Philip III of France

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Philip III the Bold
King of France

Coronation of Philip III (Grandes Chroniques de France)
Reign	25 August 1270 – 5 October 1285
Coronation	30 August 1271, Reims
Titles	Count of Orléans (– 1270)
Born	30 April 1245
	Poissy
Died	5 October 1285
	Perpignan
Buried	Initially Narbonne, later Saint Denis Basilica
Predecessor	Louis IX
Successor	Philip IV
Consort	Isabella of Aragon (1247-1271) Maria of Brabant (1254-1321)
Issue	Philip IV (1268-1314) Charles, Count of Valois (1270-1325) Louis, Count of Évreux (1276-1319) Blanche, Duchess of Austria (1278-1305) Margaret, Queen of England (1282-1317)
Royal House	House of Capet
Father	Louis IX of France (1215-1270)
Mother	Marguerite of Provence (1221-1295)

Philip III the Bold (French: Philippe III le Hardi) (30 April 1245 – 5 October 1285) reigned as King of France from 1270 to 1285. A member of the House of Capet, he was born in Poissy, the son of Louis IX of France and of Marguerite of Provence.

He accompanied his father on the Eighth Crusade to Tunisia in 1270. His father died at Tunis and there Philip was declared king at the age of 25. Philip was indecisive, soft in nature, timid, and apparently crushed by the strong personalities of his parents and dominated by his father's policies. He was called "the Bold" on the basis of his abilities in combat and on horseback and not his character. He was pious, but not cultivated. He followed the dictates of others, first of Pierre de la Broce and then of his uncle Charles I of Sicily.

After his succession, he quickly set his uncle on negotiations with the emir to conclude the crusade, while he himself returned to France. A ten-year truce was concluded and Philip was crowned in France on 12 August 1271. On 21 August, his uncle, Alfonso, Count of Poitou, Toulouse, and Auvergne, died returning from the crusade in Italy. Philip inherited his counties and united them to the royal demesne. The portion of the Auvergne which he inherited became the "Terre royale d'Auvergne," later the Duchy of Auvergne. In accordance with Alfonso's wishes, the Comtat Venaissin was granted to the Pope Gregory X in 1274. Several years of negotiations yielded the Treaty of Amiens with Edward I of England in 1279. Thereby Philip restored to the English the Agenais which had fallen to him with the death of Alfonso. In 1284, Philip also inherited the counties of Perche and Alençon from his brother Pierre.

Philip all the while supported his uncle's policy in Italy. When, after the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, Peter III of Aragon invaded and took the island of Sicily, the pope, Martin IV, excommunicated the conqueror and declared his kingdom (put under the suzerainty of the pope by Peter II in 1205) forfeit. He granted Aragon to Charles, Count of Valois, Philip's son. Philip intervened in the Navarrese succession after the death of Henry I of Navarre and married his son, Philip the Fair, to the heiress of Navarre, Joan I.

In 1284, Philip and his sons entered Roussillon at the head of a large army. This war, called the Aragonese Crusade from its papal sanction, has been labelled "perhaps the most unjust, unnecessary and calamitous enterprise ever undertaken by the Capetian monarchy."^[1] On 26 June 1285, Philip the Bold entrenched himself before Gerona in an attempt to besiege it. The resistance was strong, but the city was taken on 7 September. Philip soon experienced a reversal, however, as the French camp was hit hard by an epidemic of dysentery. Philip himself was afflicted. The French retreated and were handily defeated at the Battle of the Col de Panissars. The king of France himself died at Perpignan, the capital of his ally James II of Majorca, and was buried in Narbonne. He currently lies buried with his wife Isabella of Aragon in Saint Denis Basilica in Paris.

French Monarchy
Direct Capetians

Philip III
Philip IV
Charles III, Count of Valois
Louis d'Evreux
Margaret, Queen of England

In the Divine Comedy, Dante sees Philip's spirit outside the gates of Purgatory with a number of other contemporary European rulers. Dante does not name Philip directly, but refers to him as "the small-nosed" and "the father of the Pest of France."

[edit] Marriage and children

On 28 May 1262, Philip married Isabella of Aragon, daughter of James I of Aragon and his second wife Yolande of Hungary, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary, and had the following children:

Louis (1266 – May 1276)
Philip IV (1268 – November 29, 1314), successor as king
Charles (March 12, 1270 – December 16, 1325), Count of Valois

After Isabella's death, he married on 21 August 1274, Marie de Brabant, daughter of Henry III of Brabant and Adelaide of Burgundy. Their children were: