Philippe IV of France, from the Capetian Dynasty, is not only known as le Bel (in English: the handsome) for his good-looking features, but as well as le Roi de Fer (English: the iron king) for his harsh measures that marked his reign, as was the case of the burning of the Knights of Templar and the conflits with the Pope. In order to understand him, both as person and as monarch, we bring to this blog his royal figure, with special considerations that he was, above all, a medieval man.
The grandson of St Louis IX of France, Philippe of Capet was born in Fontainebleau as the second son of his father Philippe III and his first wife, Isabella of Aragon. At the age of three, his mother died and a few years later, when he was six, his father was remarried to a woman named Marie de Brabant, whom apparently preferred the company of her own children (one of them, Margaret, later married as the second consort, though never crowned, of King Edward I of England) than of her step children. Louis, Philippe's older brother, then died, thus making him presumptive heir to the French crown. It was rumoured that Marie had taken part on the death of Louis, perhaps poisoning him herself, but this was never confirmed.
In general, Philippe had had little contact with his father, though in his youth, around the age of 15, 16, he followed his father in his campaign against the region of Aragon. What we know is that he was tutored by Guillaume d'Ercuis, a man of his father's trust. And at the age of 17, when Philippe III died in his 40's, Philippe rises as Philippe IV of France.
Soon he earned the nickname of 'Le Bel' because he was a blond king with blue eyes, but what we know of his personality can be measured by the harsh attitudes that could have marked him as tyrant by some historians. It is with some reason that, as previously said, Philippe was also known as the iron king of France.
On this blog, we intend to approach two of the most important aspects that marked his reign: the fall of the Templars and the friction with the Catholic Church. In the Middle Ages, it is important to remember that religion is what makes society work, so naturally it is an element that is connected with others such as politics. All this to say that these aspects mentioned are connected and, more indirectly, to the war against England, France's traditional enemy.
In truth, let's start with this incident between the two countries. Edward Plantagenet, as duke of Aquitaine, was a vassal of the king of France. It is apparent that he has been summoning the king of England and this was never present to attend the ceremony as the vassal he was. Relations of vassals and overlords marked those medieval days and, as we can see, Philippe IV took them very seriously. What happened next was what turned into quite some diplomatic incident: Edward sent English ambassadors and his own brother, Edmund, to ease the situation, but the men were sent away rudely as Philippe said he was not summoning Edward as king, but as vassals. Complications increased as the disputes amongst the lands followed, and, despite the promises of delivering the English lands in return to French possessions, Philippe actually managed to fool Edward. War was, then, a result of this, and it was not until a marriage between Isabella, Philippe's daughter, to Edward's son and heir, future Edward II, that the peace treaty was sealed.
As a consequence of this long war against England, economy fell and custs worsened. Not to mention the bad habit of Philippe in spending money, although it should be said that Philippe had already inherited the debits of his father. So he turned his attentions straight to the powerful Church, in hopes to get the money he needed, and that is precisely how we connect this struggle with the papacy to the fall of Templars. And all started with the prison of his long-time enemy, the bishop of Pamiers, as we can see next:
"In 1301, Philip arrested Bernard Saisset,, the bishop of Pamiers. Although the principal charges against the biship involved treason, Saisset was also accused of being a manifest heretic. He had spoken, so it was charged, against the sacrament of penance and mantained that fornication committed by people in holy orders was not a sin. He had also asserted that Pope Boniface VIII had acted against truth and justice in canonisign Philip's grandfather, Louis IX, who was residing in Hell."
Another bishop, Guichard of Troyes, was arrested, under the accusation of "using black magic to bring about the death of Philip's wife, Queen Jeanne, in 1305." Apparently, the man had "conjured up the Devil" and was a heretic who committed murdering and sodomite, amongst of being "the son of an incubus that impregnated his mother."
All these imprisonments came after the decision of taxing the Church, which would spark the tensions between the Pope and the French Crown. Specially because:
"(...) he saw this as a break from tradition. The Church had never subjected to taxes from kings before. He also viewed taxation as a challenge to the power of the church. Pope Boniface considered the Christian Church to be the supreme authority on Earth. Pope Boniface believed that by taxing the Church, King Philip was saying that he was more powerful than the Church. Pope Boniface issued an official ruling, known as a papa bull, called Clericis laicos, which said that governments could not tax the church or church officials without prior approval from the Pope. He compared the taxes to an attempt to enslave the church. He also threatened that any king, emperor, feudal lord, or anyone else who tried to tax the church would be subjected to excommunication."
The king in return:
"(...) had the papal bull burned. Boniface then issued another bull called Unam sanctam in which he proclaimed that popes were the supreme authority on earth and that kings were obligated to follow the orders of the pope. He then excommunicated Philip. King Philip sent an army led by Guillaume de Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna, which surprised Pope Boniface at his vacation home in Anagni. Boniface was beaten and briefly imprisoned. He died soon after he was released."
With the death of Boniface, Clement V rose to the papacy and, as pro-French, he even moved to Avignon, in a crisis that would be perpetuated for a while. And even though he favoured the French interests, Clement V did not escape the tensions between the Catholic Church and the Iron Crown of France. To the point that they involved the Templars, as we notice, especially because of the depts of Philippe IV. Seeking a way to have not only the french monarchy strenghtened and independent of papacy, but also from the dependency of the powerful order, he:
"(...) arrested en masse in October 1307, (...) accused of denying Christ and spitting on his image during their reception into the order. (...) The order was dissolved in 1312 by Pope Clement V while its grand master went to the stake in 1314."
But, to be seen as the leader of Christendom, Philippe would play with the medieval mentality of those days, which was marked by the recently defined notion of supernatural, a consequence of the religious thought of then. After all, as an unged monarch, how could he be deceived? The King of France would not lie to his subjects, regardless how unpopular his economic measures could have been in the past. So what we can say is that:
"By making the charges religious in nature, Phillip would be seen not as an avaricious thief, but as a noble servant of God. For (...) most of the arrested Templars subsequently recanted their confessions and proclaimed to Church officials that their statements were made under the pain of torture and threat of death. To intimidate the remaining Templars, Phillip ordered 54 of the knights to be burned at the stake in 1310, for the sin of recanting their confessions."
According to Bernard Délicieux, a Franciscan, the king "was useless to his subjects, less a king than a pig who wanted nothing else than to be always with his wife." Earlier in his reign, Philippe was seen as both from his supporters and enemies as cold. His rival, the already mentioned bishop of Pamiers, compared the french monarch to a statue. And yet, it must be remembered that, years before this event involving the Templars, a result of the economic crisis which, in turn, was a consequence of the war against England, the Jews and the Lombars were expelled from the realm, in hopes to acquire their profit in order to save the French debt.
So what can be observed of Philippe IV's reign? He was, indeed, a tyrannical king, one who used religion to alienate his subjects in order to have his goals achieved. Philippe was a strong king in every manner, seemed to have been, although corrupt, a dutiful and conscious monarch. But, behind all of these measures, the construction to solidify his power is, in fact, the great curtain he used to encover the weakness left by his predecessors. In other words, we can observe that:
"His reign was a balancing act amidst a host of other power actors: great lords, churchmen, town governments, village communities, and his own nascent bureaucracy. The actual business of governing was messy and carried on in the face of obstructionism, foot-dragging, and endless petty and sometimes not so petty, challenges."
It is no wonder then to see how easily Tywin Lannister, the head of the House of Lannister on the tv show "Game of Thrones", based on the homonimous series of books, was inspired in the figure of this Capetian monarch. Both men were dutiful, and yet corrupt: to strenghten their power, they had nothing to stand on their way, gold being the cause of all the iron hand they commanded their armies and governments. The love Tywin Lannister had for his late wife, Joanna, can arguably compared to the one Philippe felt for his Joanne, if we take what the Franciscan Bernard Délicieux said, of never leaving the company of his wife. There are, indeed, many parallels between these men, which can make Philippe, for better or worse, an interesting historical character behind the power. His sudden death was believed to be a punishment from God after the burning of the Templars. Whether this is true or not, what we might never know is what really caused his death. Philippe left three sons, all of those kings, but who left no descendancy. In turn, those of his brother, Charles, would inaugurate the beginning of the rule of a new house, the House of Valois, in France.
In general view, we can end this post with a view of the reign of Philippe Capet:
"as J.R. Strayer has put it, Philip was a sort of 'constitutional' king who tried to conform to the traditions of the French monarchy and the practices of the French government. As far as possible, he governed the realm through a well-established system of courts and admnistrative officials. He always asked the advice of responsible men: he was influenced by that advice in working out the details of his general policy. He tried to stay at least within the letter of the law; he tried to observe the customs of the kingdom. When he had to beyond established custom he always sought to justify his action and to obtain the consent of those who were affected."
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