Philip VI (French:Philippe; 1293 – 22 August 1350), calledthe Fortunate (French:le Fortuné),the Catholic (le Catholique) andof Valois (de Valois), was the firstking of France from theHouse of Valois, reigning from 1328 until his death in 1350. Philip's reign was dominated by the consequences ofa succession dispute. When KingCharles IV of France died in 1328, hisnearest male relative was his sororal nephew,Edward III of England, but the French nobility preferred Charles's paternal cousin, Philip of Valois.
At first, Edward seemed to accept Philip's succession, but he pressedhis claim to the throne of France after a series of disagreements with Philip. The result was the beginning of theHundred Years' War in 1337.
After initial successes at sea, Philip's navy was annihilated at theBattle of Sluys in 1340, ensuring that the war would occur on the continent. The English took another decisive advantage at theBattle of Crécy (1346), while theBlack Death struck France, further destabilising the country.
In 1349, Philip bought theDauphiné of Viennois, a county in theKingdom of Burgundy (Arles), under the suzerainty of theHoly Roman Empire, thus expanding the French influence beyond the riverRhône. The acquisition was formalized by the treaty ofRomans, concluded between Philip andHumbert II, dauphin of Viennois. The province was entrusted to Philip's grandson, princeCharles (future king Charles V).[2]
Philip VI died in 1350 and was succeeded by his sonJohn II.
Little is recorded about Philip's childhood and youth, in large part because he was of minor royal birth. Philip's father,Charles, Count of Valois, was the younger brother of KingPhilip IV of France.[3] Charles had striven throughout his life to gain the throne for himself but was never successful. He died in 1325, leaving his eldest son Philip as heir to the counties ofAnjou,Maine, andValois.[4]
In 1328, Philip's cousinCharles IV of France died without a son, leaving his widowJoan of Évreux pregnant.[4] Philip was one of the two chief claimants to the throne of France. The other was KingEdward III of England, who was Charles's nephew andclosest male relative, being the son of Charles's sisterIsabella of France. The Estates General had decided12 years earlier that women could not inherit the throne of France. The question arose as to whether Isabella should have been able to transmit a claim that she herself did not possess.[5] The assemblies of the French barons and prelates and theUniversity of Paris decided that males who derive their right to inheritance through their mother should be excluded according toSalic law. As Philip was the eldest grandson ofPhilip III of France through the male line, he became regent instead of Edward, who was a maternal grandson ofPhilip IV and great-grandson of Philip III.[6]
During the period in which Queen Joan was waiting to deliver her child, Philip of Valois rose to the regency with support of the French magnates, following the pattern set up by his cousin,Philip V of France, who succeeded to the throne over his nieceJoan.[5] Philip formally held the regency from 9 February until 1 April 1328. On 1 April, Joan of Évreux gave birth to a daughter namedBlanche,[7] following which Philip was proclaimed king. He was crowned at theCathedral in Reims on 29 May 1328.[8] After his elevation to the throne, Philip sent the Abbot ofFécamp,Pierre Roger, to summon Edward III of England to pay homage for theduchy of Aquitaine andGascony.[9] After a subsequent second summons from Philip, Edward finally arrived at theCathedral of Amiens on 6 June 1329 and worded his vows in such a way to cause more disputes in later years.[9]
The dynastic change had another consequence: Charles IV had also beenKing of Navarre, but, unlike thecrown of France, thecrown of Navarre was not subject to Salic law. Philip VI was neither an heir nor a descendant ofJoan I of Navarre, whose inheritance (the kingdom ofNavarre, as well as the counties ofChampagne,Troyes,Meaux, andBrie) had been in personal union with the crown of France for almost fifty years and had long been administered by the same royal machinery established by King Philip IV, the father of French bureaucracy. These counties were closely entrenched in the economic and administrative entity of thecrown lands of France, being located adjacent toÎle-de-France. Philip, however, was not entitled to that inheritance; the rightful heiress was the surviving daughter of his cousinKing Louis X, the future Joan II of Navarre, theheir general of Joan I of Navarre. Navarre thus passed to Joan II, with whom Philip struck a deal regarding the counties in Champagne: she received vast lands inNormandy (adjacent to thefief in Évreux that her husbandPhilip III of Navarre owned) as compensation, and he kept Champagne as part of the French crown lands.
Philip's reign was plagued with crises, although it began with a military success inFlanders at theBattle of Cassel (August 1328), where Philip's forces re-seatedLouis I, Count of Flanders, who had been unseated bya popular revolution.[10] Philip's wife, the ableJoan the Lame, 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 theDuchy 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.[11] By 1336, they were enemies, although not yet openly at war.
Philip successfully prevented an arrangement between theAvignon papacy andHoly Roman Emperor Louis IV, although in July 1337 Louis concluded an alliance with Edward III.[12] The final breach with England came when Edward offered refuge toRobert III of Artois, formerly one of Philip's trusted advisers,[13] after Robert committed forgery to try to obtain an inheritance. As relations between Philip and Edward worsened, Robert's standing in England strengthened.[13] On 26 December 1336, Philip officially demanded the extradition of Robert to France.[13] On 24 May 1337, Philip declared that Edward had forfeited Aquitaine for disobedience and for sheltering the "king's mortal enemy", Robert of Artois.[14] Thus began theHundred Years' War, complicated by Edward's renewedclaim to the throne of France in retaliation for the forfeiture of Aquitaine.
Flemish leader as fish seller went to search in French campPhilip VI and his first wife, Joan of Burgundy
Philip entered the Hundred Years' War in a position of comparative strength.France was richer and more populous thanEngland and was at the height of its 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.[15] The English made some retaliatory raids, including the burning of a fleet in the harbour ofBoulogne-sur-Mer,[16] but the French largely had the upper hand. With his sea power established, Philip gave orders in 1339 to begin assembling a fleet off theZeeland coast atSluys. In June 1340, however, in the bitterly foughtBattle of Sluys, the English attacked the port and captured or destroyed the ships there, ending the threat of an invasion.[16]
On land, Edward III largely concentrated uponFlanders and theLow Countries, where he had gained allies through 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 mounted thesiege of Tournai.[17] By September 1340, Edward was in financial distress, hardly able to pay or feed his troops, and was open to dialogue.[18] After being atBouvines for a week, Philip was finally persuaded to sendJoan of Valois, Countess of Hainaut, to discuss terms to end the siege.[18] On 23 September 1340, a nine-month truce was reached.[18]
So far, the war had gone quite well for Philip and the French. While often stereotyped as chivalry-besotted and incompetent, Philip and his men had in fact carried out a successfulFabian 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 negotiations arbitrated by the pope 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 theEarl of Derby overran theAgenais (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 counterattack againstAquitaine, where an army underJohn, Duke of Normandy, besieged Derby atAiguillon. On the advice ofGodfrey Harcourt (likeRobert III of Artois, a banished French nobleman), Edward sailed forNormandy instead of Aquitaine. As Harcourt predicted, theNormans were ill-prepared for war, and many of the fighting men were at Aiguillon. Edward sacked and burned the country as he went,taking Caen and advancing as far asPoissy and then retreating before the army Philip had hastily assembled at Paris. Slipping across theSomme, Edward drew up to give battle atCrécy.[19]
Close behind him, Philip had planned to halt for the night and reconnoitre the English position before giving battle the next day. However, his troops were disorderly, and the roads were jammed by the rear of the army coming up and the local peasantry, which furiously called for vengeance on the English. Finding them hopeless to control, he ordered a general attack as evening fell. Thus began theBattle of Crécy. When it was done, the French army had been annihilated and a wounded 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 SirThomas Dagworth capturedCharles of Blois in Brittany. The English army pulled back from Crécy to mount thesiege of Calais; the town held out stubbornly, but the English were determined, and they easily supplied across theEnglish Channel. Philip led out a relieving army in July 1347, but unlike theSiege of Tournai, it was now Edward who had the upper hand. With the plunder of his Norman expedition and the reforms he had executed in his tax system, he could hold to his siege lines and await an attack that Philip dared not deliver. It was Philip who marched away in August, and the city capitulated shortly thereafter.
After the defeat at Crécy and loss of Calais, theEstates of France refused to raise money for Philip, halting his plans to counter-attack by invading England. In 1348 theBlack Death struck France and in the next few years killed one-third of the population, including Queen Joan. The resulting labour shortage caused inflation to soar, and the king attempted tofix prices, further destabilising the country. His second marriage to his son's betrothedBlanche of Navarre alienated his son and many nobles from the king.[20]
Philip's last major achievement was the acquisition of theDauphiné and the territory ofMontpellier in theLanguedoc in 1349. At his death in 1350, France was very much a divided country filled with social unrest. Philip VI died at Coulombes Abbey,Eure-et-Loir, on 22 August 1350[21] and is interred with his first wife, Joan of Burgundy, inSaint Denis Basilica, though hisviscera were buried separately at the now demolished church ofCouvent des Jacobins in Paris. He was succeeded by his first son by Joan of Burgundy, who becameJohn II.
Marie (1326 – 22 September 1333), who died aged only seven, but was already married to John, the son and heir of DukeJohn III of Brabant; no issue.[24]
Philip is a character inLes Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), a series of French historical novels byMaurice Druon. He was portrayed by Benoît Brione in the 1972 French miniseries adaptation of the series, and byMalik Zidi in the 2005 adaptation.[29]
^abJonathan Sumption,The Hundred Years War: Trial by Battle, 109–110.
^Kelly DeVries,Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century, (The Boydell Press, 1996), 102.
^Jonathan Sumption,The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle, 135.
^The Hundred Years War:Not One But Many, Kelly DeVries,The Hundred Years War (part II): Different Vistas, ed. L. J. Andrew Villalon, Donald J. Kagay, (Brill, 2008), 15.
^abcJonathan Sumption,The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle, 171–172.
^Jonathan Sumption,The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle, 184.
^Oars, Sails and Guns:The English and War at Sea, c.1200–1500, Ian Friel,War at Sea in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. John B. Hattendorf, Richard W. Unger, (The Boydell Press, 2003), 79.
^abJonathan Sumption,The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle, 320–328.
^Jonathan Sumption,The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle, 349.
^abcJonathan Sumption,The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle, 354–359.
^Mortimer, Ian (2008).The Perfect King The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation. Vintage. p. 276.
^Jonathan Sumption,Hundred Years War:Trial by Fire, Vol. II, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 117.
^David d'Avray,Papacy, Monarchy and Marriage 860–1600, (Cambridge University Press, 2015), 292.
^abMarguerite Keane,Material Culture and Queenship in 14th-century France, (Brill, 2016), 17.
^Henneman, John Bell (2015).Royal Taxation in Fourteenth-Century France: The Development of War Financing, 1322–1359. Princeton University Press. p. 91.
^Identity Politics and Rulership in France: Female Political Place and the Fraudulent Salic Law in Christine de Pizan and Jean de Montreuil, Sarah Hanley,Changing Identities in Early Modern France, ed. Michael Wolfe, (Duke University Press, 1996), 93 n45.
^Cité par Patrick Van Kerrebrouck, dansLes Valois, 1990, page 85.
^Sirjean, Gaston (199).Encyclopédie généalogique des maisons souveraines du monde Vol.1 Part 8. University of Georgia Library: Biblioteca Universității din Georgia. p. 225.
^Ormrod, W. Mark (2021).Winner and Waster and Its Contexts: Chivalry, Law and Economics in Fourteenth-Century England. D.S. Brewer. p. 52.
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