gravity of their rulers' activity naturally shifted towards their English kingdom. Aquitaine under Edward I was subject to English administrative procedure, such as accountability to the English Exchequer and the hearing of Gascon petitions in parliament, and the great act of administrative reform which the king issued, as duke of Aquitaine, in 1289 formed the basis of the duchy's administration for the rest of the Middle Ages. It would be a distortion of the evidence, however, to see French policy as a consistent and unrelenting desire to expel the Plantagenets from Aquitaine. The degree of control which the Capetians might exercise over English foreign affairs, however slight, was a valuable asset, and it was often in the best interests of the French crown to let an intermediate lord, such as the duke of Aquitaine, attempt to govern an area renowned for its turbulence and intractability. Much the same could be said for the county of Flanders, where the great towns were often in a state of war with the count, who sought external aid from France and England in turn. But the problems which had to some extent been overcome by the Capetians were exacerbated by the accession of Philip VI of Valois in 1328. As a result of his father's marriage to Isabella, daughter of Philip the Fair, Edward III of England possessed a claim to the French throne. None of his Plantagenet predecessors had had quite so close a kinship with the ruling house of France. It was the crisis of the Capetian succession which enabled Edward, fiercely supported by his mother, to lay claim to the French crown and, by declaring Philip of Valois a usurper in 1340, to cut the feudal connection between England and France once and for all.
From the time of Edward's own betrothal in 1326 to Philippa, daughter of William III, count of Hainault, rather than a princess of the house of France, English policy abroad had begun to change. Alliances were sought, as Edward I had sought them in 1294-7, with the princes of the Low Countries and north Germany, but these were to be based upon Edward III's claim to the French throne rather than on his position as a wronged vassal of Philip IV. The means of attack were very similar, but the pretext was different. By claiming
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