Navarre, kingdom of 515(Cologne: Könemann, 2000), 272–297; Hugh Kennedy,
Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-
Andalus(New York: Longman, 1996).
nature, idea of The word naturewas derived from
the Latin natura,suggesting birth. In the Christian Mid-
dle Ages, nature was viewed as the created work of GOD
according to the account in the biblical book of Genesis.
For BOETHIUS, nature was the inner principle of all
movement, common to every individual. The term
could be used in the sense of the nature of an action or
power.
There was also divine nature. For AUGUSTINEnature
was the universal whole that included God as well as his
creatures. All created nature was the work of God. From
the 13th century, the ideas of ARISTOTLEwere added to
the concept, providing further scientific visions of the
cosmos, making possible a PHILOSOPHYof nature. Nature
played an important role in the division of the sciences.
Natural philosophy was distinguished from ethics, it
comprised the knowledge of things or creatures. The
only necessity characterizing this kind of nature was
participation in the necessary being of God. Nature
equaled necessity, but this necessity did not exclude
change decreed freely by God.
Christian nature also implied further perfection by
GRACE and Redemption. This term designated the
“nature” of God, becoming synonymous with essence
or substance.In terms of the Trinity, the term natura
designated the unity of God and the term personaor
persons designated the three individual components of
the Trinity.
See alsoANIMALS AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; MIRACLES;
PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY; SCIENCE.
Further reading: A. C. Crombie, Science, Art, and
Nature in Medieval and Modern Thought(London: Hamble-
don Press, 1996); William Eamon, Science and the Secrets
of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern
Culture (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1994); Patricia May Gathercole, The Landscape of Nature
in Medieval French Manuscript Illumination (Lewiston,
N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997); Chumaru Koyama, ed.,
Nature in Medieval Thought: Some Approaches East and
West (Leiden: Brill, 2000); Lawrence D. Roberts, ed.,
Approaches to Nature in the Middle Ages: Papers of the Tenth
Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval and Early
Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Bing-
hamton, 1976(Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renais-
sance Texts and Studies, Center for Medieval and Early
Renaissance Studies, 1983); Joyce E. Salisbury, ed., The
Medieval World of Nature: A Book of Essays(New York:
Garland, 1993); William J. Short, Saints in the World of
Nature: The Animal Story as Spiritual Parable in Medieval
Hagiography (900–1200) (Rome: Pontificia Universitas
Gregoriana, Facultas Theologiæ, Institutum Spiritualitatis,
1983); Hugh White, Nature, Sex, and Goodness in a
Medieval Literary Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000).Navarre, kingdom of A kingdom of Navarre was cre-
ated, when CHARLEMAGNEconquered the western Pyre-
nees around Pamplona, its main city, and made it part of
his kingdom of AQUITAINE. It, however, kept its own
rulers as the kings of Pamplona until the 10th century.
Later its king, King Sancho III the Great (r. 1000–35) of
Navarre, was one of its most accomplished and important
rulers, ruling a group of counties from the Aran Valley to
the borders of LEÓN, and the northern slopes of the Pyre-
nees. He died in 1035 and his realm was shared among
his sons; García (r. 1035–54), the eldest received Navarre;
Ferdinand I (r. 1038–65) received CASTILE; and Ramiro I
(r. 1035–63) was bequeathed ARAGON. This arrangement
lasted from 1035 to 1134, when Navarre was disputed
between the kings of Castile and Aragon at the death of
Alfonso I the Battler (r. 1104–34), the king of Aragon and
Pamplona. From 1200 to 1205 the kingdom of Navarre
was a little more than 10,000 square kilometers (6,000
square miles), a small, but strategic, state on the Iberian
Peninsula. It was overtaken and limited to the far north
of Spain by the territorial expansion and consolidation of
Castile and Aragon.THE RECONQUEST
Despite its small size, the kings of Navarre participated
in the CRUSADEagainst the Muslims of AL-ANDALUS.
In 1212, at the victorious Battle of Las Navas de
Tolosa, the king of Navarre, Sancho VII the Strong
(r. 1194–1234), was one of the leaders of the Christian
forces. Navarre’s main objectives were the conquest and
re-Christianization of the Ebro Valley. The kings of
Navarre called in colonists to repopulate towns and
villages. In the course of this Reconquista, the kings
permitted Muslim minorities and Jewish communities
to remain in most of the towns and villages of the
kingdom. The king of Navarre also took charge of the
lucrative task of accommodating the large number of
pilgrims to SANTIAGODECOMPOSTELA.
On the death of Sancho VII the Strong (r. 1194–
1234) in 1234, the king’s legitimate heir was a nephew,
Count Thibaut IV of Champagne, who was crowned at
Pamplona as Thibaut I of Navarre (r. 1234–53). These
French rulers with ties to Champagne ruled until 1274.
They were followed by the kings of France from 1274 to
1328 and from then by the counts of Évreux until 1425.
The kingdom of Navarre was weakened in the 15th
century by its involvement in French dynastic struggles
and wars. The marriage of a daughter of King Charles
III the Noble (r. 1387–1425) led to a union of Navarre
and Aragon between 1425 and 1479. After a temporary
French rule, FERDINAND II completed the union with