[569] The French Court of Twelve Peers did not constitute a distinct organization, but was merely a high rank of baronage. In the earlier Middle Ages, the number of peers was generally twelve, including the most powerful lay vassals of the king and certain influential prelates. In later times the number was frequently increased by the creation of peers by the crown.
[570] In 1317, after the accession of Philip IV., an assembly of French magnates (such as that which disposed of the crown in 1328) laid down the general rule that no woman should succeed to the throne of France. This rule has come to be known as the Salic Law of France, though it has no historical connection with the law of the Salian Franks against female inheritance of property, with which older writers have generally confused it [see p. [67, note 1]. The rule of 1317 was based purely on grounds of political expediency. It was announced at this particular time because the death of Louis X. had left France without a male heir to the throne for the first time since Hugh Capet's day and the barons thought it not best for the realm that a woman reign over it. Between 1316 and 1328 daughters of kings were excluded from the succession three times, and though in 1328, when Charles IV. died, there had been no farther legislation on the subject, the principle of the misnamed Salic Law had become firmly established in practice. In 1328, however, when the barons selected Philip of Valois to be regent first and then king, they went a step farther and declared not only that no woman should be allowed to inherit the throne of France but that the inheritance could not pass through a woman to her son; in other words, she could not transmit to her descendants a right which she did not herself possess. This was intended to cover any future case such as that of Edward III.'s claim to inherit through his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV. The action of the barons was supported by public opinion in practically all France—especially since it appeared that only through this expedient could the realm be saved from the domination of an alien sovereign.
[571] Philip of Valois was a son of Charles of Valois, who was a brother of Philip IV. The line of direct Capetian descent was now replaced by the branch line of the Valois. The latter occupied the French throne until the death of Henry III. in 1589.
[572] James van Arteveld, a brewer of Ghent, was the leader of the popular party in Flanders—the party which hated French influence, which had expelled the count of Flanders on account of his services to Philip VI., and which was the most valuable English ally on the continent. Arteveld was murdered in 1345 during the civil discord which prevailed in Flanders throughout the earlier part of the Hundred Years' War.
[573] These were towns situated near the Franco-Flemish frontier. They had been lost by Flanders to France and assistance in their recovery was rightly considered by the German advisers of Edward as likely to be more tempting to the Flemish than any other offer he could make them.
[574] That is, the papal court.
[575] Robert of Artois was a prince who had not a little to do with the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War. After having lost a suit for the inheritance of the county of Artois (the region about the Somme River) and having been proved guilty of fabricating documents to support his claims, he had fled to England and there as an exile had employed every resource to influence Edward to claim the French throne and to go to war to secure it.
[576] In northeastern Flanders.
[577] That is, June 23. The English fleet was composed of two hundred and fifty vessels, carrying 11,000 archers and 4,000 men-at-arms.
[578] Edward III.'s queen was Philippa, daughter of the count of Hainault.