English claims to the French throne

English stained glass window from c. 1350–77, showing the coat of arms of Edward III, which featured the royal arms of France in the positions of greatest honour, quartering the arms of England.

From the year 1340 to 1802, excluding two brief intervals in the 1360s and the 1420s, the kings and queens of England and Ireland (and, later, of Great Britain) also claimed the throne of France. The claim dates from Edward III, who claimed the French throne in 1340 as the sororal nephew of the last direct Capetian, Charles IV. Edward and his heirs fought the Hundred Years' War to enforce this claim, and were briefly successful in the 1420s under Henry V and Henry VI, but the House of Valois, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, was ultimately victorious and retained control of France, except for Calais (which England later lost in 1558) and the Channel Islands (which had also historically formed part of the Duchy of Normandy). Following the Hundred Years War, English and British monarchs continued to call themselves kings of France, and used the French fleur-de-lis as their coat of arms, quartering the arms of England in positions of secondary honour. This continued until 1802 when Britain recognised the French Republic and therefore the abolition of the French monarchy. The Jacobite claimants, however, did not explicitly relinquish the claim.

Background

French succession

From the election of Hugh Capet in 987, the French crown had passed from father to son until 1316, when Louis X died leaving only a daughter, Joan. His wife was pregnant with a posthumous son, John, but he died five days after birth. This created an unprecedented situation as the question of female succession to the crown had never before needed to be considered. However, Louis's brother, Philip, acted quickly to set Joan aside and had himself crowned as Philip V. He then called an assembly of the kingdom to ratify his accession, which met four weeks later and declared "a woman could not succeed to the crown of the kingdom of France." In 1322, Philip V died leaving only daughters and, consistent with the 1316 assembly's declaration, they were set aside and his brother, Charles IV acceded to the throne.

The exclusion of women from the succession was subsequently said to be based on the 5th century Salic law. It is now believed that it was not until much later that the justification of Salic law was deployed: it is thought to have been a theory put forward by the Valois kings' lawyers to fortify their masters' title with an additional aura of authenticity. It appears to be a work of Jean de Montreuil of 1413 that gave Salic law its importance to the French succession. Nevertheless, allusions to Salic law by Jacob of Ardizone (1240) and Jean de Vignay (c. 1340) suggest that there may have been an earlier awareness of it.

Anglo-French relations

Since the Norman Conquest English kings had held territory in France. Although these had once been extensive, by the early 14th century they had reduced to the Duchy of Gascony, also known as Aquitaine, as well as some other smaller territories. The lands were held as vassals of the French king for which the English king had to do him homage. This disparity between the feudal concept and the political realities of the relationship between two kings frequently led to tension and conflict. The English kings sought to exercise full sovereignty over their French territories in the same way as they were used to doing in England. At the same time the kings of France were keen to retain their feudal rights in those territories.

Disputes over the political status of Gascony and the nature of the feudal relationship had led to a number of confrontations culminating in Philip VI confiscating Gascony in 1337. This caused the outbreak of war between England and France in that year, which subsequently turned into the Hundred Years' War.

Edward III's claim

Arms of Edward III, with the English lions and the French fleur-de-lys. The arms of France are in the 1st and 4th quarter as France was considered the senior kingdom.

Coat of arms of the kings of England after 1405, with the French quarterings updated to the modern French arms, three fleurs-de-lis on a blue field.

The Royal Arms of England during Henry VI's reign

In 1328 Charles IV died without children. The successions in 1316 and 1322 had, by this time, set the clear precedent that a woman could not succeed to the crown. Charles's closest male relative was Edward III of England whose claim to the throne was through his mother, Isabella, Charles's sister. Edward attempted to press his claim but attracted little support. The French magnates preferred Charles's next closest male relative, his cousin, Philip of Valois, a male line descendant of Charles's grandfather Philip III, who was crowned Philip VI. They did not want, among other objections, an English king as their monarch, but used as a legal basis for their preference the argument that "the mother had no claim, so neither did the son", in the words of the chronicler of Saint-Denis. Edward accepted Philip's accession and did him homage for the Duchy of Aquitaine in 1329.

In 1337, Edward had declared war against Philip over the latter's confiscation of Gascony/Aquitaine, but it was not until 1340 that Edward publicly declared that he claimed the French throne. Prior to that, a small number of documents sent by Edward in October 1337 to his allies in France had described him as "king of France and England" but otherwise he had consistently omitted France from his titles. However, a formal declaration that he was the rightful king of France was made in his "Manifesto", issued in Ghent on 8 February 1340, probably to encourage Flemish support for his struggle against Philip by supposedly giving his supporters some legal protection. (It provided them with the argument that they were not technically rebelling against the French crown.) At the same time he quartered his arms—the arms of England—with the royal arms of France. In his Manifesto, Edward stated that his reign as king of France began in 1340 and that his entitlement was because he was "closer in blood" to Charles IV than Philip who had "intruded himself by force into the kingdom while we were yet of tender years".

Edward continued to use the title during the war until peace was agreed at the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, when he renounced all claims to the French throne in return for full sovereignty over Gascony. He was also granted substantial additional lands in France. Edward resumed his claim in 1369 in response to the Valois king, Charles V, attempting to exercise feudal rights in Gascony. In retaliation, Charles sought to confiscate Gascony and the war resumed. During the subsequent truce negotiations at the Conference of Bruges in 1375 and 1376 the English refused to renounce the claim to the French throne. Edward died shortly afterwards in June 1377.

The modern consensus is that the French throne was not the main objective of Edward's policy in France. His primary concern was preserving and extending his lands in Gascony and ensuring that he had full sovereignty over them. The claim to the crown could be used as a negotiating tool to achieve that end, although, at various times, he may well have regarded securing the crown of France as a real possibility.

Subsequent Plantagenet claims and the dual monarchy

See also: Dual monarchy of England and France

Edward's Plantagenet successors also used the title until the Treaty of Troyes on 21 May 1420, in which the English recognised Charles VI as King of France, but with his new son-in-law Henry V of England as his heir (disinheriting Charles VI's son, Charles, the Dauphin). Henry V then adopted the title Heir of France instead.

Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, and Henry V's infant son (Charles VI's grandson) Henry VI was accepted as king of France de jure, initiating the so-called "dual monarchy". Henry was crowned at Paris on 16 December 1431 and assumed the title Henry II of France. He was the only English king to be both de jure and de facto king of France, although, in reality, his political control was limited to northern France. Charles VI's son, Charles continued to dispute his succession and claimed the throne as Charles VII, maintaining control of southern France.

By 1429, Charles VII, with the support of Joan of Arc, had begun pushing the English out of northern France and was crowned at Reims in that year. The end to the French civil war between Burgundians and Armagnacs in 1435 allowed Charles to recover Paris in 1436. The English continued to hold significant portions of France, particularly the sytrongholds of Normandy and Guyenne until 1449, after which nearly all English-held territory was seized by Charles VII. After 1453, the only remaining English holding in France was Calais. Henry, though deposed in England by Edward IV on 4 March 1461, continued to be recognised as king by supporters of the House of Lancaster, and was briefly restored to the English throne in 1470.

Later claims in pretence

Tudors and Stuarts

Ill feeling between the two nations continued well into the 16th century. Calais was captured by French troops under Francis, Duke of Guise on 7 January 1558. Mary I of England and Philip II of Spain continued, however, to be styled Queen and King of France for the rest of Mary's reign, as did Mary I's half-sister and successor Elizabeth I, despite her abandonment of her claims to Calais in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559. Elizabeth I revived England's claims to Calais and took the French port of Le Havre in 1561. French forces ejected the English in 1563, and the Treaty of Troyes (1564), recognised French ownership of Calais, in return for payment to England of 120,000 crowns.

James I of England and VI of Scotland's coat of arms, France and England are quartered together which, in turn, are quartered by Scotland and Ireland

Elizabeth died childless. Her successor was her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots' son James VI of Scotland. The thrones of England and Scotland were joined in a dynastic union until 1707. The seven monarchs of this period continued to use the style King/Queen of France, though their claim was merely nominal. None of them was willing to engage in military campaigns for France against the actual Kings of France Henry IV, Louis XIII and Louis XIV of France. Indeed, Charles I married a sister of Louis XIII, and his son Charles II spent much of his exile during the Interregnum in France (at which time, even if not formally abandoning his claim for its throne, he certainly did not emphasise it).

The Jacobite Stuart pretenders, that is the deposed James II of England and his successors, continuing to style themselves "Kings of England, Scotland, France and Ireland" past their deposition in 1689. All four pretenders continued to actively claim the title King of France as well as that of King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1689 until 1807. James II for the last twelve years of his life and his son, the Old Pretender, until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, were actually pensioners of Louis XIV at the very time they were claiming his title.

Hanoverians and the end of the claim

Removal of the French fleurs-de-lys from the coat of arms in 1801

George III coat of arms used from 1760 to 1801 as King of Great Britain, with the French fleurs-de-lys

George III coat of arms used from 1801 to 1816 as King of the United Kingdom

The Act of Union 1707 declared the joining of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to a new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Kingdom had four Monarchs until 1801. They also styled themselves Queen/King of France; however, none of them made any official move to depose Louis XIV and his successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI, or the First French Republic that followed them.

During the French Revolution, the monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792, replaced with the French Republic. In the War of the First Coalition British–French negotiations were held in Lille from July to November 1797. The French demanded that the English monarch drop the title; James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, was prepared to omit it from the king's signature to the envisaged peace treaty but had not conceded further by the time the talks collapsed. In the Commons' discussion of the negotiations, Sir John Sinclair called the demand "frivolous" and "hardly worth contending for"; William Pitt the Younger called the title "a harmless feather, at most, in the crown of England"; French Laurence called it an "ancient dignity" the ceding of which would lose honour and bring disgrace. In 1800, the Act of Union joined the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland to a new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. George III chose this opportunity to drop his claim to the now defunct French throne, whereupon the fleurs-de-lis, part of the coat of arms of all claimant Kings of France since the time of Edward III, was also removed from the British royal arms. Britain recognised the French Republic by the Treaty of Amiens of 1802.

Although the fleurs-de-lys were completely removed from the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, they were later included in the arms of Canada, a British dominion, where they symbolise the heritage of the French Canadians, rather than the former British claim to the French throne.

While the Bourbon monarchy was restored in France between 1814 and 1848, British monarchs did not revive any claim to the French throne.

Family tree

Royal families involved in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453)

Valois (Capet) Évreux (Capet) Plantagenet Blois Capet Charles Count of Valois Louis Count of Évreux Edward I "Longshanks" King of England r. 1272–1307 Joan I Queen of Navarre r. 1274–1305 Philip IV "the Fair" King of France r. 1285–1314 Philip I King of Navarre r. 1284–1305 Edward II King of England r. 1307–1327 Isabella "She-Wolf of France" Louis X King of France r. 1314–1316 Louis I King of Navarre r. 1305–1316 Philip V "the Tall" King of France Philip II King of Navarre r. 1316–1322 Charles IV "the Fair" King of France Charles I "the Bald" King of Navarre r. 1322–1328 Philip VI "the Fortunate" "of Valois" King of France r. 1328–1350 Joan of Valois Philip III "the Noble" "the Wise" King of Navarre jure uxoris r. 1328–1343 Joan II Queen of Navarre r. 1328–1349 John I "the Posthumous" King of France King of Navarre r. 1316 Joan of Burgundy John II "the Good" King of France r. 1350–1364 Philippa of Hainault Edward III King of England r. 1327–1377 Joan of the Tower David II King of Scotland r. 1329–1371 Charles II "the Bad" King of Navarre r. 1349–1387 Philip of Burgundy Count of Auvergne Charles V "the Wise" King of France r. 1364–1380 Philip the Bold Duke of Burgundy Edward of Woodstock "The Black Prince" John of Gaunt Edmund of Langley Duke of York Luxembourg Charles VI "the Beloved" "the Mad" King of France r. 1380–1422 Louis I Duke of Orléans Charles IV Holy Roman Emperor r. 1355–1378 Henry IV King of England r. 1399–1413 Charles VII "the Victorious" King of France r. 1422–1461 Isabella of Valois Richard II King of England r. 1377–1399 Anne of Bohemia Catherine of Valois Henry V King of England r. 1413–1422 Thomas of Lancaster Duke of Clarence  †Battle of Baugé Henry VI King of England r. 1422–1461, r. 1470–1471

See also

• Capetian–Plantagenet rivalry
• Mary, Queen of Scots & Francis II of France (Auld Alliance claim compounding the English claim)
• Style of the British sovereign
• Salic law
• France–United Kingdom relations
• Franco-British Union

Bibliography

• Arnold-Baker, Charles (2015). "Salic law". The Companion to British History. Routledge Revivals. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-40040-0.
• Bartlett, Robert (2020). Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49067-2.
• Cobbett, William (1818). The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803. Vol. 33. London: T.C. Hansard. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
• Ghislain, Antoine (2023). Jean de Vignay, Le Jeu des échecs moralisé (in French). Presses universitaires de Louvain. ISBN 978-2-39061-333-6.
• Green, David (2023). Edward the Black Prince: A Study of Power in Medieval Europe. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-91619-5.
• Hallam, Elizabeth M. (2014). Capetian France 987-1328. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-87727-1.
• Keen, M.H. (2004). England in the Later Middle Ages: A Political History. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-134-48303-7.
• Nassiet, Michel; Giesey, Ralph E. (2011). "Le rôle méconnu de la loi salique". Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine. 58 (4). ISBN 978-2-251-38082-7.
• Morillo, Stephen (2017). "Edward III". In Kibler, W.W.; Zinn, G.A. (eds.). Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-66565-0.
• Ormrod, W. Mark (2012). Edward III. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-17815-9.
• Prestwich, Michael (2005). Plantagenet England, 1225-1360. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822844-8.
• Saul, Nigel (2008). Richard II. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14905-0.
• Sumption, Jonathan (1999). The Hundred Years War. Vol. 1: Trial by Battle. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1655-4.
• Sumption, Jonathan (2011) [1st published 1999 by University of Pennsylvania Press]. Hundred Years War. Vol. 2: Trial By Fire. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-26659-3.
• Taylor, Craig (2001a). "The Salic Law and the Valois succession to the French crown". French History. 15 (4). doi:10.1093/fh/15.4.358.
• Taylor, Craig (2001b). "Edward III and the Plantagenet claim to the French throne". In Bothwell, J. (ed.). The Age of Edward III. York Medieval Press. ISBN 978-1-903153-06-2.
• Thomson, John A.F. (2014). The Transformation of Medieval England 1370-1529. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-87260-3.

External links

• Hubbard, Arnold (14 July 2003), How George III lost France: Or, Why Concessions Never Make Sense, Electric review: a High Tory online journal of politics, art and literature, archived from the original on 5 December 2008.