- Philip VI of France
Infobox French Royalty|monarch
name=Philip VI the Fortunate
title=King of France
caption=
reign=1 April 1328 –22 August 1350
coronation=29 May 1328
full name=
predecessor=Charles IV
successor=John II
spouse=Joan of Burgundy
Blanche d'Évreux
issue=John II
Philip of Valois, Duke of Orléans
royal house=House of Valois
royal anthem =
father=Charles of Valois
mother=Marguerite of Anjou and Maine
date of birth=1293
place of birth=
date of death=death date|1350|8|22|df=y
place of death=Nogent-le-Roi ,Eure-et-Loir ,France
place of burial=Saint Denis Basilica |Philip VI (1293 –
22 August 1350 ), known as the Fortunate (French: "le Fortuné" [ [http://www.heraldique-europeenne.org/Celebres/Personnages/Philippe_VI_France.htm Heraldique-Europeenne] ] ) and of Valois, was the King of France from 1328 to his death. He was also Count of Anjou, Maine, and Valois from 1325 to 1328. A member of theCapetian dynasty , he was the son ofCharles of Valois (who was the brother of King Charles IV's fatherPhilip IV ) and the first King of France from theHouse of Valois .Ascension to the throne
In 1328, King Charles IV died without a direct male descendant; however, at the time of his death his wife was pregnant. Philip, as Charles' cousin, was one of the two chief claimants to the throne along with the demands of Dowager Queen Isabella of England, the late King Charles' sister, who claimed the French throne for her young son King
Edward III of England . Philip rose to the regency with support of French magnates, following the pattern set up by Philip V's succession over his nieceJoan II of Navarre , and Charles IV's succession over all his nieces, including daughters of Philip V. A century later this pattern became theSalic law , which forbade females and those descended in the female line from succeeding to the throne. After Charles' queen,Jeanne d'Évreux , gave birth to a girl, Philip was crowned as King onMay 29 ,1328 [cite book |last= Curry |first= Anne |title= The Hundred Years' War |year= 2003 |publisher= Rutledge |location= New York |isbn= 0-415-96863-1 |pages= 18] at the Cathedral in Reims.Philip VI, though a descendant ofGarcia VI of Navarre , was not an heir nor a descendant ofJoan I of Navarre , whose inheritance (the kingdom ofNavarre , as well as the counties of Champagne,Troyes ,Meaux andBrie ) had been in personal union with the crown of France almost fifty years and had long been administered by the same royal machinery (established by Philip IV, the father of French bureaucracy), which administrative resource was inherited by Philip VI. These counties were closely entrenched in the economic and administrative entity of the Royal Domain of France, being located adjacent to Ile-de-France. Philip, however, was not entitled to that inheritance; the rightful heiress was Louis X's surviving daughter, the futureJoan II of Navarre , the genealogically senior granddaughter of Joan I of Navarre. Philip ceded Navarre to Joan II, but regarding the counties in Champagne, they struck a deal: Joan II received vast lands inNormandy (adjacent to her husband's fief in Evreux) in compensation, and Philip got to keep Champagne as part of the Royal Domain.Reign
Philip's reign was punctuated with crises. It began with military success in
Flanders at the Battle of Cassel (August 1328), where Philip's forces reseatedLouis I of Flanders , who had been unseated by a popular revolution. The able Jeanne gave the first of many demonstrations of her competence as regent in his absence.Philip initially enjoyed relatively amicable relations with Edward III, and they planned a crusade together in 1332, which was never executed. However, the status of the
Duchy of Aquitaine remained a sore point, and tension increased. Philip provided refuge forDavid II of Scotland in 1334 and declared himself champion of his interests, which enraged Edward. By 1336, they were enemies, although not yet openly at war.Philip successfully prevented an arrangement between the papacy in
Avignon and Emperor Louis IV although, in July 1337, Louis concluded an alliance with Edward III.The final breach with England came when Edward offered refuge to
Robert III of Artois , formerly one of Philip's trusted advisers. However, after he committedforgery to try to obtain an inheritance, he barely escaped France with his life, and was hounded by Philip throughout Europe. Edward made himEarl of Richmond and honored him; in retaliation, Philip declared onMay 24 ,1337 that Edward had forfeited Aquitaine for rebellion and disobedience. Thus began theHundred Years' War .Hundred Years' War
Philip entered the Hundred Years' War in a position of comparative strength. France was richer and more populous than England, and was then in the height of her medieval glory. The opening stages of the war, accordingly, were largely successful for the French.
At sea, French privateers raided and burned towns and shipping all along the southern and southeastern coasts of England. The English made some retaliatory raids, including the burning of a fleet in the harbor of
Boulogne-sur-Mer , but the French largely had the upper hand. With his sea power established, Philip gave orders in 1339 to prepare an invasion of England, and began assembling a fleet off theZeeland coast atSluys . However, in June 1340, in the bitterly-foughtBattle of Sluys ("l'Ecluse"), the English attacked the port and captured or destroyed the ships there, ending the threat of an invasion.On land, Edward III largely concentrated upon
Flanders and theLow Countries , where he had gained allies by diplomacy and bribery. A raid in 1339 (the firstchevauchée ) intoPicardy ended ignominiously when Philip wisely refused to give battle. Edward's slender finances would not permit him to play a waiting game, and he was forced to withdraw into Flanders and return to England to raise more money. In July 1340, Edward returned and besiegedTournai ; again, Philip brought up a relieving army which harassed the besiegers but did not offer open battle, and Edward was again forced to return home, fleeing the Low Countries secretly to escape his creditors.So far, the war had gone quite well for Philip and the French. While often stereotyped as chivalry-besotten blockheads, Philip and his men had in fact carried out a successful
Fabian strategy against the debt-plagued Edward, and resisted the chivalric blandishments of single combat or a combat of two hundred knights that he offered. In 1341, theWar of the Breton Succession allowed the English to place permanent garrisons inBrittany . However, Philip was still in a commanding position: during Papally-arbitrated negotiations in 1343, he refused Edward's offer to end the war in exchange for theDuchy of Aquitaine in full sovereignty.The next attack came in 1345, when the Earl of Derby overran the
Agenais (lost twenty years before in theWar of Saint-Sardos ) and tookAngoulême , while the forces in Brittany under SirThomas Dagworth also made gains. The French responded in the spring of 1346 with a massive counter-attack against Aquitaine, where an army under John, Duke of Normandy besieged Derby atAiguillon . On the advice ofGodfrey Harcourt (like Robert III of Artois, a banished French nobleman), Edward sailed forNormandy instead of Aquitaine. As Harcourt predicted, the Normans were ill-prepared for war, and many of the fighting men were at Aiguillon. Edward sacked and burned the country as he went, takingCaen and advancing as far asPoissy before retreating before the army Philip hastily assembled atParis . Slipping across theSomme , Edward drew up to give battle atCrécy .Close behind him, Philip had planned to halt for the night and reconnoiter the English position before giving battle the next day. However, his troops were disorderly and not to be handled: the roads were jammed by the rear of the army coming up, and by the local peasantry furiously calling for vengeance on the English. Finding them hopeless to control, he ordered a general attack as evening fell. Thus began the
Battle of Crécy ; and when it was done, the French army had been well-nigh annihilated, and Philip barely escaped capture. Fortune had turned against the French.The English seized and held the advantage. Normandy called off the siege of Aiguillon and retreated northward, while Sir Thomas Dagworth captured
Charles of Blois in Brittany. The English army pulled back from Crécy to besiegeCalais ; the town held out stubbornly, but the English were determined, and easily supplied across theEnglish Channel . Philip led out a relieving army in July 1347, but unlike the siege of Tournai, it was now Edward who had the upper hand. With the plunder of his Norman expedition and the reforms of his tax system he had executed, he could hold to his siege lines and await an attack Philip dare not deliver. It was Philip who marched away in August, and the city capitulated shortly thereafter.Final years
After the defeat at Crécy and loss of Calais, the Estates refused to raise money for Philip, halting his plans to counter-attack by invading England. In 1348, a new woe struck France: the
Black Death , which in the next few years killed one-third of the population, including Queen Joan. The resulting labor shortage caused inflation to soar, and the king attempted to fix prices, further de-stabilizing the country. His last major achievement was the purchase of theDauphiné and the territory ofMontpellier in theLanguedoc , in 1349. At his death in 1350, France was still very much a divided country filled with social unrest.Marriages and Children
In July, 1313, Philip married
Joan the Lame ( _fr. Jeanne), daughter ofRobert II, Duke of Burgundy , and princess Agnes of France, the youngest daughter of Louis IX. In an ironic twist to his "male" ascendancy to the throne, the intelligent, strong-willed Joan, an able regent of France during the King's long military campaigns, was said to be the brains behind the throne and the real ruler of France.Their children were:
* John II (April 26 ,1319 –April 8 ,1364 )
* Marie (1326–1333), who married John of Brabant, the son and heir ofJohn III, Duke of Brabant , but died shortly afterwards.
* Louis (January 17 ,1328 –January 17 ,1328 )
* Louis (June 8 ,1330 –June 23 ,1330 )
* Jean (1333–1333)
* Philip of Valois (1336–1375),Duke of Orleans
* Jeanne (1337–1337)After Joan died in 1348, Philip married
Blanche d'Évreux , princess of Navarre, daughter of the queen regnantJoan II of Navarre , onJanuary 11 ,1350 . They had one daughter: Jeanne (1351–1371), who was intended to marryJohn I of Aragon , but who died upon the journey.Philip VI died at
Nogent-le-Roi ,Eure-et-Loir onAugust 22 ,1350 and is interred with his second wife, Blanche de Navarre (1330–1398) inSaint Denis Basilica . He was succeeded by his first son by Jeanne of Burgundy, who became John II.Ancestry
Ancestors of King Philip VI of FranceReferences
ources
Philip VI of France
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