[See also: ARMOR AND WEAPONS; RECONQUEST OF FRANCE; WARFARE]
Contamine, Philippe. Guerre, état et société a la fin du moyen âge: études sur les armées des rois
de France 1337–1494. Paris: Mouton, 1972, p. 757.
——. War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones. London: Blackwell, 1984.
De Lombars, Michel. Histoire de l’artillerie française. Paris: Charles-Lavanzelle, 1984.
Patrick, John Merton. Artillery and Warfare During the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.
Logan: Utah State Univer-sity Press, 1961.
Vale, Malcolm G.A. War and Chivalry. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1981.
ARTOIS
. Named after the ancient Gallic tribe of the Atrebates, the important cloth-producing
region of northern France known as Artois belonged to the counts of Flanders for much
of the Middle Ages but became the dowry of Isabelle de Hainaut when she married Philip
II in 1180. Her son, Louis VIII, inherited Artois but arranged for it to pass after his death
to Robert, the oldest of his cadet sons as one of the earliest apanages.
Robert I of Artois accompanied his brother Louis IX on crusade and died in Egypt in
1250. His son, Robert II, also met a violent end, at the Battle of Courtrai in 1302, and
succession to the county was disputed between his daughter Mahaut, countess of
Burgundy, and Robert III (1287–1342), the child of Robert II’s only son. Philip IV
decided for Mahaut (d. 1329), but intermittent strife continued for a generation. Of the
next four kings, the only one to favor Mahaut was Philip V, who had married her
daughter Jeanne (d. 1330). Their two daughters, Jeanne and Marguerite, were married,
respectively, to Eudes IV, duke of Burgundy, and Louis I, count of Flanders. These two
important princes thus acquired a vested interest in the succession of Mahaut’s
descendants, creating an awkward situation for Charles IV and Philip VI, two kings who
were close friends of Robert III.
Feeling certain of royal support, Robert demanded his inheritance from Philip VI after
the death of his cousin Jeanne in 1330, but the opposition of Burgundy and Flanders led
the king to rule against him, whereupon Robert turned rebel and recognized Edward III of
England as king of France. The two daughters of Philip V succeeded in turn as countess
of Artois. Marguerite, by then dowager count-ess of Flanders, died in 1382, followed two
years later by her son Louis II of Flanders. Artois was one of several important lands
inherited by the heiress of Flanders, Mar-guerite (d. 1405), wife of Philip the Bold, duke
of Bur-gundy. For a century, Artois was part of the Burgundian state. Louis XI was able
to occupy the county in 1482, but in the crown’s ensuing struggles with the Habsburgs,
who had inherited the Burgundian Netherlands, the latter regained Artois and held it until
the 17th century.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: ARRAS; BURGUNDY; FLANDERS]
Cazelles, Raymond. La société politique et la crise de la royauté sous Philippe de Valois. Paris:
Argences, 1958.
Hirschauer, Charles. Les états d’Artois de leurs origines a l’occupation française, 1340–1640.
Paris: Champion, 1923.
The Encyclopedia 143