- published: 14 Aug 2013
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France (English i/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
John I (15 November 1316 – 20 November 1316), called the Posthumous, was King of France and Navarre, and Count of Champagne, as the son and successor of Louis the Headstrong, for the five days he lived. He thus had the shortest undisputed recognized reign of any French king. (The shortest recorded reign was that of Louis XIX, who reigned for 20 minutes, but his legitimacy was disputed.)
The posthumous son of Louis X and Clementia of Hungary, sister of the King Charles I of Hungary, he is the only person to be King of France since birth, and thus, the youngest King of France.
John reigned for five days under his uncle's regency, until his death on 20 November 1316. The infant King was buried in Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his uncle, Philip the Tall.
The premature death of John I brought the first issue of succession of the Capetian dynasty. When Louis the Headstrong, his father, died without a son to succeed him, it was the first time since Hugh Capet that the succession from father to son the kings of France was interrupted. It was then decided to wait until the Queen Clemence, who was pregnant, brought her child into the world. And for now, the king's brother, Philip, was in charge of the regency of the kingdom against his uncle Charles de Valois. The birth of a male child was expected to give France its king. The problem of succession remained when the infant that was proclaimed King of France under the name of John I, died five days after birth. It was his uncle who ascended the throne at the expense of his four-year-old half-sister, Joan, daughter of Louis X and Margaret of Burgundy.