Life
Since his father was first cousin to King Philip VI of France and his mother Joan II of Navarre was the only child of King Louis X, Charles of Navarre was 'born of the fleur de lys on both sides', as he liked to point out, but he succeeded to a shrunken inheritance as far as his French lands were concerned. After he assumed the crown of Navarre in October 1349, Charles II visited his kingdom to be anointed in summer 1350 but otherwise apart from short visits spent the first 12 years of his reign almost entirely in France; he regarded Navarre principally as a source of manpower with which to advance his designs to become a major power in France. He hoped for a long time for recognition of his claim to the crown of France (as the heir-general of Philip IV through his mother, and an heir-male of the Capetian dynasty through his father). However, Salic law disregarded all female lines, and he was unable to wrest the throne from his Valois cousins, who were senior to him by agnatic primogeniture.
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Famous quotes containing the word life:
“That life is really so tragic would least of all explain the origin of an art form—assuming that art is not merely imitation of the reality of nature but rather a metaphysical supplement of the reality of nature, placed beside it for its overcoming.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I like sometimes to take rank hold on life and spend my day more as the animals do. Perhaps I have owed to this employment and to hunting, when quite young, my closest acquaintance with Nature. They early introduce us to and detain us in scenery with which otherwise, at that age, we should have little acquaintance.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Consider his life which was valueless
In terms of employment, hotel ledgers, news files.
Consider. One bullet in ten thousand kills a man.
Ask. Was so much expenditure justified
On the death of one so young and so silly
Lying under the olive tree, O world, O death?”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)