Philip VI (French: Philippe; 1293 – 22 August 1350), called the Fortunate (French: le Fortuné), the Catholic (le Catholique) and of Valois (de Valois), was the first king of France from the House of Valois, reigning from 1328 until his death in 1350. Philip's reign was dominated by the consequences of a succession dispute. When King Charles IV of France died in 1328, his nearest male relative was his sororal nephew, Edward III of England, but the French nobility preferred Charles's paternal cousin, Philip of Valois.
At first, Edward seemed to accept Philip's succession, but he pressed his claim to the throne of France after a series of disagreements with Philip. The result was the beginning of the Hundred Years' War in 1337.
After initial successes at sea, Philip's navy was annihilated at the Battle of Sluys in 1340, ensuring that the war would occur on the continent. The English took another decisive advantage at the Battle of Crécy (1346), while the Black Death struck France, further destabilising the country.
In 1349, Philip bought the Dauphiné of Viennois, a county in the Kingdom of Burgundy (Arles), under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire, thus expanding the French influence beyond the river Rhône. The acquisition was formalized by the treaty of Romans, concluded between Philip and Humbert II, Dauphin of Viennois. The province was entrusted to Philip's grandson, prince Charles (the future king Charles V).
Philip VI died in 1350 and was succeeded by his son John II.
Little is recorded about Philip's childhood and youth, in large part because he was of minor royal birth. Philip's father, Charles, Count of Valois, was the younger brother of King Philip IV of France. Charles had striven throughout his life to gain the throne for himself but was never successful. He died in 1325, leaving his eldest son Philip as heir to the counties of Anjou, Maine, and Valois.
In 1328, Philip's cousin Charles IV of France died without a son, leaving his widow Joan of Évreux pregnant. Philip was one of the two chief claimants to the throne of France. The other was King Edward III of England, who was Charles's nephew and closest male relative, being the son of Charles's sister Isabella of France. The Estates General had decided 12 years earlier that women could not inherit the throne of France. The question arose as to whether Isabella should have been able to transmit a claim that she herself did not possess. The assemblies of the French barons and prelates and the University of Paris decided that males who derive their right to inheritance through their mother should be excluded according to Salic law. As Philip was the eldest grandson of Philip III of France through the male line, he became regent instead of Edward, who was a maternal grandson of Philip IV and great-grandson of Philip III.
During the period in which Queen Joan was waiting to deliver her child, Philip of Valois rose to the regency with support of the French magnates, following the pattern set up by his cousin, Philip V of France, who succeeded to the throne over his niece Joan. Philip formally held the regency from 9 February until 1 April 1328. On 1 April, Joan of Évreux gave birth to a daughter named Blanche, following which Philip was proclaimed king. He was crowned at the Cathedral in Reims on 29 May 1328. After his elevation to the throne, Philip sent the Abbot of Fécamp, Pierre Roger, to summon Edward III of England to pay homage for the duchy of Aquitaine and Gascony. After a subsequent second summons from Philip, Edward finally arrived at the Cathedral of Amiens on 6 June 1329 and worded his vows in such a way to cause more disputes in later years.
The dynastic change had another consequence: Charles IV had also been King of Navarre, but, unlike the crown of France, the crown of Navarre was not subject to Salic law. Philip VI was neither an heir nor a descendant of Joan I of Navarre, whose inheritance (the kingdom of Navarre, as well as the counties of Champagne, Troyes, Meaux, and Brie) had been in personal union with the crown of France for almost fifty years and had long been administered by the same royal machinery established by King Philip IV, the father of French bureaucracy. These counties were closely entrenched in the economic and administrative entity of the crown lands of France, being located adjacent to Île-de-France. Philip, however, was not entitled to that inheritance; the rightful heiress was the surviving daughter of his cousin King Louis X, the future Joan II of Navarre, the heir general of Joan I of Navarre. Navarre thus passed to Joan II, with whom Philip struck a deal regarding the counties in Champagne: she received vast lands in Normandy (adjacent to the fief in Évreux that her husband Philip III of Navarre owned) as compensation, and he kept Champagne as part of the French crown lands.
Philip's reign was plagued with crises, although it began with a military success in Flanders at the Battle of Cassel (August 1328), where Philip's forces re-seated Louis I, Count of Flanders, who had been unseated by a popular revolution. Philip's wife, the able 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. By 1336, they were enemies, although not yet openly at war.
During the preliminary period before the war with England, Philip VI joined a naval league with Venice, the Pope, the Hospitaler Knights and the Kingdom of Cyprus. Originally, Edward III was to join in a bid to dissuade war between the two kingdoms, although the King of England ultimately did not participate. Philip VI kept his promise, and the allied fleet assembled in May 1334 at the Negroponte. The crusade engaged in a series of raids against the Turkish coast and scored a victory at the battle of Adramytion in September , defeating a large Turkish fleet. Plans were made to launch another crusade, larger than the last, in the following years. Although rising tensions with England forced Philip VI to move his naval power to the Channel.
Philip successfully prevented an arrangement between the Avignon papacy and Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, although in July 1337, Louis concluded an alliance with Edward III. The final breach with England came when Edward offered refuge to Robert III of Artois, formerly one of Philip's trusted advisers, after Robert committed forgery to try to obtain an inheritance. As relations between Philip and Edward worsened, Robert's standing in England strengthened. On 26 December 1336, Philip officially demanded the extradition of Robert to France. On 24 May 1337, Philip declared that Edward had forfeited Aquitaine for disobedience and for sheltering the "king's mortal enemy", Robert of Artois. Thus began the Hundred Years' War, complicated by Edward's renewed claim to the throne of France in retaliation for the forfeiture of Aquitaine.
Philip entered the Hundred Years' War in a position of comparative strength. France was richer and more populous than 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. The English made some retaliatory raids, including the burning of a fleet in the harbour of Boulogne-sur-Mer, 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.