Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/229

 THE CLOSE: WEST AND EAST 217 successively had a sister who was mother of the King of England, Edward in. ; and the King of England, having other reasons for going to war with France, elected to put forward as his pretext his own claim through his mother to the Crown of France, as giving a better title than that of his cousin of Valois. The victory of the Valois in the long struggle with England known as the Hundred Years' War established the principle of the male succession to the French monarchy. The quarrel of England and France illustrates a point in the history of the empire. Charles iv. was at one time a candidate for the empire against Lewis of Bavaria ; the French and Bavarian party were antagonistic to France and English friendly with England ; the Luxemburg party were for the friendly with France and hostile to England j and Empire. Edward lit. in his turn became a candidate for the empire in opposition to Charles iv., though his own people compelled him to withdraw. Among the great fiefs of France was Flanders, which we may think of as roughly corresponding to Belgium. The great cities of Flanders had defied the count who claimed to be their feudal lord : and some years earlier their sturdy foot- mmm „, The Flemings, soldiers had inflicted at Courtrai a great defeat on the French chivalry, the first striking example in mediaeval warfare of a victory of infantry against cavalry. The Flemings had a great and valuable trade with England. They wanted the support of England in the contest with the count and the French king. The Flemish trade was very well worth preserving, and Edward Hi. was well enough inclined to support the burghers and to have their support in a French war, because the policy of the French king was directed to weakening his own power in his duchy of Guienne. It was the demand of the Flemings that he should himself claim the French Crown, and so enable them to profess that in fighting for him they were fighting for their lawful sovereign, which probably decided him to assert his title ; an exceedingly weak one, since, if inheritance passed through the female line at all, the legitimate claimant was the daughter of Louis x., not his sister. Still the claim to the Crown was made the ostensible pretext for war.