Link LinkHistory tells us that Philip, king of France, surnamed the Fair, had three sons, beside his beautiful daughter Isabella married to the king of England. These three sons were very handsome. The eldest, Lewis, king of Navarre, during the lifetime of his father, was called Lewis Hutin; The second was named Philip the Great, or the Long; and the third, Charles. All these were kings of France, after their father Philip, by legitimate succession, one after the other, without having by marriage any male heir; yet on the death of the last king, Charles, the twelve peers and barons did not give the kingdom to Isabella, the sister, who was queen of England, because they said and maintained, and still do insist, that the kingdom of France is no noble, that it ought not to go to a woman: consequently neither to Isabella, nor to her son, the king of England; for they hold that the son of a woman cannot claim any right of succession, where that woman has none herself. For these reasons the twelve peers and barons of France unanimously gave the kingdom of France to the lord Philip of Valois, nephew to king Philip, and thus put aside the queen of England, who was sister to Charles, the late king of France, and her son. Thus, as it seemed to many people, the succession went out of the right line, which has been the occasion of the most destructive wars and devastations of countries, as well in France as elsewhere, as you will learn hereafter; the real object of this history being to relate the great enterprises and deeds of arms achieved in these wars, for from the time of good Charlemagne, king of France, never were such feats performed.
