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Philip IV (French: Philippe IV; 1268–November 29, 1314) was King of France from 1285 until his death.
A member of the Capetian dynasty, Philip was born at the Palace of Fontainebleau at Seine-et-Marne, the son of King Philip III and Isabella of Aragon. Philip was nicknamed the Fair (le Bel) because of his handsome appearance.
As a king, Philip was determined to strengthen the monarchy at any cost. He relied more than any of his predecessors on a professional bureaucracy of legalists. His reign marks the French transition from a charismatic monarchy–which could all but collapse in an incompetent reign–to a bureaucratic kingdom, a move towards modernity.
Philip married Jeanne of Navarre (1271–1305) on August 16, 1284.
Philip IV arrested Jews so he could seize their goods to accommodate the inflated costs of modern warfare, condemned by his enemies in the Catholic Church as his his spendthrift lifestyle. When he also levied taxes on the French clergy of one half their annual income, he caused an uproar within the Roman Catholic Church and the papacy. Still, Philippe emerged victorious with a French archbishop made Pope Clement V and the official seat of the papacy removed to Avignon, an enclave surrounded by French territories.
He suffered a major embarrassment when a force of 10,000 knights he sent to suppress an uprising in Flanders was defeated in the Battle of the Golden Spurs near Kortrijk on 11 July 1302.
On October 13, 1307, what may have been all the Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philippe the Fair, to be later tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. A modern historical view is that Philippe, who seized the considerable Templar treasury and broke up the Templar monastic banking system, simply sought to control it for himself.
King Philip le Bel in War-dress, on the Occasion of his entering Paris in 1304, after having conquered the Communes of Flanders.--Equestrian Statue placed in Notre Dame, Paris, and destroyed in 1772.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut from Thevet's "Cosmographie Universelle," 1575. Philippe IV's rule signaled the decline of the papacy's power from its near complete authority. He died in a hunting accident and is buried in Saint Denis Basilica.
Children
The children of Philippe IV and Jeanne of Navarre were: - Marguerite (1288-1300)
- Louis X - (October 4, 1289 - June 5, 1316)
- Isabelle - (1292 - August 23, 1358)
- Philippe V - (1293 - January 3, 1322)
- Charles IV - (1294 - February 1, 1328)
- Robert (1297-1308)
All three of his sons reaching adulthood would become king of France and his daughter, Queen of England.
He was succeeded by his son, Louis X.
See also
Sources and further reading - Goyau, Georges. "Philip IV (the Fair)." The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XII. 1911. [1] (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12004a.htm)
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