PHILIP III. (1245-1285), surnamed "the Bold" (le Hardi), king of France, son of Louis IX. and Margaret, daughter of Raymond-Berenger IV., count of Provence, was born on April 3, 1245. His funeral monument at St. Denis depicts a man with beardless, square-cut features, but lacking character and anima tion. The authenticity of this effigy is fairly well borne out by what is known of him from other sources. He had many of the virtues of St. Louis, but neither decision of character nor devo tion to duty. He was pious, charitable, of unimpeachable moral ity, quick-tempered but placable, no great scholar, and only ener getic as a hunter. The absence in him of the qualities that fit a man to rule made his court the arena of intriguing factions, which in reality ruled France during his reign of fifteen years. Matthew of Vendbme, abbot of St. Denis, an old servant of Louis IX., acted as Philip's counsellor, so the chroniclers state, throughout the reign; but it was probably with administration, and not pol icy, that Matthew was chiefly concerned. Philip began his reign in 127o by falling entirely under the influence of Pierre de la Brosse, who had been surgeon and valet-de-chambre to his father, whom he made lord (sieur) of Langeais, Chatillon-sur-Indre and Damville. His influence lasted until Philip's second marriage in 1274 with Marie, daughter of Henry III., duke of Brabant. She supplied a centre for the enemies of the favourite, who, in 1278, was charged with various crimes, including one of poison ing the king's eldest son, and hanged at Montfaucon. His death left the parties of Marie, the queen, and Margaret, the queen mother, to struggle for the mastery. The settlement of the claims of the king of England in Aquitaine by the treaty of Amiens in 1279 was a victory for the party of Margaret.
Agenais and southern Saintonge, which fell to the Crown by the death of Alfonse of Poitiers in 1276, as part of his vast pos sessions in Aquitaine and Languedoc, were ceded to Edward I. of England in accordance with the treaty of Paris in 1259. An other portion of the heritage of Alfonse, the Venaissin, was ceded to the papacy to redeem an old promise. In general the strong will of Charles of Anjou directed Philip's policy. He secretly urged his nephew's candidature for the imperial crown, left vacant by the death of Richard of Cornwall, king of the Romans, in 1272, but without success. In May 1275 the party of Marie secured for Philip, the king's second son, the hand of Jeanne, the heiress of Navarre and Champagne, along with the guardianship of the kingdom of Navarre during the minority of Jeanne. But early in
1276 Jeanne's mother, Blanche, the widow of Henry III. of Navarre and Champagne, married Edmund, first earl of Lancaster, brother of Edward I. ; and she and her English husband kept Champagne until, in 1284, Jeanne came of age.
An expedition of Philip against Castile in aid of the children of his sister, Blanche, proved abortive. Regardless of this warn ing, he was induced in 1284 to take up the quarrel of his uncle Charles in Sicily, after the Sicilian Vespers in 1282. Two assem blies of barons and prelates were held at Bourges in November 1283 and February 1284 to deliberate on the question. This was a mere matter of form; Marie of Brabant and her party had de cided the matter beforehand, and the crown of Aragon, which the French pope Martin IV. had declared forfeited by Peter, was accepted for Charles of Valois, Philip's third son. The project was strongly opposed by Matthew of Vendome, who was in correspondence with the king of England on the subject. It was the first warlike expedition undertaken by the house of Capet outside France. It proved a disastrous failure. Philip died during a retreat from Gerona on Oct. 5, 1285.
Philip was twice married. On May 28, 1262 he married Isa bella, daughter of James I., king of Aragon, who died in 1271. By her he had four children : Louis, who died in 1276; Philip, born in 1268; Charles of Valois, born on March 12, 1270; and Robert, who died young. By his second wife, Marie (d. 1322) , daughter of Henry III. of Brabant, whom he married in 1274, he had three children : Louis, count of Evreux ; Margaret, who married in 1299 Edward I., king of England ; and Blanche, who married Rudolph III., duke of Austria.
See Ch. V. Langlois, Le Regne de Philippe le Hardi (Paris, 1887) ; and in E. Lavisse's Histoire de France, tome ii. 113-117 (Paris, 1901) ; Fr. Walter, Die Politik der Kurie unter Gregor X. (Berlin, 1894) ; Registers of Gregory X. and Nicholas III., published by the French school at Rome; R. Sternfeld, Ludwigs des Heiligen Kreuzzug each Tunis and die Politik Karts I. von Sizilien (1896) ; P. Fournier, Le Royaume d'Arles (Paris, 1890. For complete bibliography of sources see A. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, tome iii. 171-187 (Paris, 1903).