| Gaston IV | |
|---|---|
| Count of Foix | |
 Gaston depicted in the Armorial of Gilles Le Bouvier (Héraut Berry), ca 1455 | |
| Born | 27 November 1422 |
| Died | 25 or 28 July 1472 (aged 49) Roncesvalles |
| Spouse | |
| Issue among others... | |
| House | Foix |
| Father | John I, Count of Foix |
| Mother | Jeanne d'Albret |
Gaston IV (27 November 1422 – 25 or 28 July 1472) was the sovereign Viscount of Béarn and the Count of Foix and Bigorre in France from 1436 to 1472. He also held the viscounties of Marsan, Castelbon, Nébouzan, Villemeur and Lautrec and was, by virtue of the county of Foix, co-prince of Andorra. From 1447 he was also Viscount of Narbonne. Through his marriage to Eleanor, heiress of the Kingdom of Navarre, he also held the title of Prince of Navarre.
Gaston was a son of John I, Count of Foix[1] and Jeanne d'Albret. His maternal grandparents were Charles d'Albret, Constable of France and co-commander of the French army, killed at the Battle of Agincourt, and his wife Marie de Sully.
Gaston married Infanta Eleanor of Navarre in 1436.[2] Her parents were John II and Blanche I of Navarre. At the time, Eleanor appeared to have few prospects: her father was a younger son and brother of kings of Aragon, and she had two older siblings, Charles and Blanche, standing between herself and the throne of Navarre. However, family dissent and death eliminated both her siblings; Eleanor's father usurped the Navarrese crown, to which he added in 1458 the throne of Aragon (his older brother having died without legitimate children). Following the deaths of Charles and Blanche, King John promised the succession to Navarre to Eleanor and Gaston in return for their loyalty to him, which was given.
When Gaston IV died in 1472, his eldest son Gaston, Prince of Viana had already died, and he was succeeded as Count of Foix by the latter's son Francis Phoebus who was only 5 years old, under the regency of his grandmother and Gaston IV's wife Eleanor of Navarre.
First Eleanor, and then Francis Phoebus also became Queen and King of Navarre in 1479, linking the fate of the County of Foix to that of the Kingdom of Navarre until their incorporation into the Kingdom of France in 1607.
- ^ Vernier 2008, p. 4.
- ^ Ward et al. 1911, p. 84.