The New Student's Reference Work/Valois, House of

Valois (vȧl′wā′), House of, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, which occupied the throne of France from 1328 to 1589, when it was succeeded by the house of Bourbon. It comprised the following princes: Philip VI, John the Good, Charles V, Charles VI, Charles VII, Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII, Francis I, Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX, Henry III. (See articles under these titles.) The Valois monarchs of the early line generally were able rulers, who by valor and wise policy resisted the invasions of the English and firmly established the royal authority over their nobility; but those of the later lines, with the single exception of Francis I, were weak and feeble princes, under whose rule the country was distracted by contests between the nobles and by religious dissensions among the people at large, and only saved from greater calamities by the ability of the ministers of the crown, upon whom the government of the country devolved.