King John I of France

Today is the seventh centenary of the death of King John I of France. The son of King Louis X and his Queen Clemence of Hungary, he was born several months after his father's death in June 1316. My post about him can be seen at King Louis X. A regency had ensued as the realm awaited the birth of a male or female heir.

Being born as King is a distinction he shares with King Ladislas V of Hungary and King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The infant King's reign was to be very short, as he was born on November 15th and died on  November 20th 1316. His rapid demise led to accusations at the time of foul play, and Countess Mahaut of Artois was one of those alleged to be responsible. Another tradition has a story of the royal infant being smuggled away and replaced by another baby - that is to be found in Druon's novels about the later Capetians.

Effigy of King John I of France at St Denis

Image:pinterest.com

King John I had the shortest reign of any French monarch unless that of King Louis XIX for twenty minutes or so during the July Revolution in 1830 is accepted - I would be inclined to see that as asituation of duress, and that King Charles X remained the legitimate monarch until his death in 1836 and that he was then succeeded by King Louis XIX until his death in 1844 and the undoubted inheritance at that point of King Henri V.

The death of King John was to be of real significance - for the first time the succession did not go from father to son, and the acceptance of his uncle as King Philip V rather than King Louis X's daughter by his first marriage Jeanne ( Louis had doubts as to her legitimacy, although she did eventually succeed at Queen of Navarre - see Joan_II_of_Navarre ) took France towards developing the Salic law to regulate the succession. There is a biography of  King Philip V at Philip V of France.
Both King Philip V and his younger brother and successior King Charles IV sought to produce a male heir but had only daughters, and in 1328 the succession passed to King Philip VI, by-passing the arguable claim of King Edward III through his mother, Queen Isabella, sister to the previous Kings - but that is another story...

The effigies of King Philip V, of Queen Jeanne of Evreux, third wife of King Charles IV, and of King Charles IV in St Denis

Image: Pinterest - basilique-de-saint-denis

King Louis X

Today is the seventh centenary of the death of King Louis X of France in 1316. He was 26, and had been King for little more than eighteen months. There is an online life of the King at Louis X of France


His tomb is in the abbey at St Denis. Here are two photographs of the head of the effigy:

Image: kornbluthphoto.com

Image:alamy

Image:themcs.org

King Louis X appears in the first three of Maurice Druon's series of novels on the last Capetians The Accursed Kings. In them he is not depicted especially favourably, and as a man in awe of his father and then disillusioned by his first wife's adultery. The actor Georges Ser gave a good performance as Louis in the original ORTF production in 1973-4.

The last Capetians

King Philip IV flanked by, left to right, his younger sons Charles - later King Charles IV - and Philip - later King Philip V -, his daughter Queen Isabella, wife of King Edward II, and by King Louis X as King of Navarre, and by his brother Charles Count of Valois, father of King Philip VI.

King Louis does look distinctly shifty, but that may simply be an artistic trait!

Image: Wikipedia

I suspect one could have a more favourable view of the King, and also allow for the pressures upon him - personal in respect of his marriages and concern for the succession, political in terms of the inevitable reaction following the death of his authoritarian and ruthlessly successful father, socio-economic in that 1315 saw the beginning of a near catastrophic pan-European famine linked to severe weather.

 

King Louis X depicted as King of France and of Navarre

 Image: Britannica.com

 Druon recounts the events leading to the death of Marguerite, Louis' first wife and his marriage to the Angevin princess Clemence of Hungary from Naples and her pregnancy, which was the situationwhen King Louis X died - there had to be a regency until her child was born. The luck of the Capetian dynasty in generating direct male heirs, which had secured their position since the accession of Hugh Capet in 987 was beginning to run out.

 

Quuen Clémence de Hongrie (1293–12 October 1328) 
Queen consort of France and Navarre, she was the second wife of King Louis X of France


Image:pinterest.com

King Louis X has a particular claim to fame in sporting history - he is the first recorded named player of tennis, and the fever which carried him off ( unless, as in Druon's The Poisoned Crown he was indeed poisoned)  seems to have begun with drinking chilled wine after a game of tennis.

The reissue of Druon's "The Accursed Kings"

A friend kindly forwarded to me the link to an article in the BBC Magazine about the way in which Maurice Druon's set of seven novels The Accursed Kings (Les Rois Maudits), about the last Capetian Kings of France and the origins of the Hundred Year War were an inspiration for the currently very popular Game of Thrones novels of George R. R. Martin and the television series based thereupon. It can be read here.

I do not know, other than by name, The Game of Thrones series, with its Tolkienesque setting. However I do esteem the Druon novels, and the original 1973-4 ORTF tv production - you can find the six dramas on YouTube - and I am delighted to see that the novels are being reissued.

 The Accursed Kings

King Philip IV of France flanked, left to right, by his sons the future King Charles IV and King Philip V, his daughter Queen Isabella, wife of King Edward II, and by his eldest son King Louis X, King of Navarre, and his brother Charles, Count of Valois, father of King Philip VI

Image:Wikipedia

Their attraction is the way in which they use real historical events and present them in extremely readable form and in accessible modern language, and bring out the subtleties and cut and thrust of political life. These are flesh and blood people dealing with matters of life and death - literally. As a friend said in the 1970s of the television version, it had actors who behaved as if they were used to living in medieval clothes, not just dressed up for the part. 

In addition the novels have a series of historical endnotes to accompany their interpretation of events. Druon was writing with dramatic effect in mind, and he does exercise artistic freedom at times, but not such as to reduce the historic credibility of the books. One may question the interpretation he gives of some of the figures - notably King Louis X and King Charles IV - but the novels are a thoroughly good introduction to the period and a wonderful evocation of medieval political machinations.