Claims to the French throne by English and British monarchs
English stained glass window from c. 1350–77, showing the coat of arms of Edward III, which featured the royal arms of France in the positions of greatest honour, quartering the arms of England.
From the year 1340 to 1802, excluding two brief intervals in the 1360s and the 1420s, the kings and queens of England and Ireland (and, later, of Great Britain) also claimed the throne of France. The claim dates from Edward III, who claimed the French throne in 1340 as the sororal nephew of the last direct Capetian, Charles IV. Edward and his heirs fought the Hundred Years' War to enforce this claim, and were briefly successful in the 1420s under Henry V and Henry VI, but the House of Valois, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, was ultimately victorious and retained control of France, except for Calais (which England later lost in 1558) and the Channel Islands (which had also historically formed part of the Duchy of Normandy). Following the Hundred Years War, English and British monarchs continued to call themselves kings of France, and used the French fleur-de-lis as their coat of arms, quartering the arms of England in positions of secondary honour.[3] This continued until 1802 when Britain recognised the French Republic and therefore the abolition of the French monarchy. The Jacobite claimants, however, did not explicitly relinquish the claim.
The title was first assumed in 1340 by Edward III of England, the Kingdom of England being ruled by the Plantagenet dynasty at the time. Edward III claimed the throne of France after the death of his uncle Charles IV of France. 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 been a need to. There had been no shortage of sons 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. In 1314, Philip IV the Fair was succeeded by his son Louis X. However, Louis' death in 1316, immediately followed by the death of Louis' son John I the Posthumous, meant it had to be decided whether the young daughter of Louis X, Joan, or Louis' brother, Philip, would now succeed to the throne. Philip arranged for his coronation, and became Philip V of France. He was challenged by the supporters of the Princess Joan, who disputed Philip's right to the throne. In response, Philip V convened an assembly of prelates, barons, and burgesses at Paris, who acknowledged him as their lawful king, and declared that "Women do not succeed to the throne of France". This was later said to have been based on the 5th century Salic law, but it is now known that the Salic law was only rediscovered later and used by the lawyers of the Valois kings to fortify their masters' title with an additional aura of authenticity.[4]
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 and thus the nearest adult male relative, 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 under the principle Nemo plus juris ad alium transfere potest quam ipse habet (no one can transfer a greater right to another than he himself has), and the throne was given to the male line heir, Philip, Count of Valois, a first cousin of the deceased king. At the time, Edward paid homage to Philip VI for his Duchy of Aquitaine. In 1337, however, Edward, in his capacity as Duke of Aquitaine, refused to pay homage to Philip. The French king's response was to confiscate what was left of lands in English-held Aquitaine, namely Gascony, thus precipitating the Hundred Years' War and Edward's revival of his claim to the throne and title of King of France in 1340.
The decision to assume the title of "King of France" was made at the solicitation of his Flemish allies, who had signed a treaty that they would no longer attack the French king. They said that if Edward took the French royal title, then the Flemish would be able to keep their honour, since they would not be attacking the "true King of France" (Edward III).
Edward continued to use this title until the Treaty of Brétigny on 8 May 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, Edward resumed his claim and the title of King of France. His successors also used the title until the Treaty of Troyes on 21 May 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 DauphinCharles). 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. By 1429 Charles VII, with the support of Joan of 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 they held until 1558 and the Channel Islands.
Original claimants
"Kings of France" (1340)
Arms of Edward III, with the English lions and the French fleur-de-lys. The arms of France are in the 1st and 4th quarter as France was considered the senior kingdom.
Henry VI, King of England (reigned, from England, 21 October 1422 – 4 March 1461; 31 October 1470 – 11 April 1471) was de jureking of France (although in reality only king of northern France) according to the Treaty of Troyes, ruling formally as Henry II of France (crowned at Paris, 16 December 1431). The English continued to hold significant portions of France until 1449, after which nearly all English-held territory was seized by his Capetian rival. That rival was the de facto king of southern France, Charles VII, who claimed the succession of his father in 1422, although he was not crowned until the recapture of Reims in 1429. After 1453, the only remaining English holding in France was Calais. Henry, though deposed in England by Edward IV on 4 March 1461, continued to be recognised as king by supporters of the House of Lancaster, and was briefly restored to the English throne in 1470.
Rulers of Calais
Following a year-long episode of catatonia on the part of Henry VI of England in 1453 and the subsequent outbreak of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), the English were no longer in any position to pursue their claim to the French throne and lost all their land on the continent, except for Calais.
Calais was ruled by eight more English monarchs, who claimed to also rule France, until 8 January 1558:
Edward IV (4 March 1461 – 30 October 1470; 11 April 1471 – 9 April 1483).
Ill feeling between the two nations continued well into the 16th century. Calais was captured by French troops under Francis, Duke of Guise on 7 January 1558. Mary and Philip continued, however, to be styled Queen and King of France for the rest of her reign, as did Mary I's half-sister and successor Elizabeth I, despite her abandonment of her claims to Calais in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559. Elizabeth I revived England's claims to Calais and took the French port of Le Havre in 1561. French forces ejected the English in 1563, and the Treaty of Troyes (1564), recognised French ownership of Calais, in return for payment to England of 120,000 crowns.[5]
James I of England and VI of Scotland's coat of arms, France and England are quartered together which, in turn, are quartered by Scotland and Ireland
Elizabeth died childless. Her successor was her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots' son James VI of Scotland. The thrones of England and Scotland were joined in a dynastic union until 1707. The seven monarchs of this period continued to use the style King/Queen of France, though their claim was merely nominal. None of them was willing to engage in military campaigns for France against the actual Kings of FranceHenry IV, Louis XIII and Louis XIV of France. Indeed, Charles I married a sister of Louis XIII, and his son Charles II spent much of his exile during the Interregnum in France (at which time, even if not formally abandoning his claim for its throne, he certainly did not emphasise it).
During the French Revolution, the monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792, replaced with the French Republic. In the War of the First Coalition British–French negotiations were held in Lille from July to November 1797. The French demanded that the English monarch drop the title; James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, was prepared to omit it from the king's signature to the envisaged peace treaty but had not conceded further by the time the talks collapsed.[6] In the Commons' discussion of the negotiations, Sir John Sinclair called the demand "frivolous" and "hardly worth contending for";[7]William Pitt the Younger called the title "a harmless feather, at most, in the crown of England";[8]French Laurence called it an "ancient dignity" the ceding of which would lose honour and bring disgrace.[9] In 1800, the Act of Union joined the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland to a new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. George III chose this opportunity to drop his claim to the now defunct French throne, whereupon the fleurs-de-lis, part of the coat of arms of all claimant Kings of France since the time of Edward III, was also removed from the British royal arms. Britain recognised the French Republic by the Treaty of Amiens of 1802.
While the position of King of France was restored between 1814 and 1848, subsequent British monarchs did not pursue the claim to the French throne, whether of the Kingdom of France or of the French Empire.
The Channel Islands
The Channel Islands, originally part of the Duchy of Normandy, have been held by the Kings of England since the Norman Conquest. By the Treaty of Paris of 1259, the Kings of England ceased to be Dukes of Normandy but continued to hold the Channel Islands "as peer of France and Duke of Aquitaine". By the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360, the Channel Islands, Aquitaine, and other English possessions in France ceased to be under the suzerainty of the Kings of France.[11]
In the remaining years of the Hundred Years' War, France reconquered all the English territories on the French mainland except Calais, which was finally taken in 1558. However, the Channel Islands, despite a few unsuccessful attempts by the French to take the islands (culminating with the Battle of Jersey in 1781), have remained under continuous English and British sovereignty, with the exception of a period of German occupation during the Second World War.
The Jacobitepretenders were the deposed James II of England and his successors, continuing to style themselves "Kings of England, Scotland, France and Ireland" past their deposition in 1689. All four pretenders continued to actively claim the title King of France as well as that of King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1689 until 1807:
James Francis Edward Stuart (16 September 1701 – 1 January 1766), styled James III and VIII, also known as the Chevalier de St. George or as the Old Pretender.
Charles Edward Stuart (1 January 1766 – 31 January 1788), styled Charles III, also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Chevalier, or as the Young Pretender.
Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart (31 January 1788 – 13 July 1807), self-styled Henry IX and I, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland.
James II for the last twelve years of his life and his son, the Old Pretender, until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, were actually pensioners of Louis XIV at the very time they were claiming his title.[citation needed]
Jacobite successors
The Jacobite succession has continued since 1807 but none of the eight subsequent holders of the claims has actively pursued it. They continue to be customarily known as "King (or Queen) of France" by the Jacobites.
Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein, born 24 May 1995 in London – the first heir in the Jacobite line born in the British Isles since James III and VIII, The Old Pretender, in 1688.
Failed claimants
In addition two failed claimants to the throne of England were also styled King of France. They are usually omitted from regnal lists.
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. Styled "King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland" (20 June – 6 July 1685). Captured after the Battle of Sedgemoor by James II/VII, and was subsequently beheaded for high treason.
James Francis Edward Stuart was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was Prince of Wales and heir until his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant half-sister Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. As a Catholic, he was subsequently excluded from the succession by the Act of Settlement 1701.
The Capetian House of Valois was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. They succeeded the House of Capet to the French throne, and were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589. Junior members of the family founded cadet branches in Orléans, Anjou, Burgundy, and Alençon.
Duke of Cornwall is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning British monarch, previously the English monarch. The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in England and was established in a royal charter in 1337 by King Edward III. As of 2022, Prince William became Duke of Cornwall following the accession to the throne of his father, King Charles III; William's wife, Catherine, became Duchess of Cornwall.
Monarchical systems of government have existed in Ireland from ancient times. This continued in all of Ireland until 1949, when the Republic of Ireland Act removed most of Ireland's residual ties to the British monarch. Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, remains under a monarchical system of government.
The duke of Aquitaine was the ruler of the medieval region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English, and later French kings.
The Treaty of Troyes was an agreement that King Henry V of England and his heirs would inherit the French throne upon the death of King Charles VI of France. It was formally signed in the French city of Troyes on 21 May 1420 in the aftermath of Henry's successful military campaign in France. It forms a part of the backdrop of the latter phase of the Hundred Years' War finally won by the French at the Battle of Castillon in 1453, and in which various English kings tried to establish their claims to the French throne.
The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the early tenth century, when it was unified from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, which would later become the United Kingdom. The Kingdom of England was among the most powerful states in Europe during the medieval and early modern periods.
The Monument to the Royal Stuarts is a memorial in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City State. It commemorates the last three members of the Royal House of Stuart: James Francis Edward Stuart, his elder son Charles Edward Stuart, and his younger son, Henry Benedict Stuart. The Jacobites recognised these three as kings of England, Scotland and Ireland.
A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term may often be used to either refer to a descendant of a deposed monarchy or a claim that is not legitimate.
The precise style of the British sovereign is chosen and proclaimed by the sovereign, in accordance with the Royal Titles Act 1953. The current sovereign, King Charles III, was proclaimed by the Privy Council in 2022 to have acceded to the throne with the style:
Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories, King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith
The Jacobite succession is the line through which Jacobites believed that the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland should have descended, applying male preference primogeniture, since the deposition of James II and VII in 1688 and his death in 1701. It is in opposition to the legal line of succession to the British throne since that time.
This is a timeline of the Hundred Years' War between England and France from 1337 to 1453 as well as some of the events leading up to the war.
The Lancastrian War was the third and final phase of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It lasted from 1415, when Henry V of England invaded Normandy, to 1453, when the English were definitively defeated in Aquitaine. It followed a long period of peace from the end of the Caroline War in 1389. The phase is named after the House of Lancaster, the ruling house of the Kingdom of England, to which Henry V belonged.
The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between the kingdoms of England and France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy of Aquitaine and was triggered by a claim to the French throne made by Edward III of England. The war grew into a broader military, economic, and political struggle involving factions from across Western Europe, fuelled by emerging nationalism on both sides. The periodisation of the war typically charts it as taking place over 116 years. However, it was an intermittent conflict which was frequently interrupted by external factors, such as the Black Death, and several years of truces.
The Auld Alliance was an alliance between the kingdoms of Scotland and France against England made in 1295. The Scots word auld, meaning old, has become a partly affectionate term for the long-lasting association between the two countries. The alliance was never formally revoked, although it is considered by some to have ended with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh in 1560.
The dual monarchy of England and France existed during the latter phase of the Hundred Years' War when Charles VII of France and Henry VI of England disputed the succession to the throne of France. It commenced on 21 October 1422 upon the death of King Charles VI of France, who had signed the Treaty of Troyes which gave the French crown to his son-in-law Henry V of England and Henry's heirs. It excluded King Charles's son, the Dauphin Charles, who by right of primogeniture was the heir to the Kingdom of France. Although the Treaty was ratified by the Estates-General of France, the act was a contravention of the French law of succession which decreed that the French crown could not be alienated. Henry VI, son of Henry V, became king of both England and France and was recognized only by the English and Burgundians until 1435 as King Henry II of France. He was crowned King of France on 16 December 1431 in Paris.
The history of the monarchy of the United Kingdom and its evolution into a constitutional and ceremonial monarchy is a major theme in the historical development of the British constitution. The British monarchy traces its origins to the petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and early medieval Scotland, which consolidated into the kingdoms of England and Scotland by the 10th century. The Norman and Plantagenet dynasties expanded their authority throughout the British Isles, creating the Lordship of Ireland in 1177 and conquering Wales in 1283. In 1215, King John agreed to limit his own powers over his subjects according to the terms of Magna Carta. To gain the consent of the political community, English kings began summoning Parliaments to approve taxation and to enact statutes. Gradually, Parliament's authority expanded at the expense of royal power.
↑ French coat of arms in 1st and 4th positions of greatest honour; arms of England in 2nd and 3rd quarters
↑ Maclagan, Michael; Louda, Jiří (1981). Line of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe. London: Macdonald & Co. p.17. ISBN0-85613-276-4.
↑ French coat of arms in 1st and 4th positions of greatest honour; arms of England in 2nd and 3rd quarters
↑ Taylor, Craig (2001), "The Salic Law and the Valois succession to the French crown", French History, 15 (4): 358–77, doi:10.1093/fh/15.4.358 .
↑ Frieda, Leonie (2003). Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France (first Harper Perennial edition 2006). Harper Perennial. p.171.
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