British Claims To The French Throne

British Claims To The French Throne

The English claims to the French throne have a long and complex history between the 1340s and the 19th century. From 1340 to 1801, with only brief intervals in 1360–69 and 1420–22, the kings and queens of England (and, later, of Great Britain) also assumed the title of King or Queen of France.

The Kingdom of England was ruled by the French Plantagenet dynasty when this title was first adopted in 1340 by King Edward III, who claimed the throne of France after the death of his uncle Charles IV of France, thereby precipitating the Hundred Years' War. At the time of Charles IV's death in 1328, Edward was his nearest male relative through Edward's mother Isabella of France. Since the election of Hugh Capet in 987, the French crown had always passed based on male-line relations (father to son until 1316). There was no precedent for someone succeeding to the French throne based on his maternal ancestry, nor had there needed to be. There had been no shortage of sons and brothers for more than three centuries from the inception of the House of Capet until the early 14th century, when new precedents concerning female inheritance finally had to be introduced. On the death of Philip IV the Fair's son Louis X in 1316, immediately followed by that of his posthumous son John I, it had to be decided whether his young daughter Joan or his brother Philip would succeed to the throne. This was later said to have been based on the 5th century Salic law but some researchers assert that the Salic Law was rediscovered later and used to cloak the 1316 decision with an additional aura of authenticity.

At the time of Charles's death in 1328, there was once again a dispute over the succession. Although it had come to be accepted that a woman could not possess the French throne in her own right, Edward III, the nephew of the deceased king, based his claim on the theory that a woman could transmit a right of inheritance to her son. This claim was rejected by French jurists however, under the principle Nemo plus juris ad alium transfere potest quam ipse habet (one cannot transmit a right he or she does not possess), and the throne was given to the male line heir, Philip, Count of Valois, a first cousin to the deceased king. At the time, Edward accepted this result, and paid homage to Philip VI for his Duchy of Guyenne. Disputes over the next 12 years over the precise nature of Edward III's feudal obligations to Philip in Guyenne led to open war in 1337, and to the revival of Edward's claims to the French throne in 1340, when he claimed the title of King of France.

Edward continued to use this title until the Treaty of Brétigny on May 8, 1360, when he abandoned his claims in return for substantial lands in France. After the resumption of hostilities between the English and the French in 1369, however, Edward resumed his claim and the title of King of France. His successors also used the title until the Treaty of Troyes on May 21, 1420, in which the English recognised Charles VI as King of France, but with his new son-in-law King Henry V of England as his heir (disinheriting Charles VI's son, the Dauphin Charles). Henry V then adopted the title Heir of France instead.

Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, and Henry V's infant son (Charles VI's grandson) Henry VI became King of France. He was the only English king who was de facto King of France, rather than using the style as a mere title of pretense. However, by 1429 Charles VII, with the support of Jeanne d'Arc, had been crowned at Reims and begun to push the English out of northern France. In 1435, an end to the French civil war between Burgundians and Armagnacs allowed Charles to return to Paris the following year, and by 1453 the English had been driven out of their last strongholds in Normandy and Guyenne. The only French territory left to the English was Calais, which was held until 1558.

Nonetheless, despite their lack of control over any French territory, the kings and queens of England (and, later, of Great Britain) continued to claim the French throne for centuries, through the early modern period. The words "of France" was prominently included among their realms as listed in their titles and styles, and the French fleur-de-lys were included in the royal arms. This continued until 1801, by which time France had no monarch, having become a republic.