Philip III of France


Philip III, called the Bold, was King of France from 1270 to 1285.
Philip's father, Louis IX, died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Philip, who was accompanying him, returned to France and was anointed king at Reims in 1271.
Philip inherited numerous territorial lands during his reign, the most notable being the County of Toulouse, which was returned to the royal domain in 1271. Following the Sicilian Vespers, Philip led the Aragonese Crusade in support of his uncle. Initially successful, Philip, his army racked with sickness, was forced to retreat and died from dysentery in Perpignan in 1285. He was succeeded by his son Philip the Fair.

Early life

Philip was born in Poissy, the son of King Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence. As a younger son, Philip was not expected to rule France. At the death of his older brother Louis in 1260, he became the heir to the throne.
Philip's mother Margaret made him promise to remain under her tutelage until the age of 30, however Pope Urban IV released him from this oath on 6 June 1263. From that moment on, Pierre de La Brosse was Philip's mentor. His father, Louis, also provided him with advice, writing in particular Enseignements, which inculcated the notion of justice as the first duty of a king.
According to the terms of the Treaty of Corbeil, concluded on 11 March 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

As Count of Orléans, Philip accompanied his father on the Eighth Crusade to Tunis in 1270. Shortly before his departure, Louis IX had given the regency of the kingdom into the hands of Mathieu de Vendôme and Simon II, Count of Clermont, to whom he had also entrusted the royal seal. After taking Carthage, the army was struck by an epidemic of dysentery, which spared neither Philip nor his family. His brother John Tristan, Count of Valois died first, on 3 August, and on 25 August the king died. To prevent putrefaction of the remains of Louis, they decided on Mos Teutonicus.
Philip, then 25 years old and stricken with dysentery, was proclaimed king in Tunis. Unable to command the army following the death of his father, his uncle, Charles I of Naples, was forced to negotiate with Muhammad I al-Mustansir, Hafsid Sultan of Tunis. A treaty was concluded 5 November 1270 between the kings of France, Sicily and Navarre and the caliph of Tunis.
Other deaths followed this debacle. In December, in Trapani, Sicily, the brother-in-law of Philip, King Theobald II of Navarre, died. He was followed in February by Philip's wife, Isabella, who fell off her horse pregnant with their fifth child, dying in Cozenza. In April, Theobald's widow and Philip's sister Isabella also died.
Philip III arrived in Paris on 21 May 1271, and made foremost tribute to the deceased. The next day the funeral of his father was held. The new sovereign was crowned King of France in Reims 15 August 1271.

Reign

Philip would maintain most of his father's domestic policies. In fact, he would follow in his father's footsteps concerning Jews in France, claiming piety as his motivation. Upon his return to Paris 23 September 1271, Philip re-inacted his father, Louis's, order that Jews wear badges. His charter in 1283, banned the construction and repair of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, banned Jews from employing Christians, and sought to restrain Jewish strepiti.
On 21 August 1271, Philip's uncle, Alphonse, Count of Poitiers and Toulouse, died childless in Savona. Philip inherited Alphonse's lands and united them to the royal domain. This inheritance included a portion of Auvergne, later the Duchy of Auvergne and the Agenais. In accordance with the wishes of Alphonse, Philip granted the Comtat Venaissin to Pope Gregory X in 1274. Several years later the Treaty of Amiens with King Edward I restored Agenais to the English.
On 19 September 1271, Philip commanded the seneschal of Toulouse to record oaths of loyalty from nobles and town consuls. The following year, Roger-Bernard III, Count of Foix, invaded the county of Toulouse killing royal officials. Philip's royal seneschal, Eustache de Beaumarchès, led a counter-attack into the county of Foix, until ordered by Philip to withdraw. Philip arrived at Toulouse on 25 May 1272, and proceeded on a campaign to deliberately devastate and depopulate the County of Foix. By 5 June Roger-Bernard had surrendered, and was placed in chains. Philip would hold Roger-Bernard captive for a year.

Treaty with Navarre

The Treaty of Orléans, of 1275, between Philip III and Blanche of Artois, arranged the marriage between a son of Philip III and Blanche's daughter, Joan.

Sicilian Vespers

In 1282, King Peter III of Aragon instigated the Sicilian Vespers rebellion against King Charles I of Naples, Philip's uncle. The success of rebellion and invasion led to the coronation of Peter III of Aragon as king of Sicily. Pope Martin IV excommunicated Peter III and declared his kingdom forfeit. The pope then granted Aragon to Philip's son, Charles, Count of Valois. Philip's brother, Peter, Count of Perche, who had joined Charles to suppress the rebellion, was killed in Reggio Calabria. He died without issue and the county of Alencon returned to the royal domain.

Aragonese Crusade and death

Philip III of France in 1284 responded, through the urging of his wife Mary of Brabant and his uncle Charles of Naples, by launching a war against the Kingdom of Aragon. The war took the name "Aragonese Crusade" from its papal sanction; nevertheless, one historian labelled it "perhaps the most unjust, unnecessary and calamitous enterprise ever undertaken by the Capetian monarchy.". Philip, accompanied by his sons, entered Roussillon at the head of a large army. By 26 June 1285, he had entrenched his army before Girona and besieged the city. Despite strong resistance, Philip took Girona on 7 September 1285.
Philip quickly experienced a reversal, however, as an epidemic of dysentery hit the French camp and afflicted Philip personally. The French had started a withdrawal when the Aragonese attacked and easily defeated the former at the Battle of the Col de Panissars on 1 October 1285.
Philip died of dysentery in Perpignan on 5 October 1285. His son, Philip IV of France the Fair, succeeded him as king of France. The attempt of Philip to conquer Aragon nearly bankrupted the French monarchy, causing financial challenges for his successor.
Following the Mos Teutonicus custom, his body was divided in several parts buried in different places; the flesh was sent to the Narbonne Cathedral, the entrails to La Noë abbey in Normandy, his heart to the now-demolished church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris and his bones to Basilica of St Denis, at the time north of Paris.

Marriage and children

On 28 May 1262, Philip married Isabella, daughter of King James I of Aragon and his second wife Yolande of Hungary. They had the following children:
  1. Louis.
  2. Philip IV of France, his successor, married Joan I of Navarre
  3. Robert
  4. Charles, Count of Valois, Count of Valois from 1284, married first to Margaret of Anjou in 1290, second to Catherine I of Courtenay in 1302, and last to Mahaut of Chatillon in 1308
  5. Stillborn son
After death of Queen Isabella, he married on 21 August 1274 Marie, daughter of the late Henry III, Duke of Brabant, and Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant. Their children were:
  1. Louis, Count of Évreux, Count of Évreux from 1298, married Margaret of Artois
  2. Blanche of France, Duchess of Austria, married the duke, the future king Rudolf I of Bohemia and Poland, on 25 May 1300.
  3. Margaret of France, Queen of England, married king Edward I of England on 8 September 1299

    Review from Dante

In the Divine Comedy, Dante envisions the spirit of Philip 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," a reference to king Philip IV of France.