Philip III of France

Philip became king in 1270 when Louis IX died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade; Philip had been at his side. He returned to France and was anointed at Reims in 1271. That same year the County of Toulouse was annexed to the royal domain, the largest territorial gain of his reign. Through the Treaty of Orléans he pushed French influence into Navarre, and when his brother Peter died during the War of the Sicilian Vespers, the County of Alençon returned to the crown. After that war Philip mounted the Aragonese Crusade to support his uncle Charles I of Naples. Early victories gave way to epidemic…