Philip VI

(1294-1350) (Philippe de Valois)

   king of France

   King of France (1328-50) and the first monarch of the Valois dynasty, Philip VI de Valois was born in Nogent-le-Roi, the son of Charles de Valois and Margaret of Sicily, the nephew of King Philip IV the Fair. He married Jeanne of Burgundy and, when King Charles IV died without issue, he was recognized as king by the barons of the kingdom. The barons had rejected Philippe d'Evreux (also a nephew of Philip IV), and especially Edward III of England, grandson, through his mother, of Philip IV. Philip VI was closer because he was the oldest of the claimants as well as a French prince. He recognized the rights to Navarre of Philippe d'Evreux's wife, jeanne de navarre, the daughter of Louis X of France (1328). The campaign that Philip VI undertook in Flanders to support his vassal, count Louis de Nevers, against his rebellious subjects ended with his victory at Cassel (1328). Edward III gave him homage for Gascony and Guyenne in 1329, but in 1337, dissatisfied with Philip's encroachments in Guyenne and his intrigues with his Scottish enemies, Edward rose against Philip and renewed his claim to the French throne. This marked the beginning of the hundred years' war. Edward III, allied with the Holy Roman Emperor Louis of Bavaria, and especially with Flanders, won the naval battle at L'Ecluse (1340) and subsequently invaded France (1346). Defeated at Crécy (1346), Philip concluded a treaty after the fall of Calais (1347). Besides the war, his reign was marked by a grave economic crisis, famines, and the great plague (1348) that ravaged Europe. He enlarged the royal domains by the additions of the counties of Valois, Chartres, Maine, and Anjou, and by the purchase of Dauphiné and Montpellier (1349). Philip VI was the father of King jean ii.