Philip VI (1293-1350) was king of France from 1328 to 1350. His reign began with a crisis in the succession to the crown and culminated in the rupture between the kings of France and England which precipitated the Hundred Years War.

The son of Charles of Valois and the grandson of Philip III of France, Philip VI was born without any prospect of becoming king of France. He had been Count of Maine and, as of 1326, Count of Anjou and Valois. Like other contemporaries, he had been a knightly adventurer and had participated in the Italian wars of the Lombard cities against the Visconti family of Milan.

Succession Crisis

Upon the death of the last direct Capetian king, Charles IV, in 1328, Philip was named regent of France, for Charles's widow, Joan of Evreux, had been pregnant at his death. On April 1, 1328, Joan gave birth to a daughter, but an assembly...