Philip V of France

Philip V was the second son of Philip IV, granted Poitiers while his elder brother Louis X took the throne. When Louis died in 1316 leaving a daughter and a pregnant queen, Philip claimed the regency. The queen bore a son proclaimed John I, but the boy lived four days. Philip crowned himself immediately at Reims, then fought off the claim of Louis's daughter Joan — citing her youth, her mother's adultery scandal in the Tour de Nesle Affair, and a fresh ruling from the Estates General that women had no place in the line. The precedent held. As king he created an independent Court of Finances, s…