25. Philip VI.
CHAPTER XXV. Philip VI. (1328-1350)
As Charles IV. had left neither brother nor son, there was some difficulty in settling who should be king after him, and several of his relations laid claim to be the rightful king, among others Edward III., King of England, Charles's nephew. But the person who was chosen at last was the first cousin of the three last kings, Philip, called Philip of Valois, and known as Philip VI. He was a Frenchman, which made the people of France like him better than Edward or any of the other foreigners who wished to be their king. His reign, however, was not a happy time for his subjects, as we shall see.
Very soon after Philip had become king, he went with the Count of Flanders to help him against the people of Flanders, who had risen up against their Count, and refused to obey him any longer, so that he had come for help to the French king. The Flemings were shut up by the French army in one of their towns, which was built on the top of a hill, where it was very difficult for the French to reach them. They thought themselves quite safe, and wrote mocking rhymes about the King of France, refusing to come down and fight him, as he invited them to do.
Philip then began to burn up everything in the country round about, and this sight made the Flemings so angry that they came down from the mount one night, when they hoped the French soldiers would not be keeping watch, and attacked Philip's camp. They almost succeeded in taking him prisoner, but he managed to escape, called his soldiers together, and not only drove back the Flemings, but almost destroyed their army, killing many thousands of them, so that they could resist him no longer. He made himself master of all the country, and gave it over to his friend the Count, telling him to keep it quiet and in good order for the future.
The French were much pleased at having won this victory, and Philip went back to Paris, and began to make his court as splendid as possible, and to live a gay life there with all his nobles round him. Several of his relations were kings of different small countries near at hand, and they came to live at the French court, as well as the chief noblemen from different parts of France. There were constant feasts, dances, hunts, tournaments, and amusements of all kinds. While the king and his nobles were enjoying themselves in this way, they did not think what might be happening to the common people who lived in the country, and who had to pay for these amusements; because when the king had spent the little money he had, the only way of getting more was to make his subjects pay more taxes, and spend some of their money upon himself. The common people, therefore, were especially poor and unhappy at this time.
Philip got himself into much trouble by quarrelling with powerful people in France. One of the great barons had had a dispute with his aunt, as to which of them should rule over the county of Artois, of which the count had just died. It had already been settled twice over that Artois should belong to the aunt, but the young baron, Robert of Artois, hoped that as he was a great friend of Philip VI., this king would perhaps give the county to him. He was mistaken, however; his aunt was allowed to keep Artois, but she soon after died very suddenly, and it was said that Robert had poisoned her. It was also said that Robert had used dishonest ways of making it seem that he was the person who ought to have been count, by writing himself letters which he pretended had come from the old count. He was tried before the king's court, and banished for the rest of his life. Robert was so angry at this, that he tried to revenge himself by means of magic. He made a waxen image of the queen and her eldest son; then he had them baptized by a priest, and it was believed that when this had been done, he had only to stick a pin in the place where the heart should have been, and to put the images to melt away in the sun, or before the fire, to make the queen and the prince themselves waste away and die. The priest who was first asked to baptize one of these figures had refused to do it, and afterwards told the story to the king. Robert was in Flanders, out of Philip's reach, but the king seized his sister and her children, and threw them into prison, burning a poor woman who was supposed to have helped him, and took away Robert's land, which he kept for himself. Robert then crossed over to England, hoping to find some one at the English court who would help him to revenge himself on his enemy.
The English king at this time was Edward III., a brave, wise, and warlike young prince, who had reigned only for about six years. He had wished to be King of France, and had always been angry that Philip should have been chosen instead of him. However, till now there had been no open disputes between them; but with Robert of Artois doing all he could to make a quarrel between them, we cannot be surprised that the two kings did not remain friends. Edward was at war with the Scotch, to whom Philip sent help; this made Edward angry, and he was also vexed that Philip kept some of the towns which belonged to the English in Guyenne, and had been taken from them by the last king. Philip had promised that his lawyers should find out to whom these towns really belonged, and that those which were Edward's should be given back to him; but this promise was not kept. At last Edward heard that Philip was gathering together ships and men, and seemed to be making ready for an attack on England. He at once sent orders that all his ships should join him at Portsmouth, and that every one should be ready to fight if necessary.
The war which now began between France and England is called the Hundred Years' War; and the name shows the length of time for which it lasted. There were great differences between England and France at the time when this war began. France was very much larger than England, the French king had many more soldiers, and more strong cities; but on the other hand, Edward was richer than Philip, and was loved by his people, while Philip's subjects had no feeling of any kind about him. The kings of England had less power over their subjects than the kings of France; they could not do whatever they chose without asking leave or advice from the Parliament, and so the King and Parliament were accustomed to settle together what should be done, and the people felt an interest in their king, and were pleased when he succeeded, and sorry when he failed. But in France the king did as he pleased, and told his plans to no one. Philip VI., in particular, kept everything about himself and his plans as secret as possible. Whether he was pleased or whether he was disappointed, he said nothing to his subjects. If he wished to punish any one, he did it suddenly, without saying what the person had done wrong, or showing his reasons for thinking he had done anything. The people naturally did not care much about such a king. They would not have minded changing him for another, and they were not at first very eager in resisting Edward III.
Edward had made himself liked by his people in many ways, of which, as I am not writing the history of England, I cannot speak now; he was, as I have said, richer than Philip, and his soldiers, especially the common people, fought far better than those of the French king.
Though it would seem from all this that Edward had the best chances of success, it was Philip who did most to bring about the war. He interfered with Edward in all kinds of ways, and showed such a strong dislike to him that Edward, who wished for war himself, saw it would be of no use to try to prevent it. and sailed with his army to Flanders, He had made friends with the Flemings, who had been very badly treated both by their own count and by his friend, Philip VI. They did not, however, help him as much as he had hoped. Edward thought that perhaps they would fight for him more readily if he took the name of King of France, and said it was to him the crown ought to belong, and that he was coming to take it from Philip. This he did, and many of the Flemings joined him at once. In the first battle, which was fought by sea, the French were conquered. This was the battle of Sluys, and is remarkable because it was the first battle gained by the English at sea. After this there were two years of war, then two years of truce, then war again, and there was no more time of settled peace in the reign of Philip. Philip lost several battles and a few towns, but for some time Edward did him no serious harm.
While this war was going on there was a civil war in Brittany, at the north-west corner of France. Two men, Charles de Blois and John de Montfort, each thought they ought to be count there. The French took the side of one, the English of the other. John de Montfort was taken prisoner by the French king at the beginning of the war, and afterwards died; his wife, Jeanne de Montfort, one of the bravest women of whom we ever read, put herself at the head of his army. She defended his cities for him; she marched about the country and made speeches to all her husband's friends, calling upon them to fight in his cause, and showing them her little son, then quite a child, who, she promised, should fight for them when he grew up, if they would defend him now. She saw that there were provisions and all that was necessary in the towns that the French were likely to attack, and she herself went for the winter into a strong town by the seaside, so that she might be able to send for help to England if she was in danger.
In this town her enemy, Charles de Blois, besieged her. She and her army resisted him bravely for many weeks. One day, when most of the enemy's soldiers were busy attacking the walls, the Countess of Montfort noticed that there were very few men left in the enemy's camp. She at once went out of the town at the head of three hundred men, and without being noticed by the enemy, reached the tents, set them on fire, burned several of them, and then turned to go back to the town; but she saw that the French soldiers were hurrying towards the camp, and that she could not make her way through them. She turned and rode away with her little body of men to a castle some miles off, where she stayed for five days. Her soldiers in the city were in great trouble during this time, fearing that she had been killed, and the French soldiers mocked them, saying — "Go, sirs; go look for your countess; she is certainly lost, and you will never see her again whole." However, on the sixth night, trumpets were heard outside the gate, and the brave countess was seen, having found her way secretly through the enemy's camp; and she was soon safe among her friends in the besieged city. She persuaded the nobles, who were growing impatient of the long siege, to hold the place until Edward came to their help.
The war went on for some years, and in one of the battles in Brittany, Robert of Artois, who had done so much to persuade Edward to go to war with Philip, was killed, to the great sorrow of his friends. Edward at last prepared three armies at once to march into France in different parts of the country. He himself led one division, which landed in the north of France, Philip marched against him with an army about twice the size of Edward's. Edward, who had almost reached the gates of Paris, and had been burning the buildings and ruining the countries on his way, turned back before the French army. Philip followed till the English army came to a river, which there seemed to be no way of crossing. This happened in the afternoon of one day, and Philip resolved that the next morning he would attack the English, and, as he hoped, destroy their army entirely. But in the course of the night a peasant offered to show Edward a ford by which his army could pass the river while the tide was out. Edward is said to have been more pleased than if some one had given him twenty thousand crowns. He set off at once, and though he found a French army on the other side ready to guard the ford, he managed to make his way across with almost all his men by the time Philip came up to the river brink the next morning, and the tide rising prevented the French king from following him that day.
It was not till two days afterwards that Philip came up with the English army near a place called Cressy, where Edward had drawn up his men in order of battle, and where they were refreshing themselves after their march, resting while they waited for the enemy. Some of Philip's knights advised him to let his men also have time to rest a little before he attacked the English, and Philip gave the order for the troops to stop; but the French soldiers were so disobedient that they refused to stop. The great barons who were behind wished to push on in front, and those in front wished to stay nearest the enemy, which was the place of honour; so there was great confusion and disorder. The English rose up when they saw the French coming near, and prepared to fight. Then Philip gave orders that some foreign archers who were in the army should begin the battle; and they began to shoot their arrows with hideous cries, which they hoped would frighten the English, but which they soon found to be of no use. A heavy shower had fallen in the day, and their bowstrings were wet, so that their arrows could not fly far, while the English bows, which had been carefully kept dry, were all ready for use. Philip's archers fell in great numbers, and at last turned to flee. Then Philip gave to his men the order to turn against the archers and kill them, and the other French soldiers fell upon the archers and put them to death, which made the confusion in the army so terrible that there was no more chance of resisting the English. Philip's army was completely beaten; and great numbers of his soldiers, friends, and great nobles, among others his brother, were killed. This was the battle of Cressy. There were three days' truce to bury the dead, after which Philip went back to Paris. Edward went on to a town called Calais, and besieged it for many months. Philip had so little money and so few soldiers left that it was a long time before he could go to the help of the people of Calais, and when he came there he found he could not do anything for them, as the English king was too strong for him. The place was defended by a brave man, named John of Vienne, who had sworn to hold it to the last moment possible. The usual food was soon all gone, and the townspeople were obliged to eat cats, dogs, at last even rats, boiled leather, and anything they could find.
They sent away all the old people out of the town. Some people say that Edward let them pass through his army, and gave them food, others, that he drove them into the trench outside the town and left them to die of hunger. At last the town was obliged to surrender. Edward was angry at the long resistance, and refused to promise to spare the town unless six of the chief men of the place came to him with ropes round their necks, and gave themselves up to be treated exactly as he chose. When the people of Calais heard this, a brave townsman, named Eustache de St. Pierre, came forward and said he would be one of the six. Five others were soon found to follow him, and they all went to Edward's camp in their shirts, with their feet bare, and cords round their necks. Edward gave orders that they should be put to death, but his wife, Philippa, threw herself at his feet, and wept and entreated till he promised that their lives should be spared. He turned all the French out of Calais, except such as agreed to be his subjects, and brought over Englishmen to live there, Philip could not prevent this, though he had done everything in his power to save the town, and afterwards did all he could to comfort the people who were driven out of Calais. After having taken Calais, Edward made a truce with Philip, and there was no more fighting for several years.
At this time a terrible plague, a very bad kind of illness, of which people often died quite suddenly, spread over all Europe. It is spoken of in English history as the Black Death, and in French as the Black Plague; and people died of it in great numbers. Sometimes whole villages were left empty, all the people who had lived in them being dead, and whole streets in towns had only one or two inhabitants left. Many of the king's relations died, especially many princesses. When the plague was over, the misfortunes of Philip had not come to an end. He had married a young wife, of whom he was very fond, but a few months later he himself fell ill, and soon after died, calling upon his eldest son to defend the country bravely against their enemies, the English. In this reign a province, called Dauphiné, had been added on to France; its count, who was in great want of money, had sold it to Philip, and it was given to Philip's grandson, who came in time to be King of France. After his reign it always belonged to the eldest son of the king, who was called after the name of the province, the Dauphin; as the eldest son of an English king or queen is called the Prince of Wales. Philip VI. is the last Philip among the kings of France.
