Foix the fox (2)

Shortly before his death in 1290, Gaston de Béarn’s final act of spite was to deny his eldest daughter, Mathe, her inheritance. Instead he left Béarn to his younger daughter, Marguerite, and her husband Count Roger-Bernard of Foix. The lordships of Foix-Bearn thus became a single unit.

Mathe’s husband was Géraud V, Count of Armagnac. Gaston chose to pass them over because Géraud and his wife had not assisted him against his enemies. This rejection caused a long-running conflict between the houses of Foix and Armagnac, one of the great dynastic feuds of the medieval era. Philippe de Mézieres, a fourteenth century French soldier and poet, compared it to the Anglo-French wars, the Guelf-Ghibelline conflict, and the rivalry between Castile and Portugal. It might also be compared to the feud between Percy and Neville in northern England.

At first the rival counts decided to settle the affair by invoking the Southern custom of ‘gages de bataille’ or single combat. Both men were vassals of the kings of England and France, but Edward I made a habit of refusing to allow duels in his realm. Philip IV was more accommodating. In 1293 Géraud asserted in Philip’s presence that his rival had falsified Gaston’s last will and testament, and a judicial duel was set to take place before the king at Gisors.

What followed was very similar to the later abortive duel between Henry of Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray in England. Before the fight began, Philip threw down his gage as a sign that he would not allow it to continue. This was a bit of good luck for Armagnac, who had already managed to fall off his horse.

Philip hoped to settle the succession crisis by judicial rather than violent means. He failed to prevent the quarrel blowing up into full-scale private war, but then enjoyed his own slice of good fortune when war erupted between France and England in 1294. There was, of course, nothing fortunate about it: the war was engineered from the start by Philip and his councillors. The Foix-Armagnac feud was put on hold while the conflict lasted, and Count Roger-Bernard accepted a massive bribe to desert Edward and join Philip.