Navarre is the name of a region where the play - Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare - takes place and the region was an independent kingdom in northern Spain and southern France in the sixteenth century. However, during the century, ‘Spain annexed most of Navarre’ (http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xLoveLab.html) in 1515 and eventually ‘in 1589, France annexed the rest of the kingdom’ (ibid).
By narrowing the range of time and place to the kingdom of Navarre in the sixteenth century, and replacing the fictional king Ferdinand in the play to Henri de Bourbon, the historical King of Navarre since 1572, who later became Henri IV of France, some candidates, who might have provided the bases for establishing the play's character lords, can be found; Armand de Gontaut, the Baron (Due) de Biron (Berowne), A Duc (the Due) de Longueville and The Due de Mayenne (or the General D’Aumont).
As for the model for lord Biron, plural sources agree to see the Baron (the Due) de Biron (or Berowne) as the sole candidate. One source says he was a French Protestant general, ‘who was a principal adviser to the historical King of Navarre (Henri de Bourbon)’ (http://hudsonshakespeare.org/Shakespeare%20Library/Character%20Directory/CD_LLL.htm), whilst another source basically says the same with adding his personal name Armand de Gontaut, who was Henri’s ‘military leader’ (http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/lllost1.html) and ‘died in battle in 1592’ (ibid).
In addition, looking at biographic information of Henri de Bourbon, the King of Navarre, could provide a plausible explanation for the death of the Baron de Biron, because if he was serving for the King, he could go into the battle of Craon, which took place on May 1592 between his king, Henri IV, and Spain, the alley of the Catholic League. The result of the battle also gives more likelihood for the death of Biron, an important figure for Henri’s side, because it ended up ‘carrying a brilliant victory’ (http://www.multilingualarchive.com/ma/frwiki/en/Bataille_de_Craon) to the side of the League.
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| Armand de Gontaut |
To read the text in full: http://wrex2009.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/three-character-lords-in-loves-labours-lost/
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