Charles IV of France - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Charles IV died at Vincennes, Val-de-Marne, and is interred with his third wife, Jeanne d'Évreux in Saint Denis Basilica.

As with his brothers before him, Charles had died without a male heir, thus ending the direct line of the Capetian dynasty. Twelve years earlier, a rule against succession by females, arguably derived from the Salic Law, had been recognised – with some dissent – as controlling succession to the French throne. The application of this rule barred Charles's one-year-old daughter Mary by his third wife, Jeanne d'Évreux, from succeeding as the monarch, but Jeanne was also pregnant at the time of Charles' death. Since she might have given birth to a son, a regency was set up under the heir presumptive Philip of Valois, Charles of Valois's son and a member of the House of Valois, the next most senior branch of the Capetian dynasty.

After two months, Jeanne gave birth to another daughter, Blanche, and thus Philip became King and in May was consecrated and crowned Philip VI. Edward III of England argued, however, that although the Salic law should forbid inheritance by a woman, it did not forbid inheritance through a female line – under this argument, Edward should have inherited the throne, and formed the basis of his claim during the ensuing Hundred Years War (1337–1453).