Born in 1332 - died in 1387.
King of Navarre in 1349.
Great-grandson in paternal and maternal lines of Philippe III le Hardi. Grandson in maternal line of Louis X le Hutin. Eldest son of Philippe III, Count of Évreux, died in 1343, and of Jeanne de France, died in 1349, Queen of Navarre under the name of Jeanne II on the death of Charles IV le Bel. He was much more justified than the King of England in claiming the inheritance of the direct Capetians. However, he only inherited from his parents the kingdom of Navarre and - so he said at least - part of the fiefs to which he was entitled as Count of Évreux. It seems that the violent feeling of frustration he felt at this fact was, with probably a bad chromosomal distribution, the determining factor of a whole career devoted to fraud, treason and crime.
Intelligent, Charles knows how to conceal and mislead the adversary; weak in nerves, he often allows himself to be dominated by his moods. His marriage to Jeanne de France, daughter of Jean le Bon, was made to consolidate his claims to the throne of France, provided he knew how to wait for opportunities. However, he reveals the darkness of his soul a little early:Charles of Spain having been favored to his detriment, he simply had this favorite of the king assassinated (1354). The affairs of the kingdom were not prosperous. At the time, Jean manages to hold back his anger, but it will burst out two years later, as soon as he has heard of the evil man's schemes with the English:while three gentlemen of his entourage have their heads cut off in Rouen, Charles de Navarre was imprisoned in Château-Gaillard in 1356. Madly imprudent to detain a Count of Évreux in Normandy. Charles retained the faithful who, faced with the threat of the arrival of Jean le Bon, handed over the places in their custody to the English; when Jean was himself taken prisoner in Poitiers in 1356, the Navarrese party, very powerful in Paris, obtained the release of its leader. As the Dauphin struggles amid the revolutionary turmoil, Charles the Bad makes a solemn entry into the capital; after having harangued the crowds and had the prisons emptied, he exercised continual blackmail on the Dauphin through his lieutenants Picquigny and Le Coq, to whom Étienne Marcel himself was soon to be added. This does not prevent him from contributing greatly to the extinction of the Jacques by luring the Beauvaisian band of Guillaume Calle dit Jacques Bonhomme into an ambush, under the fallacious pretext of a conference. This feat accomplished, he returned to Paris. But this time, he makes himself odious by massacring Parisians with a band of Englishmen in his pay, and by refusing to take communion after having concluded a treaty with the Dauphin. The Parisian revolution ended with the murder of Étienne Marcel, the Navarrese party was driven out of the capital; the English war ended with the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360. Charles the Bad then raised claims on Burgundy. But du Guesclin defeated him at Cocherel in 1364, and he had to give up for a moment on disturbing the affairs of France (Treaty of Avignon, 1365) and reach Navarre. In Spain, he leads a disastrous policy for his kingdom. Continuing to conspire against the King of France, Charles loses his Norman possessions but manages to sell Cherbourg to the King of England (1378). A difficult character to rehabilitate.
He had a son who looked little like him, Charles III the Noble, restorer of the kingdom of Navarre.