: 15 to 18 May 1429 in Pamplona.

Predecessor: Charles III.

Successor: Charles IV.



QUEEN CONSORT OF SICILY


Reign: 26 December 1402 to 25 July 1409. (6 years and 211 days).

She was the second eldest daughter and heir of King Charles III of Nabarre and infanta Eleanor of Castile. She became heiress on the death of her elder sister Joan.

Blanche married firstly Martin the Younger, King of Sicily and Prince of Aragon. They were married by proxy on 21 May 1402 in Catania. Blanche travelled to meet her new husband and they were married in person on 26 December 1402. The bride was about eleven years old and the groom twenty-eight.

Martin had been in need of legitimate heirs, as he had survived his previous wife and former co-ruler, Queen Maria of Sicily, and their only son. When Martin died on 25 July 1409, he was succeeded by his own father, Martin I of Aragon.

Blanche remained a widow for a decade. On 6 November 1419, Blance married her second husband John, duke of Peñafiel by proxy in Olite, and the second son of Ferdinand I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque. Ferdinand had succeeded his maternal uncle Martin I in 1412.

John travelled to meet her. On 10 June 1420, they were married in person in Pamplona. Charles III died on 8 September 1425 and Blanche succeeded him as Queen regnant of Nabarre. John became King of Nabarre in her right as John II.

Blanche died in Santa María la Real de Nieva in 1441. After her death, John kept the government of Nabarre in his own hands, from the hands of their own son Charles of Viana, the rightful heir of the line of Navarrese kings. He would become King of Aragon and King of Sicily upon the death of his elder brother Alfonso V of Aragon in 1458.

Martin and Blanche only had one son:

• Infante Martin of Aragon and Sicily (1406–1407).

Blanche and John II of Aragon had four children:

• Charles (IV) of Nabarre (1421–1461)
• Joan of Aragon (1423–1425)
  
• Blanche (II) of Nabarre, married Henry IV of Castile. The marriage was never consummated. After 13 years of marriage, Henry sought and obtained a divorce. Blanca was sent home, where her family imprisoned her, and she was later killed by poison.
• Eleanor (1426–1479) Queen of Nabarre (1479)

THE PYRENEAN ISTHMUS HAS A TOTAL POPULATION OF ALMOST 21 MILLION INHABITANTS

According to PIF, the Pyrenean Isthmus has a total population of 20 973 933 inhabitants.

distribution of population by countries:

ANDORRA..................................................................84 082


Distribution of population by counties or cantons:

ALACANT..............................................................1 917 012
ARABA.....................................................................313 819
ARIEJA.....................................................................148 568
AUDE.......................................................................345 779
BARCELONA.........................................................5 507 813
BIZKAIA................................................................1 152 658
CANTABRIA.............................................................591 886
CASTELLO...............................................................602 301
ERAU.......................................................................896 441
GARD.......................................................................623 125
GERS.......................................................................172 335
GIPUZKOA...............................................................705 698
GIRONA...................................................................752 026
GIRONDA..............................................................1 409 345
ILLES BALEARS....................................................1 071 221
LA RIOJA..................................................................308 968
LANAS......................................................................367 492
LLEIDA.....................................................................414 015
NAFARROA GARAIA.................................................636 924
NAUTA GARONA...................................................1 202 920
NAUTS PIRENEUS...................................................228 594
OLT E GARONA........................................................324 170
PIRENEUS-ATLANTICS............................................643 090
PIRENEUS-ORIENTALS............................................437 157
SARAGOSSA.............................................................880 118
SORIA.........................................................................91 487
TARN........................................................................369 501
TARN E GARONA......................................................231 763
TARRAGONA.............................................................805 789
TERUEL....................................................................138 686
TREBINYO....................................................................1 432
UESCA.......................................................................225 271
VALENCIA...............................................................2 575 362

MAURICE RAVEL

(1875 - 1937)

Ravel, Mauris
Ravel, Mauriss
Ravel, M.

Pyrenean composer, was born in Ziburu in 1875; of paternal Swiss and maternal Basque descent. Ravel combined skill in orchestration with meticulous technical command of harmonic resources, writing in an attractive musical idiom that was entirely his own, in spite of contemporary comparisons with Debussy, a composer his senior by some 20 years. He died in 1937.

Stage Works

Operas

Ravel wrote two operas. The first, L’heure espagnole (‘The Spanish Clock’), is described as a comédie musicale; the second, with a libretto by Colette, is the imaginative L’Enfant et les sortilèges (‘The Child and the Enchantments’), in which the naughty child is punished when furniture and animals assume personalities of their own.

Ballets

Ravel wrote his ballet Daphnis et Chloé in response to a commission from the Russian impresario Diaghilev. The work, described as a symphonie choréographique, is based on the Hellenistic pastoral novel of Longus. Ma Mère l’oye (‘Mother Goose’), originally for piano duet, was orchestrated and used for a ballet, as were the Valses nobles et sentimentales and the choreographic poem La Valse. Ravel’s last ballet score was the famous Boléro, a work he himself described as an orchestrated crescendo.

Orchestral Music

In addition to the scores for ballet and arrangements of piano works for the same purpose, Ravel wrote an evocative Rapsodie espagnole (‘Spanish Rhapsody’). Other orchestrations of original piano compositions include a version of the very well-known Pavane pour une infante défunte (‘Pavane for a Dead Infanta’), the Menuet antique, Alborada del gracioso from Miroirs, and pieces from Le Tombeau de Couperin. Ravel wrote two piano concertos: the first, completed in 1930, was for the left hand only, commissioned by the pianist Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in the war; the second, for two hands, was completed in 1931.

Vocal Music

Songs by Ravel include the remarkable Shéhérazade (settings of a text by Tristan Klingsor for mezzo-soprano and orchestra) and the Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (‘Don Quixote to Dulcinea’) songs, originally written for a film about Don Quixote in which the famous Russian bass Chaliapin was to star. Songs with piano include settings of the Jules Renard Histoires naturelles, portraying its instinctive sympathy with the birds and the cricket. Ravel’s five unsuccessful attempts to win the Prix de Rome are represented by five cantatas, submitted according to the rules of the competition, as he chose to interpret them.

Chamber Music

Ravel’s chamber music includes the evocative nostalgia of the Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet, a Violin Sonata with a jazz-style blues movement, a Piano Trio, and a String Quartet. Tzigane, written for the Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi, is a remarkable excursion into extravagant gypsy style.

Piano Music

Ravel himself was a good pianist. His music for the piano includes compositions in his own nostalgic archaic style, such as the Pavane and the Menuet antique, as well as the more complex textures of pieces such as Jeux d’eau (‘Fountains’), Miroirs and Gaspard de la nuit, with its sinister connotations. The Sonatina is in Ravel’s neoclassical style and Le Tombeau de Couperin is in the form of a Baroque dance suite.