Produced by David Widger
Being Historic Memoirs of the Courts of France and Navarre
[Author unknown]
CHARLES, COMTE DE VALOIS, was the younger brother of Philip the Fair, andtherefore uncle of the three sovereigns lately dead. His eldest sonPhilip had been appointed guardian to the Queen of Charles IV.; and whenit appeared that she had given birth to a daughter, and not a son, thebarons, joining with the notables of Paris and the, good towns met todecide who was by right the heir to the throne, "for the twelve peers ofFrance said and say that the Crown of France is of such noble estate thatby no succession can it come to a woman nor to a woman's son," asFroissart tells us. This being their view, the baby daughter of CharlesIV. was at once set aside; and the claim of Edward III. of England, if,indeed, he ever made it, rested on Isabella of France, his mother, sisterof the three sovereigns. And if succession through a female had beenpossible, then the daughters of those three kings had rights to bereserved. It was, however, clear that the throne must go to a man, andthe crown was given to Philip of Valois, founder of a new house ofsovereigns.
The new monarch was a very formidable person. He had been a great feudallord, hot and vehement, after feudal fashion; but he was now to show thathe could be a severe master, a terrible king. He began his reign bysubduing the revolted Flemings on behalf of his cousin Louis of Flanders,and having replaced him in his dignities, returned to Paris and thereheld high state as King. And he clearly was a great sovereign; theweakness of the late King had not seriously injured France; the new Kingwas the elect of the great lords, and they believed that his would be anew feudal monarchy; they were in the glow of their revenge over theFlemings for the days of Courtrai; his cousins reigned in Hungary andNaples, his sisters were married to the greatest of the lords; the Queenof Navarre was his cousin; even the youthful King of England did himhomage for Guienne and Ponthieu. The barons soon found out theirmistake. Philip VI., supported by the lawyers, struck them whenever hegave them opening; he also dealt harshly with the traders, hampering themand all but ruining them, till the country was alarmed and discontented.On the other hand, young Edward of England had succeeded to a troubledinheritance, and at the beginning was far weaker than his rival; his ownsagacity, and the advance of constitutional rights in England, soonenabled him to repair the breaches in his kingdom, and to gather freshstrength from the prosperity and good-will of a united people. WhileFrance followed a more restricted policy, England threw open her ports toall comers; trade grew in London as it waned in Paris; by his marriagewith Philippa of Hainault, Edward secured a noble queen, and with her thehappiness of his subjects and the all-important friendship of the LowCountries. In 1336 the followers of Philip VI. persuaded Louis ofFlanders to arrest the English merchants then in Flanders; whereuponEdward retaliated by stopping the export of wool, and Jacquemart vanArteveldt of Ghent, then at the beginning of his power, persuaded theFlemish cities to throw off all allegiance to their French-loving Count,and to place themselves under the protection of Edward. In return PhilipVI. put himself in communication with the Scots, the hereditary foes ofE