A Cold and Capable King
Philip IV was born in 1268 and became king of France in 1285. Contemporaries called him Philip the Fair, a name that refers to his good looks rather than his sense of justice. He was known for his reserved manner and for relying on a circle of trained lawyers and administrators, among them Guillaume de Nogaret and Enguerrand de Marigny, rather than on the great barons. Historians still debate how much policy came from Philip himself and how much from these advisers.
His reign expanded the machinery of the French crown. Royal officials, many trained in Roman and canon law, extended royal justice into regions where local lords had once been supreme. The crown’s claim to speak for the whole kingdom grew stronger, which is one reason this reign is often cited in discussions of the French monarchy’s rise and the beginnings of the nation-state.
Wars and the Need for Money
War drove most of what Philip did. He fought the English over Gascony, which the English king Edward I held as a vassal of the French crown, and he fought against the powerful towns of Flanders. In 1302 a Flemish army, made up largely of townsmen on foot, defeated the French cavalry at Courtrai. The French nobles who died there were remembered in Flemish tradition by the golden spurs taken as trophies. Philip eventually won back ground, but the war cost heavily.
To pay for these conflicts, the crown used every means available:
- Taxes on property and sales, often presented as emergency levies.
- Forced loans and gifts from towns and the church.
- Debasing the coinage, reducing the metal content of coins so that the crown could mint more from the same silver. Critics at the time and later complained bitterly about it.
- Seizing the property of groups that could be portrayed as outsiders or enemies.
In 1306 Philip expelled the Jews from the royal lands and took their property and debts. The crown later allowed some to return. The episode shows how Jewish moneylending and royal need often became entangled in this period.
In 1302 he also summoned representatives of the clergy, nobles and townsmen to explain his quarrel with the pope, an assembly sometimes regarded as an early meeting of the Estates General. It was a way of gaining support rather than a step toward sharing power.
The Quarrel with the Papacy
Philip’s fight with Pope Boniface VIII began over taxation. In 1296 Boniface issued the bull Clericis laicos, which forbade the clergy from paying taxes to lay rulers without papal permission. Philip responded by banning the export of money and valuables from France, which cut off the papacy’s income from that kingdom. The pope backed down on the point, but the real issue was larger: whether kings or popes had the final say over the church within a kingdom, a theme that runs through the story of church and state across the Middle Ages.
The dispute flared again around 1301 and 1302. In his bull Unam sanctam, Boniface set out a strong statement of papal supremacy, arguing that submission to the pope was necessary for salvation. Philip’s advisers answered with accusations against the pope, and in 1303 Nogaret led an armed party to confront Boniface at Anagni, his family town in Italy. The pope was held and insulted for a short time before the townspeople freed him. He died a few weeks later.
After a brief reign of his successor, a Frenchman was elected pope as Clement V. He never went to Rome, and in 1309 the papacy settled in Avignon, on the edge of French influence. Many historians see this as the long-term result of Philip’s victory, though critics claimed the popes had become captives of France.
The Templars
On 13 October 1307, royal officers arrested the members of the Knights Templar throughout France in a coordinated operation. The Templars were a wealthy military order that also acted as bankers; the crown itself owed them money. The charges included heresy, idolatry and blasphemy, particularly that new members were made to deny Christ and spit on the cross.
Many Templars confessed, often under torture, and some later withdrew their confessions. Historians generally doubt the truth of the more extreme accusations. The reasons for Philip’s action are debated. Money was one motive, since he needed funds and the order had large assets. He may also have sincerely believed the charges, or wished to show himself a defender of the faith. Evidence for any single explanation is not conclusive.
Pope Clement V was pressured to take part. After years of hearings, the Council of Vienne in 1312 suppressed the order, but did not formally find it guilty; the decision was taken as a matter of administrative necessity. The order’s property was largely transferred to the Hospitallers, though the crown took a large share for expenses. In 1314 the last grand master, Jacques de Molay, was burned after he withdrew his earlier confession.
Death and Legacy
Philip died in November 1314, after what is thought to have been a stroke while hunting. His three sons ruled in turn and left no male heirs, a failure of succession that, as the story of Edward III shows, helped bring about the Hundred Years War.
The long-term effect of Philip’s reign was to make royal power more developed, more expensive and more insistent. His methods also brought resentment, which erupted in revolts and leagues of nobles after his death. For students of the period, he is a clear example of a ruler whose strength came from officials, law and money, rather than from personal presence on the battlefield.