Editing Philip VI of France (section)

==Reign==
Philip's reign was plagued with crises, although it began with a military success in [[Flanders]] at the [[Battle of Cassel (1328)|Battle of Cassel]] (August 1328), where Philip's forces re-seated [[Louis I, Count of Flanders]], who had been unseated by [[Peasant revolt in Flanders 1323–28|a popular revolution]].<ref name="DeVries102">Kelly DeVries, ''Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century'', (The Boydell Press, 1996), 102.</ref> Philip's wife, the able [[Joan the Lame of Burgundy|Joan 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 the [[Duchy of Aquitaine]] remained a sore point, and tension increased. Philip provided refuge for [[David II of Scotland]] in 1334 and declared himself champion of his interests, which enraged Edward.<ref>Jonathan Sumption, ''The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle'', 135.</ref> By 1336, they were enemies, although not yet openly at war.

Philip successfully prevented an arrangement between the [[Avignon papacy]] and [[Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV]], although in July 1337 Louis concluded an alliance with Edward III.<ref>''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.</ref> The final breach with England came when Edward offered refuge to [[Robert III of Artois]], formerly one of Philip's trusted advisers,<ref name="Sumption171-172">Jonathan Sumption, ''The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle'', 171–172.</ref> after Robert committed forgery to try to obtain an inheritance. As relations between Philip and Edward worsened, Robert's standing in England strengthened.<ref name="Sumption171-172"/> On 26 December 1336, Philip officially demanded the extradition of Robert to France.<ref name="Sumption171-172"/> On 24 May 1337, Philip declared that Edward had forfeited Aquitaine for disobedience and for sheltering the "king's mortal enemy", Robert of Artois.<ref>Jonathan Sumption, ''The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle'', 184.</ref> Thus began the [[Hundred Years' War]], complicated by Edward's renewed [[English claims to the French throne|claim to the throne of France]] in retaliation for the forfeiture of Aquitaine.

===Hundred Years' War===
{{more citations needed|section|date=May 2016}}
[[File:Disguised as a seller of fish the Flemish leader went down into the French camp.jpg|thumb|Flemish leader as fish seller went to search in French camp]]
[[File:Philippe VI and Jeanne de Bourgogne.jpg|thumb|left|Philip VI and his first wife, Joan of Burgundy]]
Philip entered the Hundred Years' War in a position of comparative strength. [[France in the Middle Ages|France]] was richer and more populous than [[England in the Middle Ages|England]] 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.<ref>''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.</ref> The English made some retaliatory raids, including the burning of a fleet in the harbour of [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]],<ref name="Sumption320-328">Jonathan Sumption, ''The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle'', 320–328.</ref> but the French largely had the upper hand. With his sea power established, Philip gave orders in 1339 to begin assembling a fleet off the [[Zeeland]] coast at [[Sluys]]. In June 1340, however, in the bitterly fought [[Battle of Sluys]], the English attacked the port and captured or destroyed the ships there, ending the threat of an invasion.<ref name="Sumption320-328"/>

On land, Edward III largely concentrated upon [[Flanders]] and the [[Low Countries]], where he had gained allies through diplomacy and bribery. A raid in 1339 (the first ''[[chevauchée]]'') into [[Picardy]] 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 the [[Siege of Tournai (1340)|siege of Tournai]].<ref>Jonathan Sumption, ''The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle'', 349.</ref> By September 1340, Edward was in financial distress, hardly able to pay or feed his troops, and was open to dialogue.<ref name="Sumption354-359">Jonathan Sumption, ''The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle'', 354–359.</ref> After being at [[Bouvines]] for a week, Philip was finally persuaded to send [[Joan of Valois, Countess of Hainaut]], to discuss terms to end the siege.<ref name="Sumption354-359"/> On 23 September 1340, a nine-month truce was reached.<ref name="Sumption354-359"/>

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 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, the [[War of the Breton Succession]] allowed the English to place permanent garrisons in [[Brittany]]. 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 the [[Duchy of Aquitaine]] in full sovereignty.

The next attack came in 1345, when the [[Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster|Earl of Derby]] overran the [[Agenais]] (lost twenty years before in the [[War of Saint-Sardos]]) and took [[Angoulême]], while the forces in Brittany under Sir [[Thomas Dagworth]] also made gains. The French responded in the spring of 1346 with a massive counterattack against [[Aquitaine]], where an army under [[John II of France|John, Duke of Normandy]], besieged Derby at [[Aiguillon, Lot-et-Garonne|Aiguillon]]. On the advice of [[House of Harcourt#The Harcourts and the Hundred Years' War|Godfrey Harcourt]] (like [[Robert III of Artois]], a banished French nobleman), Edward sailed for [[Normandy]] 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, [[Battle of Caen (1346)|taking Caen]] and advancing as far as [[Poissy]] and then retreating before the army Philip had hastily assembled at Paris. Slipping across the [[Somme (river)|Somme]], Edward drew up to give battle at [[Crécy-en-Ponthieu|Crécy]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Philip VI|encyclopedia=Britannica |date=18 August 2024 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Philip-VI#ref102999}}</ref>

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 the [[Battle 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 Sir [[Thomas Dagworth]] captured [[Charles, Duke of Brittany|Charles of Blois]] in Brittany. The English army pulled back from Crécy to mount the [[Siege of Calais (1346–1347)|siege of Calais]]; the town held out stubbornly, but the English were determined, and they easily supplied across the [[English Channel]]. Philip led out a relieving army in July 1347, but unlike the [[Siege of Tournai (1340)|Siege 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.

===Final years===
[[File:Funerailles Philippe VI.jpg|thumb|right|King Philip's funerary procession, which was presided over by the [[Jean de Vienne (archbishop, died 1351)|Archbishop of Reims]], illustrated by [[Loyset Liédet]]]]
After the defeat at Crécy and loss of Calais, the [[Estates General (France)|Estates of France]] refused to raise money for Philip, halting his plans to counter-attack by invading England. In 1348 the [[Black 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 to [[Price controls|fix prices]], further destabilising the country. His second marriage to his son's betrothed [[Blanche of Navarre, Queen of France|Blanche of Navarre]] alienated his son and many nobles from the king.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Perfect King The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation | last=Mortimer | first=Ian | author-link=Ian Mortimer (historian) | pages=276 | year=2008 | publisher=Vintage }}</ref>

Philip's last major achievement was the acquisition of the [[Dauphiné]] and the territory of [[Montpellier]] in the [[Languedoc]] 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<ref>Jonathan Sumption, ''Hundred Years War:Trial by Fire'', Vol. II, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 117.</ref> and is interred with his first wife, Joan of Burgundy, in [[Saint Denis Basilica]], though his [[viscera]] were buried separately at the now demolished church of [[Couvent des Jacobins de la rue Saint-Jacques|Couvent des Jacobins]] in Paris. He was succeeded by his first son by Joan of Burgundy, who became [[John II of France|John II]].