Arnaldo de Barbazán

Tomb of Arnaldo de Barbazán in the crypt that he built in the cathedral of Pamplona. Arnaldo de Barbazán (died 6 November 1355) was the bishop of Pamplona from 1318 until his death.

Arnaldo was born in Barbazan-Dessus in the county of Bigorre into a noble family of merely local prominence. He was a canon regular in the cathedral of Pamiers when Pope John XXII appointed him to the vacant see of Pamplona in January 1318. He subsequently fell out with Philip III in 1333 over the latter's Amejoramiento del Fuero, a major revision of the Fueros of Navarre, which required the bishop of Pamplona to provide 100 knights for service in the royal army. Philip invoked this provision during the crusade of Algeciras in 1343. Following Philip's death on the crusade, the procurator-general Jacques Licras seized Arnaldo's lands and put him on trial. Only the intervention of Pope Clement VII restored good relations between Arnaldo and his sovereign, now Joan II. Only after Joan's death in 1349, did King Charles II restore Arnaldo's lands.