Philip III of France

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Philip III (1 May 1245 – 5 October 1285), called the BoldTemplate:Efn (Template:Langx), was King of France from 1270 until his death in 1285. His father, Louis IX, died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Philip, who was accompanying him, returned to France and was anointed king at Reims in 1271.

Philip inherited numerous territorial lands during his reign, the most notable being the County of Toulouse, which was annexed to the royal domain in 1271. With the Treaty of Orléans, he expanded French influence into the Kingdom of Navarre and following the death of his brother Peter during the Sicilian Vespers, the County of Alençon was returned to the crown lands.

Following the Sicilian Vespers, Philip led the Aragonese Crusade in support of his uncle. Initially successful, Philip, his army racked with sickness, was forced to retreat and died from dysentery in Perpignan in 1285 at the age of 40. He was succeeded by his son Philip IV.

Early life

Philip was born in Poissy on 1 May 1245,Template:Sfn the second son of King Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence.Template:Sfn As a younger son, Philip was not expected to rule France. At the death of his older brother Louis in 1260, he became the heir apparent to the throne.Template:Sfn

Philip's mother Margaret made him promise to remain under her tutelage until the age of 30; however, Pope Urban IV released him from this oath on 6 June 1263.Template:Sfn From that moment on, Pierre de la Broce, a royal favourite and household official of Louis IX, was Philip's mentor.Template:Sfn His father, Louis, also provided him with advice, writing in particular the Enseignements, which inculcated the notion of justice as the first duty of a king.Template:Sfn

According to the terms of the Treaty of Corbeil (1258), concluded on 11 March 1258 between Louis IX and James I of Aragon,Template:Sfn Philip was married in 1262 to Isabella of Aragon in Clermont by the archbishop of Rouen, Eudes Rigaud.Template:Sfn

Crusade

File:Livre des faiz monseigneur saint Loys - BNF Fr2829 f82r (procession funèbre de Louis IX).jpg

Philip (on horseback) has his father's remains returned to France. Late 15th century illuminated manuscript

As Count of Orléans, Philip accompanied his father on the Eighth Crusade to Tunis in 1270. Shortly before his departure, Louis IX had given the regency of the kingdom into the hands of Mathieu de Vendôme and Simon II, Count of Clermont, to whom he had also entrusted the royal seal.Template:Sfn After taking Carthage, the army was struck by an epidemic of dysentery, which spared neither Philip nor his family. His brother John Tristan, Count of Valois died first, on 3 August,Template:Sfn and on 25 August the King died.Template:Efn Template:Sfn To prevent putrefaction of his remains, it was decided to carry out mos Teutonicus, the process of rendering the flesh from the bones so as to make transporting the remains feasible.Template:Sfn

Philip, only 25 years old and stricken with dysentery, was proclaimed king in Tunis.Template:Sfn His uncle, Charles I of Naples, negotiated with Muhammad I al-Mustansir, Hafsid Caliph of Tunis.Template:Sfn A treaty was concluded 5 November 1270 between the kings of France, Sicily and Navarre and the Caliph of Tunis.Template:Sfn

Other deaths followed this debacle. In December, in Trapani, Sicily, Philip's brother-in-law, King Theobald II of Navarre, died.Template:Sfn He was followed in February by Philip's wife, Isabella, who fell off her horse while pregnant with their fifth child.Template:Sfn She died in Cozenza (Calabria).Template:Sfn In April, Theobald's widow and Philip's sister, Isabella, also died.Template:Sfn

Philip III arrived in Paris on 21 May 1271, and paid tribute to the deceased.Template:Sfn The next day the funeral of his father was held.Template:Sfn The new sovereign was crowned king of France in Reims on 15 August 1271.Template:Sfn

Reign

Philip maintained most of his father's domestic policies.Template:Sfn This included the royal ordinances passed against seigneurial warfare by his father in 1258, which he reinforced by passing his own ordinance in October 1274.Template:Sfn Philip followed in his father's footsteps concerning Jews in France,Template:Sfn claiming piety as his motivation.Template:Sfn Upon his return to Paris 23 September 1271, Philip reenacted his father's order that Jews wear badges.Template:Sfn His charter in 1283 banned the construction and repair of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries,Template:Sfn banned Jews from employing Christians, and sought to restrain Jewish strepiti (chanting too loudlyTemplate:Sfn).Template:Sfn

On 21 August 1271, Philip's uncle, Alphonse, Count of Poitiers and Toulouse, died childless in Savona.Template:Sfn Philip inherited Alphonse's lands and united them with the royal domain. This inheritance included a portion of Auvergne, later the Duchy of Auvergne and the Agenais. In accordance with the wishes of Alphonse, Philip granted the Comtat Venaissin to Pope Gregory X in 1274.Template:Sfn Several years later the Treaty of Amiens (1279) with King Edward I restored Agenais to the English.Template:Sfn

On 19 September 1271, Philip commanded the Seneschal of Toulouse to record oaths of loyalty from nobles and town councils.Template:Sfn The following year, Roger-Bernard III, Count of Foix, invaded the County of Toulouse, killed several royal officials,Template:Sfn and captured the town of Sombuy.Template:Sfn Philip's royal seneschal, Eustache de Beaumarchès, led a counter-attack into the County of Foix, until ordered by Philip to withdraw.Template:Sfn Philip and his army arrived at Toulouse on 25 May 1272,Template:Sfn and on 1 June at Boulbonne met James I of Aragon, who attempted to mediate the issue, but this was rejected by Roger-Bernard.Template:Sfn Philip then proceeded on a campaign to devastate and depopulate the County of Foix.Template:Sfn By 5 June Roger-Bernard had surrendered, was incarcerated at Carcassonne,Template:Sfn and placed in chains.Template:Sfn Philip imprisoned him for a year, but then freed him and restored his lands.Template:Sfn

Treaty with Navarre

Following the death of King Henry I of Navarre in 1274, Alfonso X of Castile attempted to gain the crown of Navarre from Henry's heiress, Joan.Template:Sfn Ferdinand de la Cerda, the son of Alfonso X, arrived at Viana with an army. At the same time, Alfonso sought papal approval for a marriage between one of his grandsons and Joan.Template:Sfn Henry's widow, Blanche of Artois, was also receiving marriage proposals for Joan from England and Aragon.Template:Sfn Faced with an invading army and foreign proposals, Blanche sought assistance from her cousin, Philip.Template:Sfn Philip saw a territorial gain, while Joan would have the military assistance to protect her kingdom.Template:Sfn The Treaty of Orléans of 1275, between Philip and Blanche, arranged the marriage between a son of Philip (Louis or Philip) and Blanche's daughter, Joan.Template:Sfn The treaty indicated that Navarre would be administered from Paris by appointed governors.Template:Sfn By May 1276, French governors were traveling throughout Navarre collecting oaths of fealty to the young Queen.Template:Sfn The Navarrese populace, unhappy with the pro-French treaty and French governors, formed two rebellious factions, one pro-Castilian, the other pro-Aragonese.Template:Sfn

Navarrese revolt

In September 1276, Philip, faced with open rebellion, sent Robert II, Count of Artois to Pamplona with an army.Template:Sfn Philip arrived in Bearn in November 1276 with another army, by which time Robert had pacified the situation and extracted oaths of homage from Navarrese nobles and castellans.Template:Sfn Despite the revolt being quickly pacified, it was not until the spring of 1277 that the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon renounced their intentions of matrimony.Template:Sfn Philip received a formal rebuke from Pope Nicholas III for the damage inflicted throughout Navarre.Template:Sfn

Sicilian Vespers

Template:Main In 1282, Sicily rose in revolt against King Charles I of Naples,Template:Sfn Philip's uncle. Angered by years of heavy taxation, Sicilian mobs massacred many Angevins and French. King Peter III of Aragon subsequently landed on Sicily in support of the rebels,Template:Sfn claiming the crown of Sicily for himself. The success of the rebellion and invasion led to the coronation of Peter as king of Sicily on 4 September 1282.Template:Sfn Pope Martin IV excommunicated Peter and declared his kingdom forfeit.Template:Sfn Martin then granted Aragon to Philip's son, Charles, Count of Valois.Template:Sfn Philip's brother, Peter, Count of Perche, who had joined Charles to suppress the rebellion, was killed in Reggio Calabria.Template:Sfn He died without issue and the County of Alençon returned to the royal domain in 1286.Template:Sfn

File:MariaofBrabantMarriage.jpg

Marriage of Philip and Marie of Brabant, Queen of France. Royal MS 20 C VII, 14th century.

Aragonese Crusade and death

Template:Main Philip, at the urging of his wife, Marie of Brabant, and his uncle, Charles of Naples, launched a war against the Kingdom of Aragon.Template:Sfn The war took the name "Aragonese Crusade" from its papal sanction; nevertheless, one historian labelled it "perhaps the most unjust, unnecessary and calamitous enterprise ever undertaken by the Capetian monarchy."Template:Sfn Philip, accompanied by his sons, entered Roussillon at the head of a large army.Template:Sfn By 26 June 1285, he had entrenched his army before Girona and besieged the city.Template:Sfn Despite strong resistance, Philip took Girona on 7 September 1285.Template:Sfn Philip quickly experienced a reversal, as an epidemic of dysentery hit the French campTemplate:Sfn and afflicted Philip personally. The French had started a withdrawal when the Aragonese attacked and easily defeated the former at the Battle of the Col de Panissars on 1 October.Template:Sfn Philip died of dysentery in Perpignan on 5 October 1285.Template:Sfn His son, Philip the Fair, succeeded him as king of France. Following the mos Teutonicus custom, his body was divided in several parts, each buried in different places; the flesh was sent to the Narbonne Cathedral, the entrails to La Noë Abbey in Normandy, his heart to the now-demolished Church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris and his bones to Basilica of Saint-Denis, north of Paris.Template:Sfn

Marriages and children

On 28 May 1262, Philip married Isabella, daughter of King James I of Aragon and his second wife Violant of Hungary.Template:Sfn They had the following children:

Louis (1264 – May 1276).Template:Sfn
Philip IV of France (1268 – 29 November 1314), his successor, married Joan I of Navarre Template:Sfn
Robert (1269–1271)Template:Sfn
Charles (12 March 1270 – 16 December 1325),Template:Sfn Count of Valois from 1284, married first to Margaret of Naples (Countess of Anjou) in 1290, second to Catherine I of Courtenay in 1302, and last to Mahaut of Chatillon in 1308
Stillborn son (1271)Template:Sfn

After the death of Queen Isabella, Philip married on 21 August 1274 Marie,Template:Sfn daughter of the late Henry III, Duke of Brabant, and Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant.Template:Sfn Their children were:

Louis (May 1276 – 19 May 1319), Count of Évreux from 1298,Template:Sfn married Margaret of Artois Template:Sfn
Blanche (1278 – 19 March 1305, Vienna), married Duke, the future king Rudolf I of Bohemia and Poland, on 25 May 1300.Template:Sfn
Margaret (1282 – 14 February 1318), married King Edward I of England on 8 September 1299Template:Sfn

Legacy

During Philip's reign the royal domain expanded, acquiring the County of Guînes in 1281,Template:Sfn the County of Toulouse in 1271, the County of Alençon in 1286, the Duchy of Auvergne in 1271, and through the marriage of his son Philip, the Kingdom of Navarre.Template:Sfn He largely continued his father's policies and left his father's administrators in place. His attempt to conquer Aragon nearly bankrupted the French monarchy, causing financial challenges for his successor.Template:Sfn

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Review from Dante

In the Divine Comedy, the Italian poet Dante envisions the spirit of Philip outside the gates of Purgatory with a number of other contemporary European rulers. Dante does not name Philip directly, but refers to him as "the small-nosed"Template:Sfn and "the father of the Pest of France," a reference to King Philip IV of France.Template:Sfn