That is why the kingdom of France went to Philip, son of Charles of Valois, who was the closest male heir and grandson of Philip III. The new Philip VI got the ironic nickname Fortunate. It was due to the fact, that without the sudden deaths of three Capet kings he would not have a single chance to become the ruler of France. But, since his father was the brother of the late Philip the Fair, he was therefore a nephew of Philip IV and the cousin of Louis X, Philip V and Charles IV.

Edward III was furious that his claim to the throne was rejected. He tried all kinds of diplomacy, intrigues and negotiations to achieve his goal, but everything failed. The only remaining solutions for him remained the use of force. These were the key events that led to the bloody Hundred Years War between England and France.

In the beginning of the 4th century AD Persian Sassanid Kingdom was in bad shape. There was a chain of weak rulers that were losing big parts of the kingdom to Roman emperors. Last one Hormizd II could not even control his nobles and was killed by Arab Bedouins while hunting in 309.

The the situation got completely out of control. While Arabs continued to plunder Sassanid kingdom, Persian nobles killed the eldest son of Hormizd II. They did not stop there and blinded the second son and imprisoned the third son who managed to escape to Romans after years of imprisonment. They wanted somebody that would completely control in future, so they stopped their choice on the unborn child! One of Hormizd’s wives was pregnant and she did not pose any threat to the nobles.

So they did the unthinkable, which does not have the precedent in the ancient or modern history. In 309 A.D. they crowned the unborn child who was still in uterus! The coronation of the unborn king was also the strangest one - the crown was put on mother’s belly. Therefore, the boy, who was given a name Shapur became a king even before he was born. In the end Persian nobles miscalculated.

Although, Shapur II was completely controlled by nobles and his mother, as soon as he came of age he quickly assumed the power and became the absolute and very effective ruler. He was a king for full seventy years till his death in 379. And this is considered the First Golden Era of Sassanid Empire.