France

Philip of Valois (1328-1350)

Philip could have been a popular king in better times. He was chivalrous, loving all the trappings of the knightly life. He sponsored tournaments and held a magnificent court, and he never ever counted pennies.

Yet, he was not the fool that some historians make him out to be. Rather, he was a man of his times even as the times themselves were rapidly changing. He well understood, for example, the importance of alliances both through friendship and through marriage. Philip was quite successful in forging alliances with the nobility along France's borders with the Empire. He made marriages into the house of Luxemburg, creating ties that kept the Empire either allied with France or at least neutral through much of the first phase of the war with England. Philip continued the tradition, created by Philip IV, of alliance with Scotland. He provided refuge and support to Robert the Bruce and his followers

On the other hand, Philip was unable to smooth over relations with England. He was a proud and arrogant man, and in Edward III he met a king who refused to behave with appropriate deference. So, as the situation in audio gifGuyenne grew more and more tense, Philip became more and more inflexible in his demands. Naturally suspicious, he viewed every miscue and maneuver as a deliberate affront or attempt at trickery. Perhaps misled by quick victories in Guyenne during earlier clashes (1294 and 1324), Philip the knight quite naturally turned to war as a solution.