Charles IV of France

Charles IV (18/19 June 1294 – 1 February 1328), was the King of France and Navarre (as Charles I) and Count of Champagne from 1322 to his death. Charles IV the last French king of the old Capetian line. He was crowned King of France in 1322 at the cathedral in Reims.

Charles IV

Charles invaded Aquitaine, thus renewing the war with England. However, the peace of 1327 was the great triumph which gave him a generous land settlement and 50,000 marks.

During his six years as king Charles IV raised taxes. His expulsion of the Jews from France in 1323 was the culmination of centuries of persecution. They had long suffered from discriminatory taxes and other fiscal policies targeted at Jews, being scapegoated for the Black Plague, and multiple prior attempts to expel them from France. France's Jews were given only a little time to sell to their possessions before being escorted out of French lands.

Charles died without a son so there were questions about who would be the next king. He had two daughters, but under Salic law, the basis of law in France, there was no inheritance through the female line. Edward III of England then believed he had the right to become the new king of France, even though he was through the female line and therefore it was against Salic law. Thus he began the Hundred Years' War.