Philip III of France
Philip III ruled France from 1270 to 1285 and is called the Bold, which contemporaries applied to his conduct in battle rather than his judgement. Born at Poissy in 1245, the son of Louis IX, he became heir when his elder brother died in 1260 and was crowned in Tunis during the failed crusade of 1270, in which his father, his wife, his brother and his brother-in-law all died within weeks. He brought the bodies home across Italy and arrived in Paris with five coffins. He was a conventional and not very forceful king who relied heavily on advisers, first his chamberlain Pierre de la Broce, whom he later had hanged on a charge of poisoning, and then his uncle Charles of Anjou. He added substantially to the royal domain by inheritance rather than conquest: the county of Toulouse fell in in 1271 on the death of his uncle Alphonse, which brought Languedoc under direct royal control, and he acquired further territory in Auvergne and elsewhere. He arranged the marriage of his son to the heiress of Champagne and Navarre, which brought both to the crown in the next reign. His disastrous venture was the Aragonese Crusade. After the Sicilian Vespers of 1282 expelled his uncle Charles from Sicily and Peter III of Aragon took the island, Pope Martin IV declared Peter deposed and offered Aragon to Philip's son. Philip invaded in 1285 with a large army. The fleet was destroyed off Las Formigues, dysentery ruined the camp, and the retreat through the Pyrenean passes was harried. He died of the illness at Perpignan in October 1285.
- Lived: 1245 CE – 1285 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
