Philip's nickname 4. Philip is handsome

Philip IV the Fair, King of France

(1268–1314)

King Philip IV the Handsome of France from the Capetian dynasty remained in the memory of descendants primarily as the monarch who destroyed the Templar Order. He was born in 1268 at Fontainebleau and inherited the throne in 1285 after the death of his father Philip III the Bold. His mother, Queen Isabella of Aragon, was the first wife of Philip III, whose second marriage was to Countess of Flanders Maria of Brabant, who also bore the high-profile title of Queen of Sicily and Jerusalem. With the help of his marriage to Queen Joan of Navarre, concluded in 1284, he significantly expanded his possessions. He also continued attempts to annex Aragon and Sicily, which his father had dynastic rights to. However, here, unlike his father, who died during the campaign against Aragon, Philip relied more on diplomacy rather than on force of arms. He did not support the claims of his brother Charles of Valois to the Aragonese and Sicilian thrones. In 1291, on the initiative of Philip, an international congress was convened in Tarascon to resolve the Aragonese issue. It was attended by representatives of the kings of England, France, Naples and the Pope. A peaceful settlement was reached. In 1294, Philip began a war with England over the rich province of Guienne (Duchy of Aquitaine), which lasted 10 years and greatly depleted the French treasury. Philip used the conflict between British and French merchants in Aquitaine as a pretext and summoned the English king Edward I, formally considered his vassal, to the court of the Parisian parliament. Edward offered Guienne as bail for 40 days, during which an investigation was to be carried out, but, naturally, did not appear at the trial. But Philip, having occupied Guienne, refused to return it and declared war on Edward. He responded by inciting his ally, the Count of Flanders, against France. Peace with England was concluded in 1304 on the basis of the status quo, that is, the return of Guienne to the English, thanks to the fact that Philip's daughter married the new English king Edward II. In 1302, Philip's army invaded Flanders, but was defeated by local militia at the Battle of Courtrai. Nevertheless, in 1304, Philip, at the head of a large army, invaded Flanders, and according to the peace concluded in 1304, the Flemish cities of Douai, Lille and Bethune went to France.

In 1296, Pope Boniface VIII prohibited the taxation of clergy without papal permission. However, the joint performance of Philip and the English king Edward I forced the pope to back down. The kings simply began to take away the estates of those clergy who, guided by the papal bull, refused to pay. Philip also, by a special edict in 1297, prohibited the export of gold and silver from France, which cut off income from the French clergy to the papal treasury. The Pope was forced to back down and cancel the bull.

In general, throughout the entire period of his reign, Philip was constantly in need of money, so he was forced to introduce more and more new taxes and reduce the gold content in the coin. He had a large staff of lawyers called “legists”, “royal notaries”, “knights of the king” and “men of the king”, who won all the cases in favor of the king in the French courts, cleverly manipulating the law, and sometimes simply flouting the law. These people acted on the principle: “Whatever pleases the king has the force of law.”

In 1306, Philip expelled the Jews from France, and then the Knights Templar. He had previously made large forced loans from both of them and, instead of returning them, chose to remove his creditors from the country. Also, in order to obtain new funds and support in the confrontation with the pope, Philip in April 1302 convened the first French parliament - the Estates General, which was supposed to vote for new taxes. The parliament included barons, representatives of the clergy and lawyers. The deputies were read a false papal bull, after which they promised the king support in any actions to protect the state and the rights of the church in France from the encroachments of the pope. This support was unconditional from the townspeople and nobility of the northern provinces, who expressed their readiness to condemn Pope Boniface as a heretic. The nobles and townspeople of the southern provinces, as well as the entire clergy, were much more moderate. The bishops only asked the pope to allow the French clergy not to participate in the church council, at which it was proposed to excommunicate King Philip. The Pope responded to the decision of the Estates General with the bull “One Holy One,” where he stated: “Spiritual power must set up earthly power, and judge it if it has deviated from the true path...” Here Boniface formulated the theory of two swords - spiritual and secular. The spiritual sword is in the hands of the pope, the secular sword is in the hands of the sovereigns, but they can draw it only with the sanction of the pope and to protect the interests of the church. Submission to the pope was elevated to a dogma of faith. The Pope threatened to excommunicate not only King Philip, but also the entire French people if he supported the king in the fight against the church. In April 1303, the pope excommunicated the king and released the seven ecclesiastical provinces in the Rhone Valley from the royal oath. However, the French clergy, contrary to the pope's request, did not appear at the council. Meanwhile, Philip's counter-propaganda campaign was a success. In response, Philip convened a meeting of the highest clergy and nobility, at which the chancellor and keeper of the royal seal, Guillaume de Nogaret, accused Boniface of heresy and atrocious crimes. At this meeting, Philip declared Boniface a false pope and promised to convene a council to elect a true pope. One of the king's closest advisers, legist and chancellor Guillaume Nogaret, was sent to the pope with a summons to a church council, accompanied by an armed detachment. The pope fled from Rome to the city of Ananyin, but on September 7, 1303, Nogare’s detachment reached there. Boniface was placed under arrest, but categorically refused to renounce his rank. A few days later, the townspeople rebelled, drove out the French and freed the pope. After the meeting with Nogaret, the pope fell ill, and a month later, on October 11, 1303, 85-year-old Boniface died.

Boniface's successor, Benedict XI, reigned for only a few months and died suddenly, outliving Boniface by only ten months. Then in June 1305, after many months of struggle, under pressure from Philip, Archbishop of Bordeaux Bertrand de Gault was elected pope, taking the name Clement V. The king granted him the city of Avignon for permanent residence, marking the beginning of the “Avignon captivity of the popes.” Clement introduced several French cardinals into the conclave, guaranteeing in the future the election of popes pleasing to the French kings. In a special bull, Clement fully supported Philip's position in the dispute with Boniface, calling him a “good and just king,” and canceled the bull “The One Saint.” However, he refused to support the accusations against Boniface of heresy and unnatural vices, and also to carry out the posthumous execution on him - to dig up and burn his corpse.

Philip was able to increase French territory at the expense of several principalities bordering the German Empire. The king's authority was also recognized by the cities of Lyon and Valenciennes.

In 1308, Philip attempted to install Charles of Valois as German emperor when the throne became vacant after the assassination of Emperor Albrecht of Austria. Some close associates recommended that Philip himself try his luck in the fight for the imperial crown. However, the creation of such a powerful state - in the event of a union of France and Germany - frightened all of France's neighbors, especially since Philip clearly indicated his intention to annex the left bank of the Rhine to his kingdom. The German princes opposed Charles Valois, who was not supported even by Pope Clement V. Henry of Luxembourg was elected emperor.

In 1307, on the orders of Philip, members of the Templar Order were secretly arrested throughout France on one day. They were accused of heresy, allegedly expressed in desecration of the cross, idolatry and sodomy. Before this, Philip asked to be accepted into the order, hoping to become its grandmaster and legally take over all the wealth of the Templars. However, the grandmaster of the order, Jacques de Molay, figured out the game and politely but firmly refused him. But Philip received a pretext for reprisals, claiming that the Templars were engaged in secret affairs, which they were afraid to reveal to the French king. Under torture, the Templars confessed to everything, and seven years later, at an open trial, they denied everything. The real reason for the reprisal was that the king owed the order a large sum. In 1308, to approve repressions against the Templars, the king convened the Estates General for the second time in history. Trials of the Templars took place throughout France. Their leaders were executed with the blessing of the Pope, who first tried to protest against the massacre of the Templars, and later, in 1311, under pressure from Philip, who convened a church council in Vienne that abolished the Templar Order. The property of the order was transferred to the royal treasury in 1312.

In 1311, Philip banned the activities of Italian bankers in France. The property of the expelled replenished the treasury. The king also imposed high taxes, which did not delight his subjects. At the same time, he included Champagne (in 1308) and Lyon and the surrounding area (in 1312) into the royal domain. By the end of his reign, France had become the strongest power in Europe.

On August 1, 1314, Philip convened the Estates General for the third time to obtain funds for a new campaign in Flanders. For this purpose, deputies voted an emergency tax. However, the Flanders campaign did not take place, as Philip died of a stroke at Fontainebleau on November 29, 1314. Since Pope Clement and Chancellor Nogaret had died a few months earlier, rumor attributed the deaths of all three to a curse placed on them before their death by the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who, as he was being roasted over a low fire on March 18, 1314, shouted: “Pope Clement! King Philip! Not even a year will pass before I summon you to God’s judgment!” Philip's three sons, Louis X, Philip V and Charles IV, did not survive their father much, although they managed to reign.

It was not for nothing that Philip IV received his nickname the Handsome. Regular facial features, large, motionless eyes, wavy dark hair. He was like a magnificent sculpture, motionless and bewitchingly inaccessible in his majestic detachment. Melancholy, an eternal imprint on his face, made him a mysterious and unique person in history...

Philip was the second son of King Philip III and Isabella of Aragon. Even then, extraordinary beauty was visible in the angelic features of the baby, and it is unlikely that the happy father, looking at his offspring, could have imagined that he would become the last large-scale representative of the Capetian royal family.

Philip III cannot be called a successful monarch. The feudal lords did not really obey him, the treasury was empty, and the papal legates dictated their will.

And when the almighty pope ordered the French king to lead a campaign to Aragon to punish the Aragonese king for taking Sicily from the pope’s favorite (Charles of Anjou), Philip could not resist, and the French army set off on a campaign. Fate was not on Philip’s side: the French suffered a heavy defeat, and the king himself died on the way back.

Philip IV the Fair

His seventeen-year-old son, who fought alongside his father, learned one very important lesson from this deplorable enterprise - a persistent reluctance to serve the interests of others, even papal ones. In 1285, the coronation of Philip IV took place and his era began, which in all respects could be called “new.”

First of all, the young king had to deal with his father’s legacy and solve the Aragonese problem. He solved it in the most beneficial way for France - he completely stopped military operations, despite the urgent objections of the Holy See.

A real shock for medieval Europe was the refusal of a completely inexperienced monarch from the services of his father’s high-ranking advisers. Instead, he established a Royal Council, membership in which was ensured by special merit, and not by noble origin. For feudal society this was a real revolution.

Thus, not noble, but educated people gained access to power. For their knowledge of the laws they were called legalists and were hated very much. Three of his close associates played a special role at the court of Philip the Fair: Chancellor Pierre Flotte, Keeper of the Seal Guillaume Nogaret and Coadjutor Enguerrand Marigny. Raised to power by the king himself, they were extremely loyal to him and determined the course of all state policy.

And the entire policy of Philip IV came down to solving two problems: how to annex new lands to the state and where to get the money for this.

Joan I of Navarre, Princess of the House of Champagne, reigning Queen of Navarre since 1274, daughter and heir of Henry I of Navarre and Queen of France since 1285 - wife of Philip IV the Fair.

Even Philip's marriage was subordinated to the great goal of the expansion of France: he married Joan I, Queen of Navarre and Countess of Champagne. This marriage gave him the opportunity to add Champagne to his possessions, and also led to the first unification of France and Navarre.

But this was not the limit of the king’s dreams. Refusing to pander to papal interests, Philip focused his attention on English affairs. The stumbling block was the monarch's desire to gain Flanders.

Having summoned Edward I to the court of the Parisian parliament, and using his refusal as a pretext for war, both sides, having acquired allies, began military operations with great pleasure. Pope Boniface VIII, who learned about this, called on both monarchs to reconcile. And both ignored this call.

The matter was further complicated by the fact that Philip was in dire need of money to wage the war, and therefore forbade the export of gold and silver from France to Rome. The pope lost one of his sources of income, and the relationship between Philip and Boniface did not become any warmer because of this.

Philip IV the Handsome - King of France from 1285, King of Navarre 1284-1305, son of Philip III the Bold, from the Capetian dynasty.

The Pope threatened to excommunicate Philip. And then the legalists took up arms, that is, their pens, and brought forward a whole series of accusations against the pope, both of intrigues against France and of heresy.

The agitation bore fruit: the French ceased to fear the papal wrath, and Nogaret, who went to Italy, concocted an extensive conspiracy against the pope. Soon, the already quite elderly Boniface VIII died and the protege of France, Clement V, sat on the papal throne. The papal dispute was resolved.

Philip always lacked money. The policy of unification and annexation that he pursued required great expenses. The first victim of the king's financial difficulties was the coin. Its weight was significantly lightened, and output was increased, which led to increased inflation. The second point of the king's financial program was taxation. Taxes were constantly rising, which led to popular unrest. And finally - the matter of the Templars.

The Templar Order arose at the beginning of the 12th century in Jerusalem. He imagined himself as knights guarding the Holy Sepulcher. In addition, the Knights Templar protected their own, quite considerable, wealth and money of those who trusted them. The Muslim offensive forced the Templars to leave the Holy Land, and over time, their main function became financial. They practically became a bank that stored and invested money.

One of the debtors of the order was Philip the Fair himself. As life has shown, the king really did not like to repay debts, and therefore in 1307, with the tacit consent of the pope, all the Templars throughout France were arrested on the same day. The trial of the order was clearly a whitewash, the charges were far-fetched, interrogations were carried out with the use of torture, and the case ended in blazing fires throughout France. The Grand Master of the Order, Jean Molay, was also burned.

Jacques de Molay is the twenty-third and last Master of the Knights Templar.

As popular rumor testified, before the execution the master cursed Clement V and Philip IV and predicted death for the first in forty days, and for the second in twelve months. The prediction miraculously came true.

The pope died of dysentery thirty-three days after the execution of Molay, and the king then fell ill with some strange illness and died on November 29, 1314. The curse also fell on Philip's descendants. His three sons - the “damned kings” - did not leave any offspring on the throne, according to the Templar curse, and the Capetian line was soon interrupted.

Philip the Fair has remained a mysterious and controversial figure in history. Some call him a great reformer, others call him a cruel despot who fell under the influence of his advisers. The results of his reign were disappointing: the vertical of power was never fully formed, but in the end the finances were upset.

The zigzags of his politics, as well as his frequent mood swings, as well as his manner of freezing, staring unblinkingly at one point, are associated by many modern researchers with the manic-depressive disorder of his consciousness.

According to eyewitnesses, at certain periods he was cheerful, talkative and even joked. But he soon became gloomy, withdrawn, silent and indifferently cruel.

Philip IV the Fair

Well, the powerful of this world also have weaknesses. And, nevertheless, King Philip the Fair during his reign made France the most powerful country in the world and began a new era in the history of this state.

R.A. Zakharov (Moscow)

Rice. 1. Turnosa, 1305, silver (4.1 grams, 958 standard, diameter 25 mm). On the obverse is the symbol of the city of Tours (chapel or city gate) with the inscription turonis civis and twelve lilies around, on the reverse there is a cross with an inner circular inscription - the name of the ruler PHILIPPVS REX + and an outer circular inscription Benedictum sit nomen domini nostri Jesu Christi.

In 1266, the French king Louis IX, the grandfather of Charles IV the Fair, began minting silver coins grossi Turonenses (Tours pennies), also known as tournois pennies, in the city of Tours, much larger than denarii. In numismatic literature the name turnose was assigned to them. The average weight of the coin was about 4.20 g at 958. A turnose was equal to 12 denarii, which is why there are 12 lilies on the coin. This denomination was widely developed in Western and Central Europe due to the strong growth of trade and economy that began in the 13-14th centuries, which in turn required the introduction into monetary circulation of a larger denomination than the denarius that had reigned in Europe before that period.

Philip IV the Fair was born in Fontainebleau in 1268 to Philip III and Isabella of Aragon. He ascended the throne very young, at 17 years old. He ruled for a long time and succeeded in many things. He was a king-politician, a king who managed to create his own team, with the help of which he was able to solve the most complex problems. It would be fair to list Philip’s closest associates: Chancellor Pierre Flotte, Guardian of the Seal Guillaume Nogaret and Coadjutor of the Kingdom Enguerrand Marigny. All these were humble people, elevated to the heights of power by the king himself.

The beginning of the reign of Philip the Fair unfolded against the backdrop of contradictions with the pope that worsened every year. At first, nothing foreshadowed this conflict. None of the European kings was as beloved by Pope Boniface VIII as Philip the Fair. Back in 1290, when the pope was only Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani and came to France as papal legate, he admired the piety of the young king. Having ascended the throne in 1294, Boniface zealously supported the policies of the French king in Spain and Italy.

Boniface VIII was the first pope to begin the tradition of celebrating so-called "jubilees" (from 1300) or "holy years", which were originally established as centennial anniversaries of the church. Pilgrims who visited Rome during the Jubilee years were granted complete remission of sins. The income from the influx of pilgrims was so great that the successors of Boniface VIII repeatedly shortened the period between Jubilee years to replenish the papal treasury and to popularize the ideas of Catholicism. For example, from 1475 the period between jubilee years was reduced to 25 years. In the church itself, the pope pursued a balanced policy towards the mendicant orders, limiting their freedom. In addition, this pope is the author of the well-known aphorism “Silence is a sign of consent.”

The first signs of mutual distrust between the pope and Philip the Fair appeared in 1296. In August, the pope promulgated a bull in which he forbade the laity to demand and receive subsidies from the clergy. By “strange coincidence,” Philip at the same time banned the export of gold and silver from France. With this, he cut off one of the main sources of papal income, because the French church could no longer send any money to Rome. Even then a quarrel could have arisen, but Boniface VIII’s position on the papal throne was still fragile, and he yielded to the king.

After this, for several years the opponents hesitated to take decisive measures, but the hostility between them grew. Finally, in response to the demarche of Philip IV in April 1303, Boniface excommunicated the king, and in turn Philip declared Boniface a false pope (indeed, there were some doubts about the legality of his election), a heretic and even a warlock. He demanded that an ecumenical council be convened to hear these accusations, but at the same time he said that the pope should be at this council as a prisoner and accused.

From words he moved on to action. Nogare went to Italy with a large sum of money, where he entered into relations with the enemies of Boniface and formed an extensive conspiracy against him. The pope at that time was in Anagni, where he wanted to publicly curse Philip. Then the conspirators from the Colonna family, led by Nogaret, burst into the papal palace, surrounded Boniface, showered him with all sorts of insults and demanded his abdication. Nogaret threatened to put him in chains and, like a criminal, take him to the cathedral in Lyon to pass judgment on him, and then he went and gave the holy pope a couple of slaps in the face in public. When three days later the inhabitants of Ananya freed the pope, he fell into such a nervous breakdown from the humiliation he had suffered that he went crazy and died. As it was written in one very touching pre-revolutionary book, “unable to bear the insults, the proud old man died a few days later.” The new Pope Benedict XI excommunicated Nogaret, but stopped the persecution of Philip himself. In the summer of 1304 he also died. In his place, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Bertrand du Gothe, was elected, taking the name of Clement V. He did not go to Italy, but was ordained in Lyon. In 1309 he settled in Avignon and turned this city into a papal residence. Until his death, he remained an obedient executor of the will of the French king. The period of the so-called “Avignon captivity of the popes” began.

Contemporaries did not like Philip the Handsome; people close to him were afraid of the rational cruelty of this unusually handsome and surprisingly impassive man. The violence against the pope caused outrage throughout the Christian world. Large feudal lords were dissatisfied with the infringement of their rights and the strengthening of the central administration, which consisted of rootless people. The tax-paying class was outraged by the increase in taxes, the so-called “damage” of the coin, i.e., a decrease in its gold content while forcing its denomination to remain the same, which led to inflation. Meanwhile, France under Philip IV the Fair reaches the height of its power. This is the largest state in terms of population in Western Christendom (13 -15 million or a third of the entire Catholic world). The kingdom's economy is thriving, for example, the area of ​​arable land has increased or trade has flourished at the fair in Champagne.

The presented coin, according to French catalogs, dates back to 1305. It was in this year that Clement V, obedient to the will of Philip IV, became pope. Philip the Fair was in dire need of money and owed half a million livres to the Templars. How not to repay the debt and get more money?

There were only two ways for this: to lead the Templar Order and make it royal, or to destroy it. In addition, the Templars were also the most powerful political force of that time. And if Philip wanted, and he wanted and rigidly built a vertical of power, autocracy in France, then a clash with the Templars was inevitable. We must pay tribute to the courage of Philip the Fair and his organizational abilities. Not every king could decide to defeat such a rich order with a huge number of experienced warriors, which was also very popular in European public opinion of that time. He went all in, prepared for a long time and carefully... It turned out to be easier to deal with the pope, at the right moment he simply took advantage of the ancient Guelph-Ghibelline struggle between the oldest Roman patrician families of Orsini and Colonna, financed the Ghibelline Colonna and sent his resident Nogaret to correct the situation on the spot in Italy.

He first tried to “come to an amicable agreement” with the Templars, especially since most members of the order were French. It was in the same 1305 that Philip the Fair himself wanted to join the Order of the Temple. However, the chapter of the Order told him that there could be no crowned lords among the brothers. Then Philip made a new proposal. Since the war in Palestine has come to an end and the knightly orders find themselves outside the Holy Land, it is necessary to unite two of them - the Order of the Temple and the Order of John of Jerusalem. At the head of the united Order, so as not to diminish the honor of either the Templars or the Hospitallers, should stand the son of the most Christian king of France, a descendant of the famous crusader Saint Louis, that is, himself. However, this plan also failed.

And then Philip the Fair chose the second path - the path of destroying the order, which for the last 150 years had absorbed the main passionate part of European chivalry. The king's confessor and Grand Inquisitor of France, Doctor of Theology Guillaume of Paris, began collecting witnesses from among the knights expelled from the Order. There were very few such exiles, but they had to start somewhere. By 1307, accusations were prepared and royal messengers carried secret letters with instructions to royal officials throughout France. On September 14, 1307, the royal troops simultaneously captured the Templar castles throughout France without resistance at the hour X. Philip IV first entered the Temple Temple, towering in the center of Paris, not as a guest and debtor of the order, but as the master of a conquered enemy fortress. The Templars did not resist - the charter of the order did not allow the knights to take up arms against Christians. Although the charter was a charter, the leadership of the order, who knew in advance about Philip’s intentions, simply hid all their relics, documents and gold and... went like lambs to the slaughter. Why? This question has long been of concern to most historians, but there is no obvious explanation for everyone yet. One thing is clear, the Templars, through their superbly established spy network, knew about this, but decided not to resist, although if they wanted, they could have done it even then, who knows - Philip the Fair would have retained his crown and his very life.

Shortly before the arrests began, Jacques de Molay managed to burn many documents and send a special letter to all order houses, in which he ordered not to provide even minimal information about the customs and rituals of the Templars. According to one night, on the eve of the start of the campaign against the Order, the Templars' treasures were taken out of Paris on carts under the guise of hay (who carries hay from the city to the village with a whole caravan of carts with an armed escort, and even at night???). This cargo was delivered to the Templars' largest naval base, the port of La Rochelle, where it was loaded onto 18 galleys of the order, which departed in an unknown direction. There is a hypothesis that the flotilla then split into two parts and went to Portugal and Scotland. Where were the relics and gold of the Order taken? Where exactly did these 18 galleys with crews and cargo go? It was never possible to find the treasures of the Templars, just as no one subsequently found either the gold of the Third Reich or the gold of the CPSU.

The arrested Templars were brought to trial and many were tortured. The process was long and bloody. It was not just the accused who perished or incriminated themselves in the dungeons, but knights who had hitherto attacked the infidels without fear. By the way, according to the charter of the order, the Templar could retreat before the infidels only if they had a threefold advantage! But let’s also not forget that, for example, in 1937, in the dungeons of the NKVD, many courageous people also signed monstrous, absurdly incredible confessions... Under torture, over several years, prosecutors extracted terrible confessions! The Templars were accused of not recognizing Christ, the Holy Virgin and the saints, spitting on the cross and trampling it underfoot. They accused those thanks to whose courage Christian states existed in the Holy Land for more than 170 years! It was stated that they worshiped in a dark cave an idol depicting a human figure, covered with human skin and with shiny carbuncles instead of eyes, while they smeared it with the fat of roasted small children and looked at it as their god. They were accused of worshiping the devil in the form of a cat, burning the bodies of dead Templars and giving the ashes to their younger brothers, mixing them with their food. They were accused of various crimes, of terrible debauchery and superstitious abominations, of which only madmen can be guilty. Just medieval 1937!

The boredom of the drawn-out false trial was enlivened from time to time by the execution of knights who did not want to confess to crimes of which they were not guilty. 59 knights were once led out into the field behind the monastery of St. Antonia. They were offered forgiveness if they confessed, but they refused and were slowly burned. Nine knights were burned in the city of Sanly and many more throughout France. Since the order was founded by a church council, a council also had to be convened to try the Templars. However, the Vienna Council of 1312, convened for this purpose, did not want to bring any charges against the Order. Then the pocket Pope Clement V dissolved the order on the basis of his bull “Vox clamantis”, in which all the property of the order was transferred to the knightly order of St. John. However, in reality the property was divided between the French king and dukes.

Church commissions were created to try the Templars. They included the bishop of the city and mendicant monks: 2 Carmelites, 2 Franciscans and 2 Dominicans. The Benedictines and Zintercians who participated in the creation of the Order of the Temple were removed from the investigation. Clement V demanded that the highest dignitaries of the order be transferred to the papal court, but the leaders were not brought to the pope; it was announced that they had contracted a contagious disease along the way and would therefore be temporarily kept in France. The pope swallowed this too, but papal commissions were still allowed to see the arrested and conducted interrogations. During these interrogations, the Templars categorically rejected most of the accusations.

The knights unanimously rejected the accusation of the sin of Sodom - homosexuality encouraged by the authorities. However, they did not deny that at the initiation ceremony the newly admitted was kissed on the navel, tailbone and lips. Moreover, no one could explain the meaning of these kisses: those of them who were admitted to secret knowledge were in no hurry to tell, and those who simply copied the ritual did not understand its meaning. Just imagine some illiterate seventh son of an impoverished count, who, having joined the order from his youth, served in remote border castles somewhere in Syria. Prayer and combat exercises interspersed with skirmishes with Muslims. Carry around metal armor and weapons weighing 40 kg every day in 30-40 degree heat there... What kind of homosexuality is there??? Those readers who served in the army in combat units will understand the absurdity of all these accusations.

The order's charter required the knights to sleep half-dressed, so that in the event of a surprise attack by the Muslims they could quickly prepare for battle.

On March 18, 1314, at the farcical trial of 4 leaders of the Templar Order that took place in Paris, two of them - the Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay himself, and the Commander of Normandy, Geoffroy de Charnay, SUDDENLY renounced their testimony, which had been extracted from them under torture. in exchange for the promise of life imprisonment. “We are guilty before the Lord, but we do not admit ourselves guilty of the crimes named by the judges. We are guilty of the fact that our spirit was weaker than our flesh and under torture we slandered the Order of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.” At the trials of 1937, none of the defendants dared to make such a demarche, but these two knights were able to... After a short meeting, he and his closest associates were quickly sentenced to be burned at the stake. It is known that often before burning at the stake, the executioner killed his victim in advance, and the already dead body burned. And here, enraged by the failed trial with the “candid confessions” of the Templars, Philip ordered Jacques de Molay and Geoffroy de Charnay to be burned alive over a low fire. This detail speaks of some special level of hatred of the king towards those being executed, which, in the words of the Strugatsky brothers, exceeds the normal level of medieval atrocity.

The Grand Master, who ascended the fire, cursed Pope Clement, King Philip and Chancellor Nogaret, declaring that all of them would be summoned to the judgment of God within a year and, in addition, cursed the entire royal French family. The crowd, which had come to watch the execution of the proud Templars as an amusing spectacle, fell silent when they heard the curse of Jacques de Molay. The show was cancelled...

The king did not attach much importance to this curse, attributing this curse to the anger and despair of the dying de Molay. In principle, Philip could not have any concern about the succession of power of the Capetian dynasty, which had been on the French throne since 987, because he had three sons. Three grown sons! With a small interval in age. What is there to worry about?

BUT!!! The predictions of Jacques de Molay, who was dying at the stake, were fulfilled exactly. On April 20, Pope Clement went to God in agony. His stomach ached and the doctors prescribed him to drink crushed emeralds, which tore the high priest’s intestines. In November, King Philip IV of France fell from his horse while hunting. The courtiers picked him up paralyzed and brought him to the palace. There Philip the Handsome died, stiff and unable to move. A year later, Enguerrand-de-Marigny, who prepared the trial against the Templars, ended his life on the gallows. Guillaume de Nogaret, who led the investigation, died in agony. The sons of Philip the Fair were unable to pass on the throne to their children; they all died prematurely, leaving no male heirs.

Their nephew Edward III of England went to war with France, claiming the French throne as his rightful inheritance. They say that the heir is the closest male relative. Remember Maurice Druon's book “It is Unfit for Lilies to Spin”? This war went down in history as the Hundred Years' War. France, the country that robbed and killed the Order of the Temple, was itself plundered and humiliated.

When the blade of the guillotine fell on the neck of Louis XVI in 1793, a man jumped onto the scaffold, dipped his hand in the blood of the dead monarch and shouted loudly: “Jacques de Molay, you are avenged!” The unfortunate Louis was the thirteenth descendant of King Philip the Fair.

Before his execution, Louis XVI was kept in the former residence of the Templars, the Temple, which was turned into a prison in those years, and then during the years of the revolution, the Temple was destroyed to the ground so that it would not become a place of worship for royalists.

The whole world perished with the Templars: chivalry and the Crusades ended with them.

But the Templars were not brutally persecuted everywhere. Scotland granted them asylum. They were acquitted in Lorraine. In Germany, the process completely broke down when in Frankfurt the Templars summoned to trial appeared in full battle dress and with spears in their hands. The court did not sit for long, and all charges were dropped. Many German Knights of the Temple joined the Teutonic Order, strengthening and strengthening it. In Castile and Aragon, the knights of the Order of the Temple entered the Order of Calatrava in full force and with all their property and continued their fight against the Muslims, but in the Pyrenees. In Portugal, the Templars were acquitted by the court and in 1318 changed their name, becoming the Knights of Christ. Under this name the Order existed until the 16th century. Vasco da Gama was a knight of the Order of Christ, and Prince Henry the Navigator was its Grand Master. With funds from the Order, the prince founded an observatory and a nautical school, and contributed to the development of shipbuilding in Portugal. He equipped ocean expeditions that discovered new lands and ships sailed under the eight-pointed Templar crosses. Christopher Columbus's caravels crossed the Atlantic under these same symbols. The great discoverer of America himself was married to the daughter of his associate Enrique the Navigator, a knight of the Order of Christ, who gave him his nautical and pilotage charts. This is a hypothesis. I looked for the original source of this information on Columbus, but did not find it. Was his father-in-law really a member of the Order of Christ or not? Maybe I didn't search well?

Templars...

So who exactly were they? For hundreds of years now, people have been wondering: are they servants of the Lord or evil heretics who got what they deserved?

My first acquaintance with the Templars occurred at school when I read Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. There the templars are the personification of evil, the templars are actually the Templars. Briand-de-Boilguilbert, for example, is a dishonest villain. Having then read a lot of literature about the Crusades and the Templars, in particular, I realized that everything was not so black and white and I want to give some facts that will allow the reader to draw their own conclusions on this issue. The brothers chose the Holy Mother of God as the patroness of the Order. Saint Bernard, who created the Charter of the Templars, emphasized that the vow of poverty was fundamental for the Templars. Paragraph two of the Charter, for example, even ordered two templar brothers to eat from the same bowl. Any secular entertainment was prohibited - attending shows, falconry, playing dice and other pleasures of life. Laughter, singing, and idle talk were forbidden. The list of prohibitions consisted of more than 40 items. The free time of these “monks in spirit and fighters in arms” was supposed to be filled with prayers, the singing of sacred psalms and military exercises.

A unique symbol of the templars was a white cloak, worn over other clothes of the same color. The knight is a monk who took three obligatory vows: poverty, chastity and obedience, with white robes symbolizing the pure holy life that he led, dedicating his soul to the Lord.

Simple brothers - novices, wore black cloaks and camisoles, and therefore, when the Templar warriors rushed to attack, their first line was made up of horsemen in white, and the second - horsemen in black. The Order also adopted a banner made of striped fabric, white and black, called “Beaucean” and this word became the battle cry of the knights. On the banner there was a cross with an inscription addressed to the Lord in Latin: “Not to us, not to us, but to your name.” In this regard, the ruble of our Emperor Paul with exactly the same motto immediately comes to mind.

The Templars never ran and always showed themselves worthy of their reputation - proud to the point of arrogance, brave to the point of recklessness and at the same time amazingly disciplined, unmatched among all the armies of the Mediterranean of that era. The charter required complete and unconditional heroism from the knights. Not a single Crusade, starting with the Second, was complete without their active participation. More than 20,000 knights of the order died in the Holy Land, including 6 Grand Masters out of 23. They were always in the most difficult areas, something like crusader special forces. Thus, in the famous battle in the mountains near Laodicea in 1148 during the Second Crusade, 200 knights (mostly Templars) who made up the retinue of King Louis VII managed to hold back the frantic attacks of about 20,000 Muslims. It is known that Muslims were especially afraid of the Templars and Hospitallers. The famous Sultan Saladin hated the knights and monks so much for their fearlessness that he said, “I will cleanse the earth of these filthy orders.” Of course, after all, together with the Hospitallers, St. John of Jerusalem, the Templars constituted a standing army of the Christian states of the East. Without these orders, all the crusader states would have been destroyed within a few decades, but they lasted about two centuries. During the battle, the Templar had no right to retreat, even when fighting against three opponents. Anyone who was captured by the Saracens had no right either to offer a ransom for himself or to renounce his faith in order to save his life. The Muslims who were captured by the Templars, as later in our days in Afghanistan or Chechnya, offered our soldiers to renounce Christ or die. During 170 years of fighting with Muslims, only a few Templars agreed, the rest chose to accept martyrdom. Somehow it doesn’t fit at all with the accusation that they deviate from Christianity. Who would die for something they didn’t believe in? But there were also negative sides. Excessive pride from belonging to the Order of the Temple. Alienation. For example, when meeting a caravan of pilgrims whom they were supposed to accompany, the Templars did not utter a single extra word, as well as their vow never to touch a woman, which was not characteristic of the spirit of medieval chivalry with its cult of worship of the beautiful lady - all this gradually served to isolate them and gossip about homosexuality.

From the very beginning, the Order of the Temple was dual: on the one hand, knightly, and on the other, monastic. In the Order there were brothers-monks, brothers-knights (they did not take monastic vows), sergeants (simply warriors in the service of the Temple) and brothers monastics and craftsmen (people under the patronage of the Temple). Most of the brother knights were in Palestine and fought with the infidels. They said about the brother knights: “he drinks like a Templar” and “swears like a Templar.” They were full of pride and arrogance. So that was something to be proud of! These days, sailors, paratroopers, border guards, and Afghans are proud of their service. They have in fact proven their devotion to Christianity in the Holy Land. In contrast, the brother monks organized a network of commanderies throughout Europe in which the wealth of the Order was stored. Once, during a crop failure, only one commandery fed 10,000 people in a week.

The Templars also minted their own coin, or rather, it was not a coin, but rather one of the first European tokens, made not even from billon, but from bronze. The rarest thing, I saw this denarius only in a book about the minting of the Crusaders and in an auction catalog eight years ago. It depicts a cross with a legend, and on the obverse - the Cross of the Lord on Calvary. This coin was used for payment among pilgrims when they were transported to the Holy Land on Templar galleys and were guarded in the Holy Land by the same Templars.

In 1291, the Crusaders were finally expelled from Palestine and the Templars moved first to Cyprus and then to Europe, where they created a powerful organization for which there were no national boundaries. The Grand Masters of the order spoke with the kings as equals. In those years, the Templars numbered more than 30,000 people. They owned hundreds of castles and a huge amount of land throughout Europe. The order, created as a symbol of poverty and simplicity, became the richest organization. They reinvented the bill of exchange and became the largest moneylenders of their era, and the Parisian order house turned into the center of European finance.

Due to constant contact with Muslim and Jewish cultures, the Templars possessed the most advanced technology of their time. The Order did not skimp and allocated funds for the development of geodesy, cartography and navigation. It had its own ports, shipyards, as well as its own fleet, the ships of which were equipped with a curiosity unprecedented in those distant times - a magnetic compass.

These are the interesting events associated with this tournosis, which marked a turning point in the history of medieval Europe - the end of the era of the Crusades and the omnipotence of the popes.

The resounding slap in the face of Pope Boniface VIII, prejudicially given to him by Guiaume Nogaret, the curse of Jacques de Molay at the stake under the cloudy Parisian sky, Philip the Fair, paralyzed while hunting, being carried to the castle by his frightened servants... Here it is - the aroma of medieval history!

Used sources.

1. M. Melville. History of the Templar Order. M, 2000.

2. J. Duby. Europe in the Middle Ages. Smolensk, 1994.

3. Ch. Heckerthorn. Secret societies of all centuries and all countries. M, 1993

4. L. Charpentier. Templars. M, 2003.

5. R.Yu.Vipper. History of the Middle Ages. Kyiv, 1996.

6. N.A. Osokin. History of the Albigenses and their time. M, 2003.

7. K. Ryzhov. All the monarchs of the world. M, 1999.

8. R. Ernest, T. Dupuis. World history of wars. M, 1997.

9. Clio magazine

10. P.P.Reed. Templars. M, 2005.

11. Gergey E. History of the papacy. M, 1996.

At the residence of the French kings, in June 1268, the royal couple, Philip III the Bold and Isabella of Aragon, had a son, who was named after his father - Philip. Already during the first days of little Philip’s life, everyone noted his unprecedented angelic beauty and his huge brown eyes. No one then could have predicted that the newly born second heir to the throne would be the last outstanding king of France from the Capetian family.

The atmosphere of childhood and youth

During Philip's childhood and youth, when his father Philip III ruled, France expanded its territory, annexing the province of Toulouse, the counties of Valois, Brie, Auvergne, Poitou and the pearl - the Kingdom of Navarre. Champagne was promised to join the kingdom, thanks to an advance agreement on Philip's marriage to the heiress of the earldom, Princess Joan I of Navarre. The annexed lands, of course, bore fruit, but France, torn apart by large feudal lords and papal legates and with an empty treasury, was on the verge of disaster.

Failures began to haunt Philip III. His heir to the throne, his first son Louis, on whom he had high hopes, dies. The king, being weak-willed and led by his advisers, gets involved in adventures that end in failure. So in March 1282, Philip III was defeated in the Sicilian national liberation uprising, where the Sicilians exterminated and expelled all the French there. Philip III's next and final failure was a military campaign against the king of Aragon, Pedro III the Great. Seventeen-year-old Philip IV took part in this company, who, along with his reigning father, participated in battles. Despite intensified offensives, the royal army and navy were defeated and held under the walls of the fortress of Girona, in northeastern Spain. The ensuing retreat undermined the king's health; he was overcome by illness and fever, which he could not bear. So, in the fortieth year, the life of King Philip III, nicknamed the Brave, was cut short, and the hour of the reign of Philip IV came.

Long live the king!

The coronation was scheduled for October 1285, immediately after his father's funeral, in the Abbey of Saint-Denis.

After the coronation, the wedding of Philip IV with the Queen of Navarre, Jeanne I of Navarre, took place, which served to annex the lands of the county of Champagne and strengthened the power of France.

Taught by his father’s bitter experience, Philip understood one rule for himself, which he followed throughout his life - sole rule, pursuing only his own interests and the interests of France.

The young king's first intended task was to resolve conflicts arising from the failure of the Aragon Company. The king went against the will of Pope Martin IV and the passionate desire of his brother Charles of Valois to become king of Aragon, and withdrew French troops from Aragonese soil, thereby ending the military conflict.

The next action, which shocked the entire high-society French and European society, was the removal of all the advisers of the late father from their affairs and the appointment to their positions of people who distinguished themselves by their services to the king. Philip was a very attentive person, he always noted the qualities he needed in people, therefore, not noticing managerial notes in the nobility who were lazy from a well-fed life, he opted for smart people of not noble origin. Thus, Enguerrand Marigny, Chancellor Pierre Flotte and Guardian of the Royal Seal Guillaume Nogaret were appointed to the post of Catholic titular bishop.

Large feudal lords were outraged by such actions of the young king, which threatened a bloody revolution. To prevent the occurrence of a rebellion and weaken the powerful feudal society, the king carries out a serious reform that concerns the management of the state. It limits the influence of customary and ecclesiastical rights on the royal power, based on the codes of Roman law, and appoints the Treasury (the Court of Accounts), the Parisian Parliament and the Supreme Court as the highest democratic authorities. These institutions held weekly discussions in which respectable citizens and minor knights (legists) with knowledge of Roman law participated and served.

Confrontation with Rome

Being a thorough and purposeful person, Philip IV continued to expand the borders of his state, and this required constant replenishment of the royal treasury. At that time, the church had a separate treasury, from which funds were distributed for subsidies for citizens, for the needs of the church and for contributions to Rome. It was this treasury that the king planned to use.

By coincidence, for Philip IV, at the end of 1296, Pope Boniface VIII decided to be the first to take possession of church savings and issues a document (bulla) that prohibits the issuance of subsidies to citizens from the church treasury. Having until this time been on very warm and friendly relations with Boniface VIII, Philip nevertheless decides to take open and harsh actions for the Pope. Philip believed that the church was obliged not only to participate in the life of the country, but to allocate funds for its needs. And he issues a decree prohibiting the export of the church treasury to Rome, thereby depriving the Papacy of the constant financial income that the French church provided them. The quarrel that arose for this reason between the king and Banifacius was hushed up by the publication of a new bull, canceling the first, but for a short time.

Having made concessions, the French king Philip the Fair allowed the export of funds to Rome and continued the oppression of churches, which led to complaints from church ministers against the king to the Pope. Because of these complaints, which pointed to insubordination, disrespect, insubordination and insult by vassals, Boniface VIII sent the Bishop of Pamiers to France to the king. He had to oblige the king to fulfill his earlier promises to participate in the Aragonese Crusade and release the captive Count of Flanders from prison. Sending a bishop, who was not restrained in character, very harsh and hot-tempered, in the role of ambassador and allowing him to decide such delicate issues was Banifatius's greatest mistake. Having not met Philip’s understanding and having received a refusal, the bishop allowed himself to speak in harsh and elevated tones, threatening the king with a ban on all church services. Despite all his natural restraint and calmness, Philip the Fair was unable to restrain himself, and he orders the arrogant bishop to be arrested and imprisoned in Sanli.

Meanwhile, the French king Philip IV the Handsome took care of collecting information about the unlucky ambassador and found out that he spoke negatively about the king’s power, offended his honor and pushed his flock to revolt. This information was enough for Philip to demand in a letter from the Pope that the Bishop of Pamiers be urgently deposed and brought before a secular court. To which Baniface responded by threatening to excommunicate Philip from the church and ordering the presence of the royal person at his own trial. The king was angry and promised the high priest to burn his decree on the unlimited power of the Roman Church over secular power.

The disagreements that arose prompted Philip to take more decisive action. For the first time in the history of France, he convened the Estates General, which was attended by all the prosecutors of the cities of France, nobles, barons and the highest clergy. To increase indignation and aggravate the situation, those present at the council were provided with a pre-forged papal bull. At the council, after some hesitation among church representatives, a decision was made to support the king.

The conflict flared up, the opponents exchanged blows: on the part of Banifacius, the king was excommunicated from the church, the seizure of seven provinces and liberation from vassal control, and Philip publicly declared the pope a warlock, a false pope and a heretic, began organizing a conspiracy and entered into an agreement with the enemies of the Pope.

The conspirators led by Nogare captured Banifacius VIII, who at that time was in the city of Anagni. Full of dignity, the Pope withstands the attacks of his enemies, and waits for the liberation of the inhabitants of Anagna. But the experiences he endured caused irreparable damage to his mind, and Baniface goes crazy and dies.

The next Pope, Benedict XI, stopped attacks and persecution of the king, but his faithful servant Nogaret was excommunicated from the church for his involvement in the arrest of Banifacius VIII. The Pope did not serve for long; he died in 1304, and Clement V came to his place.

The new Pope treated King Philip with obedience and never contradicted his demands. By order of the royal person, Clement moved the papal throne and residence from Rome to the city of Avignon, which was under the strong influence of Philip. Another significant favor for the king in 1307 was Clement V's agreement to bring charges against the Knights Templar (Templars). Thus, under the reign of Philip IV, the papacy turned into obedient bishops.

Declaration of war

During the growing conflict with Boniface VIII, King Philip IV the Fair of France was busy strengthening the country and expanding its territories. He was most interested in Flanders, which at that time was a self-sufficient craft and agricultural state with an anti-French direction. Since vassal Flanders was not in the mood to obey the French king, she was more satisfied with good relations with the English house, Philip did not fail to take advantage of this coincidence of circumstances and summoned the English king Edward I to trial in the Paris Parliament.

The English king, focused on a military campaign with Scotland, refuses his presence at the trial, which was useful for Philip IV. He declares war. Torn by two military companies, Edward I looks for allies and finds them in the Counts of Brabant, Geldern, Savoy, Emperor Adolf and the King of Castile. Philip also enlists the support of allies. He was joined by the counts of Luxembourg and Burgundy, the Duke of Lorraine and the Scots.

At the beginning of 1297, fierce battles unfolded for the territory of Flanders, where in Furnes, Count Robert d'Artois defeated the troops of Guy de Dampierre, Count of Flanders, and captured him along with his family and the remaining soldiers. In 1300, troops under the command of Charles de Valois captured the city of Douai, passed through the city of Bruges and entered the city of Ghent in the spring. The king, meanwhile, was busy besieging the fortress of Lille, which capitulated after nine weeks of confrontation. In 1301, part of Flanders surrendered to the mercy of the king.

Defiant Flanders

King Philip the Fair did not fail to take advantage of the obedience of his newly-made subordinates, and decided to take great advantage of this by imposing exorbitant taxes on the Flemings. To control the country, Jacques of Chatillon was appointed, who with his harsh management increased the discontent and hatred of the French inhabitants of the country. The Flemings, who had not yet calmed down from their conquest, could not stand it and staged a rebellion, which was quickly suppressed, and the participants in the rebellion were imposed with huge fines. At the same time, in the city of Bruges, Jacques of Chatillon orders the residents to demolish the city wall and begins the construction of a citadel.

Exhausted by taxes, the people decided to launch a new, more organized rebellion, and in the spring of 1302 a clash between the French garrison and the Flemings took place. In one day, the embittered Flemings destroyed three thousand two hundred French soldiers. The army that came up to pacify the riot was destroyed along with the military leader Robert d'Artois. Then about six thousand mounted knights died, whose spurs were removed as trophies and placed at the altar of the church.

Offended by the defeat and death of a relative, King Philip the Fair makes another attempt, and, leading a large army, enters the battle in Flanders at Mons-en-Pevele and defeats the Flemings. Lille was again successfully besieged, but the Flemings no longer submitted to the king of France.

After numerous bloody battles that did not bring adequate success, Philip decided to conclude a peace treaty with the Count of Flanders, Robert III of Bethune, with full preservation of privileges, restoration of rights and the return of Flanders.

Only the release of captured soldiers and counts implied the payment of legal indemnity. As collateral, Philip annexed the cities of Orche, Bethune, Douai and Lille to his territory.

Templar Affair

The Brotherhood of the Knights Templar was founded in the 11th century and was officially established as the Templar Order by Pope Honorius II in the 12th century. Over the centuries of its existence, the society has established itself as defenders of believers and excellent economists. For two centuries, the Templars regularly participated in the Crusades, but after the loss of Jerusalem, unsuccessful battles for the Holy Land and numerous losses in Acre, they were forced to move their headquarters to Cyprus.

At the end of the 13th century, the Templar Order was not so numerous, but remained a well-formed paramilitary structure, and the last 23rd leader of the Order was Grand Master Jacques de Molay. In the last years of the reign of Philip IV, the Order was concerned with financial affairs, interference in the secular affairs of the state and the protection of its treasures.

The impoverished treasury from constant waste for military needs needed urgent replenishment. Being a personal debtor to the Templars, Philip was puzzled by the question of how to free himself from accumulated debts and get to their treasury. In addition, he considered the Templar Order dangerous for royal power.

Therefore, supported by the non-interference of the tamed Popes, Philip in 1307 begins a case against the religious Order of the Templars, arresting every single Templar in France.

The case against the Templars was clearly falsified, terrible torture was used during interrogations, and false accusations of connections with Muslims, witchcraft and devil worship were used. But no one dared to contradict the king and act as a defender of the Templars. For seven years, the investigation into the case of the Templars continued, who, exhausted by long imprisonment and torture, confessed to all the charges brought against them, but renounced them during a public trial. During the trial, the Templar treasury completely passed into royal hands.

In 1312, the destruction of the order was announced, and the following year, in the spring, Grand Master Jacques de Molay and some of his comrades were sentenced to death by burning.

The execution was attended by the King of France, Philip the Handsome (you can see the portrait in the article) with his sons and Chancellor Nogaret. Engulfed in flames, Jacques de Molay pronounced a curse on the entire Capetian family, and predicted the imminent death of Pope Clement V and the chancellor.

Death of a King

Having good health, Philip did not pay attention to de Molay’s curse, but in the very near future, in the same spring after the execution, the Pope suddenly died. The predictions began to come true. In 1314, Philip the Fair goes hunting and falls from his horse, after which he suddenly falls ill with an unknown debilitating disease, which is accompanied by delirium. In the autumn of the same year, the forty-six-year-old king dies.

What was King Philip the Fair of France like?

Why "Beautiful"? Was he really like that? The French king Philip IV the Handsome remains a controversial and mysterious figure in the history of Europe. Many of his contemporaries described the king as cruel and despotic, led by his advisers. If you look at the policies pursued by Philip, you can’t help but think that in order to carry out such serious reforms and achieve the desired goals, you need to have rare energy, an iron, unbending will and perseverance. Many who were close to the king and did not support his policies, decades after his death, will remember his reign with tears in their eyes as a time of justice and great deeds.

People who knew the king personally spoke of him as a modest and meek man who carefully and regularly attended divine services, observed all fasts by wearing a hair shirt, and always avoided obscene and immodest conversations. Philip was distinguished by kindness and condescension, often trusting people who did not deserve his trust. Often the king was withdrawn and imperturbable, sometimes frightening his subjects with sudden numbness and piercing gaze.

All the courtiers whispered quietly as the king walked around the castle grounds: “God forbid that the king should look at us. His gaze stops the heart, and the blood runs cold in the veins.”

King Philip IV rightly earned the nickname “Beautiful”, since the composition of his body was ideal and bewitching, looking like a superbly cast sculpture. His facial features were distinguished by their regularity and symmetry, large, intelligent and beautiful eyes, black wavy hair framed his melancholy brow, all this made his image unique and mysterious to people.

Heirs of Philip the Fair

The marriage of Philip IV with Joan I of Navarre can rightly be called a happy marriage. The royal couple loved each other and were faithful to their marital bed. This is confirmed by the fact that after the death of his wife, Philip rejected lucrative offers of remarriage.

In this union they gave birth to four children:

• Louis X the Grumpy, future King of Navarre from 1307 and King of France from 1314.
• Philip V the Long, future king of France and Navarre from 1316
• Handsome (Krasavchik), future king of France and Navarre from 1322.
• Isabella, future wife of King Edward II of England and mother of King Edward III.

King Philip the Fair and his daughters-in-law

King Philip never worried about the future of the crown. He had three heirs who were successfully married. All that remained was to wait for the heirs to appear. But alas, the king's wishes were not to come true. The king, being a believer and a strong family man, having learned about the adultery of his daughters-in-law with the courtiers, imprisoned them in a tower and brought them to trial.

Until their death, the unfaithful wives of the king's sons languished in prison dungeons and hoped that the sudden death of the king would free them from captivity. But they never earned forgiveness from their husbands.

The traitors were destined for a different fate:

• wife of Louis X, gave birth to a daughter, Jeanne. After the coronation of her husband, she was strangled in captivity.
• Blanca, wife of Charles IV. A divorce followed and the replacement of prison imprisonment with a monastery cell.
• Jeanne de Chalon, wife of Philip V. After the coronation of her husband, she was forgiven and released from prison. She gave birth to three daughters.

Second wives of the heirs to the throne:

• Clementia of Hungary became the last wife of the king. This marriage produced an heir, John I the Posthumous, who lived for several days.
• Mary of Luxembourg, second wife of King Charles.

Despite the opinions of dissatisfied contemporaries, Philip IV the Fair created a powerful French kingdom. During his reign, the population increased to 14 million, many buildings and fortifications were built. France reached the peak of economic prosperity, arable land expanded, fairs appeared, and trade flourished. The descendants of Philip the Fair inherited a renewed, strong and modern country with a new way of life and system.