Note 570 — Chapter XXV · THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR

In 1317, after the accession of Philip IV., an assembly of French magnates (such as that which disposed of the crown in 1328) laid down the general rule that no woman should succeed to the throne of France. This rule has come to be known as the Salic Law of France, though it has no historical connection with the law of the Salian Franks against female inheritance of property, with which older writers have generally confused it [see p. 67, note 1]. The rule of 1317 was based purely on grounds of political expediency. It was announced at this particular time because the death of Louis X. had left France without a male heir to the throne for the first time since Hugh Capet's day and the barons thought it not best for the realm that a woman reign over it. Between 1316 and 1328 daughters of kings were excluded from the succession three times, and though in 1328, when Charles IV. died, there had been no farther legislation on the subject, the principle of the misnamed Salic Law had become firmly established in practice. In 1328, however, when the barons selected Philip of Valois to be regent first and then king, they went a step farther and declared not only that no woman should be allowed to inherit the throne of France but that the inheritance could not pass through a woman to her son; in other words, she could not transmit to her descendants a right which she did not herself possess. This was intended to cover any future case such as that of Edward III.'s claim to inherit through his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV. The action of the barons was supported by public opinion in practically all France—especially since it appeared that only through this expedient could the realm be saved from the domination of an alien sovereign.