Philip III

Philip III (Philip the Bold), 1245-85, king of France (1270-85), son and successor of King Louis IX. He secured peaceful possession of Poitou, Auvergne, and Toulouse by a small cession (1279) to England. The marriage (1284) of his son (later Philip IV) to Joan of Navarre and Champagne brought the first union of France with these territories. To gain a throne for another son, he invaded (1285) the kingdom of Aragón but was forced to retreat and died on the march. Philip's reign was dominated by his father's officials and policies.

Philip III, 1578-1621, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily (1598-1621) and, as Philip II, king of Portugal (1598-1621); son and successor of Philip II of Spain. He was as pious as his father, but lacked his intelligence and capacity for work. Preferring to pursue his own pleasure, Philip left the actual government to his favorite, the duque de Lerma. Peace had been made with France by the Treaty of Vervins (1598) shortly before Philip III's accession. Peace with England followed in 1604, and in 1609 a 12-year truce was made with the United Provinces of the Netherlands. In Italy, however, Spain was involved in war (1615-17) with Savoy over Montferrat and in clashes with Venice. In 1620, Spain entered the Thirty Years War by sending troops into the Palatinate. The Spanish occupation of the Valtellina in the same year also led (1622) to war with France. Philip's reign saw a growing decline in Spain's economy, partly as a result of the expulsion (1609-14) of the Moriscos, while the grandees accumulated huge estates and the church prospered. Yet Spanish culture was in the midst of a glorious period which gave the world Cervantes, Lope de Vega, El Greco, and Zurbarán. Philip III was succeeded by his son, Philip IV. His daughter, Anne of Austria, married Louis XIII of France.

Spanish Felipe

(born April 14, 1578, Madrid, Spain—died March 31, 1621, Madrid) King of Spain and of Portugal (1598–1621). The son of Philip II, he was an indifferent ruler and allowed royal favourites to govern in his place. From 1609 his government continued the policy of expelling the Moriscos (Christians of Moorish ancestry), which caused serious economic problems. The huge sums he spent on court entertainments exacerbated Spain's growing economic problems.

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Philip III (30 April 1245 – 5 October 1285), called the Bold (French: le Hardi), was the King of France, succeeding his father, Louis IX, and reigning from 1270 to 1285. He was a member of the House of Capet.

Born in Poissy, to Louis IX (the later Saint Louis) and Marguerite of Provence, Philip was prior to his accession Count of Orleans. 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. 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.

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."

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:

1. Louis (1266 – May 1276)
2. Philip IV (1268 – November 29, 1314), successor as king
3. 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:

1. Louis (May 1276 – May 19, 1319), Count of Évreux
2. Blanche (1278 – March 19, 1305, Vienna), married Rudolf III of Austria on May 25, 1300
3. Margaret (1282 – February 14, 1317), married Edward I of England

Ancestors

Philip's ancestors in three generations

Philip III of France	Father: Louis IX of France	Paternal Grandfather: Louis VIII of France	Paternal Great-grandfather: Philip II of France
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Isabelle of Hainaut
		Paternal Grandmother: Blanche of Castile	Paternal Great-grandfather: Alfonso VIII of Castile
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Leonora of England
	Mother: Marguerite of Provence	Maternal Grandfather: Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence	Maternal Great-grandfather: Alfonso II, Count of Provence
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Gersenda II of Sabran
		Maternal Grandmother: Beatrice of Savoy	Maternal Great-grandfather: Thomas I of Savoy
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Marguerite of Geneva

Notes

Sources

• Chaytoe, H. J. A History of Aragon and Catalonia. 1933.