Charles II of Navarre

1332–1387

Charles II of Navarre, known as Charles the Bad, was a fourteenth-century king whose ambitions in France made him a disruptive figure during the Hundred Years’ War. His shifting alliances, claims and intrigues made him notorious among contemporaries.

In Maurice Druon’s The King without a Kingdom, Cardinal Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord recounts the reign of John II, whose hostility towards Charles of Navarre and dependence on a narrow circle of favourites deepen France's political divisions. David Gilman’s Gate of the Dead places Charles II of Navarre within a narrative shaped by court politics and dynastic power, political ambition and government, and military command and battlefield decision-making.

Historical context

Historical periods linked to Charles II of Navarre

Hundred Years’ War 1337–1453 CE

Series

Series featuring Charles II of Navarre (2 series)

Master of War in Order

by David Gilman 9 books 4.6

The Master of War series follows Thomas Blackstone, an English archer and later knight, through the Hundred Years’ War. Beginning with the Crécy campaign in 1346, the sequence expands across France, Aquitaine, Brittany, Castile and northern Italy, using Blackstone’s career to show how medieval war was fought through…

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Master of War

4.4

Defiant Unto Death

4.5

Gate of the Dead

4.5

Viper’s Blood

4.6

Scourge of Wolves

4.7

Cross of Fire

4.7

Shadow of the Hawk

4.6

To Kill a King

4.7

Rage of Swords

4.7

The Accursed Kings in Order

by Maurice Druon 7 books 4.2

The Accursed Kings follows the French and English monarchies from the final year of Philip IV's reign in 1314 to the capture of John II at Poitiers and the political crisis of the late 1350s. Across seven novels, the direct Capetian line fails, the Valois dynasty takes the…

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