Philip VI of France

Philip, born in 1293, became king in 1328 when Charles IV died without a male heir — the French nobility picked him, a paternal cousin, over Edward III of England, the nearest male relative through Charles's sister. Edward initially accepted the succession, then pressed his claim after disputes with Philip, igniting the Hundred Years' War in 1337. Philip's fleet was destroyed at Sluys in 1340, forcing the war onto French soil, and the English crushed his army at Crécy in 1346 while plague ravaged the country. In 1349 he bought the Dauphiné from Humbert II, pushing French influence past the Rhô…