an exclusion, and declared all females forever incapable of
succeeding to the crown of France. Philip died after a short reign,
leaving three daughters; and his brother Charles, without dispute or
controversy, then succeeded to the crown. The reign of Charles was also
short; he left one daughter; but as his queen was pregnant, the next
male heir was appointed regent, with a declared right of succession
if the issue should prove female. This prince was Philip de Valois,
cousin-german to the deceased king; being the son of Charles de Valois,
brother of Philip the Fair. The queen of France was delivered of a
daughter: the regency ended; and Philip de Valois was unanimously placed
on the throne of France.

The king of England, who was at that time a youth of fifteen years of
age, embraced a notion that he was entitled, in right of his mother,
to the succession of the kingdom, and that the claim of the nephew
was preferable to that of the cousin-german. There could not well be
imagined a notion weaker or worse grounded. The principle of excluding
females was of old an established opinion in France, and had acquired
equal authority with the most express and positive law: it was supported
by ancient precedents: it was confirmed by recent instances, solemnly
and deliberately decided: and what placed it still farther beyond
controversy, if Edward was disposed to question its validity, he thereby
cut off his own pretensions; since the three last kings had all left
daughters, who were still alive, and who stood before him in the order
of succession. He was therefore reduced to assert that, though his
mother Isabella was, on account of her sex, incapable of succeeding, he
himself, who inherited through her, was liable to no such objection,
and might claim by the right of propinquity. But, besides that this
pretension was more favorable to Charles, king of Navarre, descended
from the daughter of Lewis Hutin, it was so contrary to the established
principles of succession in every country of Europe,[*] was so repugnant
to the practice both in private and public inheritances, that nobody in
France thought of Edward's claim.

* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 4.

Philip's title was universally recognized;[*] and he never imagined
that he had a competitor, much less so formidable a one as the king of
England.

But though the youthful and ambitious mind of Edward had rashly
entertained this notion, he did not think proper to insist on