Charles II of Navarre

Charles II, called the Bad (1332–1387), inherited Navarre from his mother Joan II in 1349 and held the county of Évreux in Normandy. Through his mother, a daughter of Louis X, he claimed the French crown, though the Valois outranked him.

He spent his reign almost entirely in France, treating Navarre as a source of manpower. Married to a daughter of John II, he kept changing sides between John and Edward III of England, using the threat of an English alliance to extract concessions. He had the Constable Charles de la Cerda murdered in January 1354, until John made peace with him at Mantes.

John arrested him at Rouen in 1356; he escaped in 1357 and in 1358 played both sides in Paris, suppressing the Jacquerie while bidding to become Captain of Paris. His plots collapsed in 1378. He died in 1387 after his linen wrappings caught fire.