French King, Philip IV

PHILIP IV
Philip IV (April–June 1268 – 29 November 1314), called the Fair (French: Philippe le Bel, Basque: Filipe Ederra) or the Iron King (French: le Roi de fer), was King of France from 1285 until his death. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also Philip I, King of Navarre from 1284 to 1305. He also briefly ruled the County of Champagne in right of his wife, although after his accession as king in 1285 the county remained under the sole governance of his wife until 1305, and then his son, Louis until 1314.

Philip IV coin

Philip relied on skillful civil servants, such as Guillaume de Nogaret and Enguerrand de Marigny, to govern the kingdom rather than on his barons. Philip and his advisors were instrumental in the transformation of France from a feudal country to a centralised state. Philip, who sought an uncontested monarchy, compelled his vassals by wars and restricted feudal usages.

His ambitions made him highly influential in European affairs. His goal was to place his relatives on foreign thrones. Princes from his house ruled in Naples and Hungary. He tried and failed to make another relative the Holy Roman Emperor. He began the long advance of France eastward by taking control of scattered fiefs.

The most notable conflicts of Philip's reign include a dispute with Edward I of England, who was also his vassal as the Duke of Aquitaine, and a war with the County of Flanders, which gained temporary autonomy following Philip’s embarrassing defeat at the Battle of the Golden Spurs (1302). To further strengthen the monarchy, he tried to control the French clergy and entered in conflict with Pope Boniface VIII. This conflict led to the transfer of the papal court to the enclave of Avignon in 1309.

Philip IV coin

In 1306, Philip the Fair expelled the Jews from France and, in 1307, he annihilated the order of the Knights Templar. Philip was in debt to both groups and saw them as a "state within the state".His final year saw a scandal amongst the royal family, known as the Tour de Nesle Affair, during which the three daughters-in-law of Philip were accused of adultery. His three sons were successively kings of France, Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV. As Duke of Aquitaine, the English king Edward I was a vassal to Philip, and had to pay him homage. Following the Fall of Acre in 1291 however, the former allies started to show dissent.

In 1293 following a naval incident between the Normans and the English, Philip summoned Edward to the French court. The English King sought to negotiate the matter and sent ambassadors to Paris but they were turned away with a blunt refusal.

Philip IV coin

 Negotiation was for kings, Edward was addressed by Philip as a duke, a vassal and nothing more, despite the incident having been an international one between England and France and not an internal one involving Edward's possessions within the kingdom of France.

Attempting to use their family connections to achieve what open politics had not, Edward sent his brother Edmund Crouchback (who was both Philip's cousin and step-father-in-law) to negotiate with the French Royal family and avert war. Also, Edward was at that time betrothed by proxy to Philip's sister Blanche, and Edmund was to escort her to England for the wedding in the event of the negotiations being successful.

An agreement was indeed reached; it stated that Edward would voluntarily relinquish his continental lands to Philip as a sign of submission in his capacity as Duke of Aquitaine and in return Philip would forgive him and restore his land after a grace period. In the matter of the marriage, Philip drove a hard bargain based partially on the difference in age between Edward and Blanche; it was agreed that the province of Gascony would be retained by Philip in return for agreeing to the marriage.

Philip IV 

 The date of the wedding was also put off until the formality of sequestering and re-granting his French lands to Edward was completed.

But Edward, Edmund and the English were deceived. The French had no intention of returning the land to the English monarch.

Edward kept up his part of the deal and turned over his continental estates to the French but Philip used the pretext that the English king had refused his summons in order to strip Edward of all his possessions in France, thereby initiating hostilities with England. The outbreak of hostilities with England in 1294 was the inevitable result of the competitive expansionist monarchies, triggered by a secret Franco-Scottish pact of mutual assistance against Edward I; inconclusive campaigns for the control of Gascony to the southwest of France were fought in 1294–98 and 1300–03. Philip gained Guienne but was forced to return it.

The search for income to cover military expenditures set its stamp on Philip's reign and his contemporary reputation. Pursuant to the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1303), the marriage of Philip's daughter Isabella to the Prince of Wales, heir of Philip's enemy, celebrated at Boulogne, 25 January 1308, was meant to seal a peace; instead it would produce an eventual English claimant to the French throne itself, and the Hundred Years' War.