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The Hun­dred Years' War could be con­sid­ered a lengthy war of suc­ces­sion be­tween the houses of Val­ois and Plan­ta­genet. The early reign of Philip VIwas a promis­ing one for France. The new king fought the Flem­ings on be­half of his vas­sal, the count of Flan­ders, and re­stored that count to power. Ed­ward III's ag­gres­sion against Scot­land, a French ally, prompted Philip VI to con­fis­cate Guyenne. In the past the Eng­lish kings would have to sub­mit to the King of France. But Ed­ward, hav­ing de­scended from the French kings, claimed the throne for him­self. France was then at the height of its power. No one be­lieved that the Eng­lish king could make good his claim to France. Ed­ward's ini­tial strat­egy was to ally with Flan­ders and the princes of the Em­pire. The al­liances were costly and not very pro­duc­tive. While on a truce the French and Eng­lish kings in­ter­vened in the War of the Bre­ton Suc­ces­sion. In 1346, Ed­ward in­vaded France and pil­laged the coun­tr...

With the ex­pul­sion of the Eng­lish, Charles VII had reestab­lished his king­dom as the fore­most power of West­ern Eu­rope. He cre­ated France's first stand­ing army since Roman times, and lim­ited papal power in the Gal­li­can Church by the Prag­matic Sanc­tion of Bourges. But his later years were marred by quar­rels with his el­dest son and heir, the Dauphin Louis, who re­fused to obey him. The dauphin was ban­ished from court for his in­trigues, and did not re­turn to France until his fa­ther's death. Louis XI suc­ceeded his fa­ther in 1461. At the be­gin­ning of his reign Louis re­versed his fa­ther's poli­cies, abol­ish­ing the Prag­matic Sanc­tion to please the pope and the stand­ing armies, which he dis­trusted, in favor of Swiss mer­ce­nar­ies. As a prince he had leagued with the no­bil­ity against his fa­ther, but as a king he found that his power could only be main­tained by sub­du­ing them. He was the life­long enemy of Charles the Bold, Count of Charo­lais, and later D...

Charles VIII suc­ceeded his fa­ther in 1483, at the age of 13. Dur­ing his mi­nor­ity the no­bles again at­tempted to seize power, but they were de­feated by Charles' sis­ter Anne of France. Charles' mar­riage to Anne of Brit­tanypre­vented a fu­ture total Hab­s­burg en­cir­clement of France. As the heir of the House of Anjou, Charles VIII de­cided to press his claim to the King­dom of Naples. It was the be­gin­ning of the Ital­ian Wars. In Sep­tem­ber 1494 Charles in­vaded Italy with 25,000 men, and at­tained his ob­ject by 22 Feb­ru­ary 1495, vir­tu­ally un­op­posed. But the speed and power of the French ad­vance fright­ened the pow­ers of Italy. The League of Venice, which con­sisted of the Re­publics of Venice and Flo­rence, the Duchies of Milan and Man­tua, the Kings of Spain and Naples, the Em­peror and the Pope, united against the French. Charles, who did not wish to be trapped in Naples, had to fight against them in the Bat­tle of Fornovo. Charles suc­ceeded in re­turn­ing t...

The last phase of Val­ois rule in France was marked by the French Wars of Re­li­gion. Henry II died in a joust­ing ac­ci­dent in 1559. His el­dest son and heir, Fran­cis II, suc­ceeded him. The new king was al­ready King of Scot­land by right of his wife, Mary, Queen of Scots. The queen's ma­ter­nal rel­a­tives, the House of Guise, gained an as­cen­dancy over the young king. The House of Guise was a cadet branch of the ducal House of Lor­raine. They claimed de­scent from Charle­magne and had de­signs on the French throne. They con­sid­ered the House of Bour­bon, princes of the blood, as their nat­ural en­e­mies. The lead­ing Bour­bons, the broth­ers An­toine, King of Navarre, and Louis, Prince of Condé, were Protes­tants. The House of Guise iden­ti­fied them­selves as cham­pi­ons of the Catholic cause. They were on the point of ex­e­cut­ing Condé when the young king died. With the suc­ces­sion of her minor son Charles IX in 1560, Cather­ine de' Medici ma­neu­vered for a bal­ance of...

Valois

1. Philip VI, the Fortunate 1328–1350, son of Charles of Valois 2. John II, the Good 1350–1364 3. Charles V, the Wise 1364–1380 4. Charles VI, the Well-Beloved, later known as the Mad 1380–1422 5. Charles VII, the Victorious or the Well-Served 1422–1461 6. Louis XI, the Prudent 1461–1483 7. Charles VIII, the Affable 1483–1498

Valois-Orléans

1. Louis XII, the Father of the People 1498–1515, great-grandson of Charles V of France

Valois-Angoulême

1. Francis I– 1515–1547, great-great-grandson of Charles V of France 2. Henry II– 1547–1559 3. Francis II– 1559–1560 4. Charles IX– 1560–1574 5. Henry III– 1574–1589 The ap­pli­ca­tion of the Salic Law meant that with the ex­tinc­tion of the Val­ois in the male line, the Bour­bons suc­ceeded to the throne as de­scen­dants of Louis IX.

Counts and Dukes of Alençon

House of Valois-Alençon 1. Charles II, count (1325–1346), second son of Charles of Valois 2. Charles III, count (1346–1361) 3. Peter II, count (1361–1391) 4. John I, count (1391–1414) 5. John I, duke (1414–1415) 6. John II, duke (1415–1424 and 1449–1474) 7. René I, duke (1478–1492) 8. Charles IV, duke (1492–1525)

Counts and Dukes of Anjou

House of Valois-Anjou 1. Louis I, duke (1360–1383) (also king of Jerusalem and Naples as Louis I), second son of John II of France 2. Louis II (1377–1417), son of (also king of Naples as Louis II) 3. Louis III (1403–1434), son of (also king of Naples as Louis III) 4. René I (1409–1480), brother of (also king of Jerusalem and Naples as René I) 5. Charles IV(1436–1481),

Dukes of Burgundy

House of Valois-Burgundy 1. Philip II the Bold(1363–1404), fourth son of John II of France 2. John II the Fearless(1404–1419) 3. Philip III the Good(1419–1467) 4. Charles I the Bold(1467–1477) 5. Mary I the Rich(1477–1482)

Forms of ad­dress for Val­ois kings and princes in­cluded "Most Chris­t­ian Majesty"."Dauphin" . "your Grace" . "Your Majesty" . "Most regal Majesty " .