2: Lord Berners here and in the previous chapter says sixteen thousand; Dr. Sauvage has twelve thousand in one place and sixteen thousand in another.
Charles, king of France, son of Philip the Fair, had been thrice married, and yet died without heirs male. The first of his wives, a daughter of the count of Artois, was one of the most beautiful women in the world; however she kept her marriage vow so ill, and behaved so badly, that she was long confined to prison at Chateau Galliard, before her husband was king. When the kingdom of France devolved upon him, he was crowned by the twelve peers of France and all the barons, who were not willing that such a kingdom should be deprived of male heirs; they therefore strongly recommended his marrying again, with which he complied, and took to wife the daughter of the emperor Henry of Luxemburgh, sister to the gallant king of Bohemia. His first marriage, with the lady in prison, was dissolved by the pope of that day. By his second wife, the lady of Luxemburg, who was modest and prudent, the king had a son, who died very young, and the mother soon after, at Issoudun, in Berry. The cause of their deaths was much suspected, and many were inculpated in it, and privily punished.
The king afterwards married a third time, to the daughter of his uncle, Lewis, count of Evreux and sister to the king of Navarre. She was called queen Joan. She was soon afterward with child, and at the same time the king fell sick upon his death-bed. When he perceived that he could not recover, he ordered, that, if the child should be a son, Philip of Valois, his cousin, should be his guardian, and regent of the whole kingdom, until such time as his son should be of age to reign; that, if it should happen to be a girl, then the twelve peers and great barons were to assemble to take counsel together, and give the kingdom to him that appeared to them to have the clearest right. About Easter 1326, the king died; and it was not long before the queen was brought to bed of a beautiful girl.
The twelve peers and the barons of France assembled in Paris without delay, and gave the kingdom, with one consent, to Philip of Valois. They passed by the queen of England, and the king her son, although she was cousin-german to the king last deceased; for they said, that the kingdom of France was of such great nobleness, that it ought no fall by succession to a female. They crowned the lord Philip king of France, at Rhiems, the Trinity sunday following. Immediately he summoned his barons and men at arms, and went with a powerful army to Cassel, to make war upon the Flemings, especially those of Bruges, Ypres and those of the Franc1, who would not willingly obey their lord, the count of Flanders, but rebelled against him, and had driven him out of the country, so that he could reside nowhere but at Ghent, and there miserably enough.
King Philip discomfited full twelve thousand Flemings2, who had for their captain one Colin Dannequin, a bold and courageous man. The above mentioned Flemings had put the garrison of Cassel under the command of the aforesaid towns, and at their charges, to guard the frontiers of that place. I will inform you of how the Flemings were defeated, and all through their own bad conduct.
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