May 24, 1337

Hundred Years' War

Philip VI declares Edward III's Aquitaine and Ponthieu forfeit

Nothing changed hands that day. The order took twenty days to reach Edward's seneschal, and French troops crossed into Gascony only weeks after that.

24 May 1337: a feudal judgment at Paris

On 24 May 1337 Philip VI declared that the Duchy of Aquitaine — by then effectively centred on English-held Gascony — was confiscated from Edward III for default of his feudal obligations. Philip's Great Council in Paris endorsed taking Edward's French fiefs, Gascony and Ponthieu, back into the French king's hands.

Edward's dual status is what made this possible. He was a sovereign king in England, but he held Aquitaine as a vassal of the French crown, and it was that second capacity Philip acted on.

A declaration, not a seizure

The decree was a legal declaration of forfeiture rather than a physical occupation of Gascony. The duchy remained under English administration that night.

Notice reached Edward's seneschal on 13 June. French troops invaded a few weeks after the decree, turning the feudal judgment into open war.

What had built up to it

The declaration followed prolonged disputes over feudal jurisdiction in Aquitaine, Anglo-French rivalry involving Scotland, and Edward's protection of Robert of Artois, a French exile Philip had condemned. Philip framed the action formally as Edward's default and disobedience as a vassal.

Historians commonly date the Hundred Years' War from this decree, though what followed was a series of wars and truces rather than one continuous, formally named conflict beginning at a universally recognised instant.

Edward did not claim the French crown on 24 May. He challenged Philip later in 1337 and formally assumed the title and arms of king of France in 1340.

Sources

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What the sources leave uncertain

Aquitaine, Guyenne and Gascony are used inconsistently in summaries. The surviving English possession was the reduced Duchy of Aquitaine, substantially Gascony; the forfeiture also encompassed Ponthieu.
Historians commonly date the Hundred Years’ War from this decree, but the conflict was a series of wars and truces, not an uninterrupted formally named war beginning at one universally recognized instant.
Edward challenged Philip later in 1337, but he formally assumed the title and arms of king of France in 1340.