Renaissance Art ｜ King Edward III, 100 Years War, Crisis of the 14th century

King Edward III. This is a portrait of the most powerful man in Europe during the second half of the 14th century. His story is intrinsically interwoven with a much larger one. In 1328, the King of France, Charles IV, dies in Paris with no rightful heir to his throne. Having no children to inherit his power, the Capetian dynasty from which he inherited power ends after more than 350 years. And here is where it starts to get interesting with Edward III. Previously, each French king had a direct male heir, but without a son. According to French law, if the king dies without a rightful heir to his throne, the lineage must go down the branches of the family tree. Here, they find two rightful heirs. Philippe of Valois, an unknown noble that was a relatively minor lord. The other was very troubling to the French because, in this case, Edward III was the son of a dead French King Charles IV's sister. This would make him not just the King of England, but so too the King of France. France could not have had a more bitter enemy than England, as they had some form of conflict since the Norman invasions of England during the 11th century. While English law allows inheritance through a female, French law does not. However, Edward III of England interestingly expressed little interest in pressing for his rights to the French throne and the likely to ensue conflict. So the French crown passed on to Philippe of Valois. However, this is where it gets even more interesting still. Because wool merchants of Flanders, present-day Belgium, are living in a region controlled by France that deeply longs for the independence it has today. The Flemish wool merchants buy the overwhelming majority of England's greatest export, wool. The merchants get together and threaten King Edward III. Effectively saying, if you don't press for the rights to the French throne, offering us a path towards independence from the French, we will stop buying your wool. If the Flemish stop buying English wool, the English economy will fall apart, which would likely lead to widespread poverty, revolts, and potentially an attempt to overthrow King Edward III. On this threat, King Edward III is motivated to press for his inheritance of the French throne. This leads to all-out warfare between the two most powerful kingdoms, the Kingdom of England against the Kingdom of France. This war would be the beginning of what is now known as the 100 Years War. Edward III and these wars would lead to generations of economic destruction, catastrophic losses on the battlefield, and eventually be at the heart of the crisis of the 14th century, which would lead European society in to the cataclysmic changes resulting in the Renaissance.