Medieval France
. Named after the ancient Gallic tribe of the Atrebates, the important cloth-producing region of northern France known as Artois belonged to the counts of Flanders for much of the Middle Ages but became the dowry of Isabelle de Hainaut when she married Philip II in 1180. Her son, Louis VIII, inherited Artois but arranged for it to pass after his death to Robert, the oldest of his cadet sons as one of the earliest apanages.
Robert I of Artois accompanied his brother Louis IX on crusade and died in Egypt in 1250. His son, Robert II, also met a violent end, at the Battle of Courtrai in 1302, and succession to the county was disputed between his daughter Mahaut, countess of Burgundy, and Robert III (1287–1342), the child of Robert II’s only son. Philip IV decided for Mahaut (d. 1329), but intermittent strife continued for a generation. Of the next four kings, the only one to favor Mahaut was Philip V, who had married her daughter Jeanne (d. 1330). Their two daughters, Jeanne and Marguerite, were married, respectively, to Eudes IV, duke of Burgundy, and Louis I, count of Flanders. These two important princes thus acquired a vested interest in the succession of Mahaut’s descendants, creating an awkward situation for Charles IV and Philip VI, two kings who were close friends of Robert III.
Feeling certain of royal support, Robert demanded his inheritance from Philip VI after the death of his cousin Jeanne in 1330, but the opposition of Burgundy and Flanders led the king to rule against him, whereupon Robert turned rebel and recognized Edward III of England as king of France.
The two daughters of Philip V succeeded in turn as countess of Artois. Marguerite, by then dowager count-ess of Flanders, died in 1382, followed two years later by her son Louis II of Flanders. Artois was one of several important lands inherited by the heiress of Flanders, Mar-guerite (d. 1405), wife of Philip the Bold, duke of Bur-gundy. For a century, Artois was part of the Burgundian state. Louis XI was able to occupy the county in 1482, but in the crown’s ensuing struggles with the Habsburgs, who had inherited the Burgundian Netherlands, the latter regained Artois and held it until the 17th century.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: ARRAS; BURGUNDY; FLANDERS]
Cazelles, Raymond. La société politique et la crise de la royauté sous Philippe de Valois. Paris: Argences, 1958.
Hirschauer, Charles. Les états d’Artois de leurs origines a l’occupation française, 1340–1640. Paris: Champion, 1923.
Lestocquoy, Jean. Histoire de la Flandre et de l’Artois. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1949.
Wood, Charles T. The French Apanages and the Capetian Monarchy, 1224–1328. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966.
This is the complete article, containing 452 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
View More Summaries on Artois
