Philip III of France

Philip III (Poissy, May 1, 1245-Perpignan, October 5, 1285), called the Bold (in French: le Hardi), was King of France from 1270 until his death in 1285. His father, Louis IX, died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Philip, who accompanied him, returned to France and was anointed king at Reims in 1271.

He inherited numerous lands during his reign, the most notable of which was the County of Toulouse, which he returned to royal rule in 1271, largely continuing his father's policies. Through the Treaty of Orleans, he expanded French influence into the Kingdom of Navarre, and after the death of his brother Pedro during the Sicilian Vespers, the County of Alençon returned to the lands of the crown.

After Vespers, Felipe commanded the Crusade against the Crown of Aragon in support of his uncle, Charles I of Naples. With his army racked with disease, he was forced to retreat and died of dysentery at Perpignan in 1285. Consequently, his son Philip IV succeeded him.

Early Years

Philip was born in Poissy on 1 May 1245, the second son of King Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence. As the youngest descendant, he had no plans to rule France, however, with the death of his older brother Louis in 1260, became the natural heir to the throne.

His mother Margarita made him promise to remain under her guardianship until he was thirty. However, Pope Urban IV released him from this oath on June 6, 1263. From then on, Pierre de la Broce, a royal favorite and domestic servant of Louis IX, became Philip's mentor. His father also gave him advice and wrote for him the Enseignements , which instilled the notion of justice as the first duty of a king.

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

Crusade

Philip (on horse) makes his father's remains returned to France. Manuscript illustrated by the end of the century XV.

As Count of Orleans, he accompanied his father to Tunis in 1270 to fight the Eighth Crusade. Shortly before his departure, Louis IX had handed over the regency of the kingdom to Matthew of Vendôme and Simon II, Count of Clermont, to whom he also entrusted the royal seal. After taking Carthage, the army was affected by an epidemic of dysentery., who did not forgive Felipe or his family. On August 3, his brother Juan Tristán, Count of Valois died first, and on August 25 the king died. To prevent the putrefaction of his remains, it was decided to carry out a process known as Mos Teutonicus to extract the meat from the bones and make its transport feasible.

At twenty-five years old and sick with dysentery, Philip was proclaimed king in Tunis. His uncle Charles I of Naples negotiated with Muhammad I al-Mustansir, the Hafsid Caliph of Tunis, and consequently, on November 5, 1270, he signed a treaty between the kings of France, Sicily and Navarre and the caliph of Tunis.

This debacle was followed by other deaths. King Theobald II of Navarre, Philip's brother-in-law, died in December in Trapani, Sicily. Philip's wife, Isabela, died after falling from a horse in Cozenza (Calabria) while pregnant with their fifth child. In April, Teobaldo's widow and Felipe's sister, Isabela, also died.

Philip III arrived in Paris on May 21, 1271 and paid homage to those who had died, attending his father's funeral the following day. On August 15, 1271, the new sovereign was crowned King of France in Reims.

Reign

Philip maintained most of his father's domestic policies, and followed in the latter's footsteps regarding the Jews in France, citing piety as his motivation- Furthermore, upon his return to Paris on September 23 of 1271, he repeated his predecessor's order that they wear badges. His statute in 1283 prohibited the construction and repair of Jewish synagogues and cemeteries, prohibited them from employing Christians, and tried to restrict strepiti Jew (chant too loud).

On August 21, 1271, his uncle Alfonso, Count of Poitiers and Toulouse, died childless in Savona, and consequently Philip inherited the deceased's lands and attached them to the royal domain. This inheritance included a part of Auvergne, later the County of the same name and Agenais. In accordance with Alfonso's wishes, Philip granted the County Venaissin to Pope Gregory X in 1274. Several years later, due to the 1279 Treaty of Amiens with King Edward I of England, Agenais returned to English rule.

On September 19, 1271, he ordered the seneschal of Toulouse to record the oaths of allegiance of the nobles and town councils. The following year, Roger Bernard III of Foix invaded the County of Toulouse, murdered several royal officials, and captured the town of Sombuy. Philip's royal seneschal, Eustache de Beaumarchès, led a counterattack in the County of Foix, until the king ordered him to withdraw. The latter and his army reached Toulouse on 25 May 1272, and on June 1 at Boulbonne they met James I of Aragon, who attempted to mediate the matter, but was rebuffed by Roger Bernardo. Consequently, Philip proceeded on a campaign to devastate and depopulate the County of Foix. On June 5, Roger Bernardo surrendered, for which he was imprisoned and chained in Carcassonne for a year. Later, Felipe released him and restored his lands.

Treaty with Navarre

After the death of King Henry I of Navarre in 1274, Alfonso X of Castile tried to win the crown of Navarre from Henry's heiress, Juana. While Fernando de la Cerda, Alfonso X's son, arrived to Viana with his army, his father was seeking papal approval for a marriage between one of his grandsons and Juana. Enrique's widow, Blanca of Artois, was also receiving marriage proposals for Juana of England and Aragon. Before an army invader and foreign proposals, Blanca sought the help of her cousin Felipe, who saw a territorial gain, while Juana would have military aid to protect her kingdom. Consequently, Blanca and Felipe signed the Treaty of Orleans of 1275, which provided for the marriage between a son of the French king (Louis or Felipe) and Juana. This treaty indicated that Navarre would be administered from Paris by designated governors. In May 1276, the French governors traveled through Navarre with the objective of collecting loyalty oaths to the young queen. The Navarrese people, dissatisfied with the pro-French treaty and the French governors, formed two rebel factions, one pro-Castilian and the other pro-Aragonese.

Navarrese revolt

Faced with open rebellion, Philip sent Robert II of Artois to Pamplona with an army in September 1276. The king arrived in Bearne in November 1276 with another army, by which time Robert had pacified the situation and obtained oaths of homage from Navarrese nobles and Castilians. Although the revolt quickly subsided, it was not until the spring of 1277 that the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon renounced their marriage intentions.

Sicilian Vespers

In 1282, King Peter III of Aragon invaded Sicily, sparking the Sicilian Vespers rebellion against King Charles I of Naples, Philip's uncle. The success of the rebellion and invasion led to Peter's coronation as King of Sicily on September 4, 1282. Pope Martin IV excommunicated the latter and declared his kingdom lost, and consequently, Peter conceded Aragon to the Philip's son, Charles of Valois. Philip's brother, Pierre de Perche, who had joined Charles in suppressing the rebellion, was assassinated in Reggio Calabria, and consequently, dying without issue, the County of Alençon it returned to royal rule in 1286.

Marriage of Philip and Mary of Brabant.

Aragonese Crusade

At the behest of his wife María de Brabante and his uncle Carlos de Nápoles, Philip started a war against the Kingdom of Aragon. The conflict took the name of the "Aragonese Crusade" because of its papal sanction; however, one historian called it "perhaps the most unjust, unnecessary and calamitous initiative ever undertaken by the Capetian monarchy". Accompanied by his sons, Philip entered Roussillon at the head of a large army. June 1285, he had entrenched his army before Gerona and besieged the city, finally, despite strong resistance, taking it on September 7, 1285.

Death

Philip quickly experienced a reversal, as an epidemic of dysentery struck the French countryside, afflicting the king personally. On October 1, the French began a retreat when the Aragonese attacked and easily defeated the former at the Battle of the Col de Panissars. Philip died of dysentery in Perpignan on 5 October 1285, and consequently his son, Philip the Fair, succeeded him as King of France. Following the custom Mos Teutonicus , his body was divided into several parts, each buried in different places; the meat was sent to Narbonne Cathedral, the entrails to La Noë Abbey in Normandy, its heart to the now-demolished Church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris, and its bones to the Saint-Denis basilica, then north of said city.

Marriage and children

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

1. Luis (1264-May 1276).
2. Philip IV of France (1268-29 November 1314), his successor, married Juana I of Navarra.
3. Roberto (1269-1271).
4. Carlos de Valois (12 March 1270-16 December 1325), Count of Valois since 1284, married to Margarita de Anjou in 1290, with Catherine I of Courtenay in 1302 and finally with Mahaut de Châtillon in 1308.
5. Mortality Son (1271).

After the death of Queen Elizabeth, he married on 21 August 1274 Maria, daughter of the late Henry III, Duke of Brabant, and Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant. Their children were:

1. Luis de Évreux (May 1276-19, 1319), Earl of Évreux since 1298, married Margarita de Artois.
2. White of France, duchess of Austria (1278-19 March 1305, Vienna), married the Duke, future King Rodolfo I of Bohemia and Poland, on 25 May 1300.
3. Margaret of France, Queen of England (1282-14 February 1318), married King Edward I of England on 8 September 1299.

Legacy

During Philip's reign, the royal domain expanded, acquiring the County of Guînes in 1281, 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 Felipe, the Kingdom of Navarre. He largely continued his father's policies and left his administrators in his place. His attempt to conquer Aragon nearly bankrupted the French monarchy, causing financial challenges for his successor.

Dante's Commentary

In the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri imagines the spirit of Philip outside the gates of Purgatory with other contemporary European rulers. Although he does not name him directly, he refers to him as "the one with the little nose" and "the father of the Plague of France", a reference to King Philip IV of France.