The House of Valois

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 1769. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE, Royal. Philippe VI de Valois (of Valois). 1328-1350. AV Écu d’or à la chaise (4.46 g, 1h). 1st emission, 1 January 1337. + PhILIPPVS : DЄI · · GRΛ · FRΛnCORVM : RЄX (saltire and double saltire stops), full-length figure of Philippe seated facing on ornate Gothic throne, holding shield and sword; all within tressure of arches / + · XPC : VInCIT : XPC : RЄGИΛT : XPC : IИPЄRΛT (annulet and double annulet stops), cross fleurée; four petalled flower at center, bars end in trefoils; leaves in quarters; all within quatrelobe; trefoils in angles. Duplessy 249 var. (legends); Ciani 282 var. (same); Friedberg 270. Good VF.

Upon the death of Charles IV, the succession of a new French sovereign was delayed, as Charles left no male heir. Furthermore, Charles’s wife, Jeanne d’Évreux, was pregnant at the time and, on the chance that the issue would be male, a regency was set up for the would-be heir to the throne. Jeanne, however, gave birth to another daughter, and the crown passed to Charles’s cousin, Philippe de Valois, the son of Charles de Valois and the grandson of Philippe III.

Though initially enjoying amicable relations with one another, Philippe and Edward III of England became bitter rivals through a series of events, including Philippe’s reception and protection of Daibhidh a Briuis (David II of Scotland), culminating in the advent of the Hundred Years’ War in 1337, which occupied the majority of the remainder of Philippe’s reign. A new woe struck in the form of the Black Death in 1348, claiming Philippe’s wife and further beleaguering his divided kingdom.