his noblesse, he seems to have derived from them no efficient aid in the prosecution of the war with Flanders. To raise money for this purpose, he was obliged to compound with the Lombard merchants of Paris, they consenting to pay so much a pound on their importations. The Jews, too, were again permitted to reside in certain cities on the payment of a tax. Louis Hutin was the first king who formally borrowed money on the credit of the State, his successors being obliged to devote to the purpose of repayment all the sums that might accrue from forfeiture and confiscation. Moreover, the city of Paris agreed to raise a body of four hundred knights and two thousand foot, ready to march whenever the king should command in person. The citizens, however consenting to the tax on this score, took care that it should be paid to no lord, and not even to a royal functionary, who might raise feudal pretensions upon such a basis. With an army raised at these pains and costs, Louis marched into Flanders. The Flemings were in the neighbourhood of Lille, and the French king encamped opposite to them, with a river running between the armies. The monarch had not an opportunity of putting his own valour and that of his soldiers to the proof. For the elements put a stop to hostilities, the rain pouring down in unusual torrents, flooding the camps, and destroying provisions and crops. The men and horses of both armies were up to their knees in water, and there remained nothing for the French but to burn their tents and retreat, leaving the Flemings unsubdued. This unsuccessful campaign flung the country into anarchy, the barons levying war wherever they could foresee profit from it; and those who had right of coinage, Charles of Valois included, making exorbitant use of it to enrich themselves at the expense of the country. The king suspended this right, but his order was set at nought; and he then strove to regu CHAP. IX. .CHAP late the nature and fineness of the coin which each grandee might issue. Whilst Charles of Valois was thus employed, the king despatched his brother, Philip, Count of Poictiers, to Avignon, to hasten the election of a Pope. Gascon and Italian cardinals were so balanced in number, that agreement was impossible. A fire, which broke out in the edifice where the prelates assembled, had dispersed them, "like so many partridges," says the chronicler. The only effectual receipt for the fabrication of a Pontiff was to summon the cardinals and starve the Conclave till it brought forth a Pope. Although the Count of Poictiers had sworn a solemn promise not to have recourse to this violent measure, he nevertheless declared that the welfare of Christendom required him to break it, and he in consequence proceeded to confine and coerce the heads of the Church, when tidings reached him that Louis Hutin had expired at Vincennes on the 5th of July, 1316. After heating himself at ball-playing, the king had descended to the cellar to quench his thirst, an imprudence that proved fatal. Philip immediately hastened to Paris, and took possession of the royal palace. Charles of Valois thought at first of disputing the regency; but the armed citizens of Paris, whom Louis had enrolled for the Flemish war, with the constable at their head, drove Charles's followers out of the Louvre. Clemence, the young widow of Louis Hutin, now announced her pregnancy. In addition to this posthumous child, Louis had left a daughter, Jeanne, by Margaret of Burgundy. The Duke of Burgundy, although he had been unable or unwilling to protect Margaret, maintained the rights of her daughter, and pleaded that Philip the Fair had acknowledged her legitimacy. Considering her sex, however, and the stain upon her mother's reputation, it was difficult to maintain Jeanne's right to the succession. The Duke of Burgundy, therefore, and the barons pre sent at Paris, or the greater number of them, came to an arrangement with Philip. If Queen Clemence was delivered of a son, in that case Philip was to govern, as the guardian of the infant monarch, till he had reached the years of his majority; if the child of Clemence should prove a daughter, then Philip agreed to leave to the two princesses the kingdom of Navarre, with the counties of Champagne and of Brie, they making over to him all claim to the crown of France. Jeanne was given up to the Duke of Burgundy, or rather to her grandmother, Agnes; and she was not to marry without her uncle's consent. Philip, thus declared regent, was instantly called upon to defend, not merely his possessions in Flanders, but also in Artois. Although the lords of that province, descendants of Robert d'Artois, had left heirs male, and although the elders perished in the cause of France at Furnes and at Courtray, Philip the Fair had cheated Robert, the rightful heir, of his heritage, in order to give it to his aunt Mahaut or Matilda, mother of the queen. Such wrongs were suffered without resistance under the reign of Philip the Fair; but now, not only did Robert of Artois claim his right, but he was generally supported, and the young count drove the king's constable from both St. Omer and Arras. The Regent Philip raised an army forthwith, and marched into Artois. The nobles had, however, no wish to fight a serious battle against each other, and Robert was induced to submit, on condition that the previous judgment of Philip the Fair should be set aside, and his cause tried anew before the Court of Peers. On these terms Robert submitted, and even constituted himself a prisoner in Paris. Soon afterwards, the queen gave birth to a son, who was christened John; but the child only lived a few days. Philip lost no time in at once claiming the rank of king, and appointing no distant day in January, CHAP. IX. IX. CHAP. 1317, for his coronation at Rheims. The agreement which he had come to with the Duke of Burgundy certainly encouraged him to such a step, nay, entitled him, if he consented to give up Navarre and Champagne; but even these he announced no intention of abandoning, and the Duke of Burgundy, as well as the royal princesses, manifested their discontent. The duke formally protested. Philip succeeded in having the ceremony of his coronation celebrated, although it was necessary to close the gates of Rheims for security during the festivity. From Rheims Philip hastened to Paris, and, having the assistance of a cardinal, convoked as many nobles and prelates as he could command, together with the citizens, to form a solemn assembly. It approved of Philip's coronation, and swore fealty to him and his son Louis. The university, when consulted, gave a similar approbation, though they took no oath. "Thus was it declared," says the continuator of Nangis, "that the crown of France does not descend to women." Matters would not have passed so tranquilly had not the son of Philip expired a few days after the assembly at Paris. The king had daughters; but his own acts precluded their succession. It was therefore generally, but tacitly, agreed to submit to Philip's title. Charles of Valois, who was at the head of the noblesse, already began to entertain well-founded hopes of the royal succession accruing to his own family. The Duke of Burgundy was pacified by obtaining one of Philip's daughters in marriage, with a considerable sum of money in dowry, as well as Franche Comté. Jeanne, daughter of Louis Hutin, whose claims the duke thus abandoned, was affianced to the only son of the Count d'Evreux. The grounds for this exclusion of females from the throne of France are not to be found in any law, but in the circumstance of Jeanne's mother having been stricken with infamy, with no staunch friend to defend her, whilst Philip was in possession of the royal authority, of which it would have required a civil war to dispossess him. Charles of Valois was the only personage who could have attempted it; but he and his family had so much more to gain by the exclusion of females than by supporting Jeanne's right, that they of course abandoned it. With respect to the old Salic law afterwards invoked, it related but to fiefs and military service, and yet in fiefs it had been so generally set aside, that women succeeded to lands and to noble property in all the provinces of France. It must have been evident to the noblesse as to others, that the descent of a fief, much more of the crown to females, weakened it for a time, and eventually rendered it liable to become the prey of personages, perhaps foreigners, who had not the interest of the kingdom at heart. This, necessarily admitted by the noblesse, was still more keenly felt by the townsfolk and middle classes, who for several reigns had been taught to look up to the monarch as their protector against the feudal chiefs, and the crown itself as usually above the rules of feudalism. The accession of Philip the Long, therefore, and the exclusion of the daughters of Louis Hutin, was popular with the citizens, not displeasing to the noblesse, and not against the interest of the princes of the blood. The King of England recognised Philip, as did the Pope. And thus was it decided that the kingdom of France, instead of being considered as a patrimony that descended to direct heirs, even if female, was a high function which it required a prince to fill. But however wise or expedient it may have manifestly been to prohibit females in that rude age from ascending the throne, still the success of Philip the Fifth on taking undisturbed possession of it with rights that provoked opposition, he being neither an experienced warrior, nor in command of a military force, nor possessed of pecuniary resources, proves how reduced in в в 2 CHAP. IX. |