General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> Of France
Philip IV, byname PHILIP THE FAIR, French PHILIPPE LE BEL (
b. 1268, Fontainebleau, Fr.--d. Nov. 29, 1314, Fontaineblea
u), king of France from 1285 to 1314 (and of Navarre, as Ph
ilip I, from 1284 to 1305, ruling jointly with his wife, Jo
an I of Navarre). His long struggle with the Roman papacy e
nded with the transfer of the Curia to Avignon, Fr. (beginn
ing the so-called Babylonian Captivity, 1309-78). He also s
ecured French royal power by wars on barons and neighbour
s and by restriction of feudal usages. His three sons wer
e successively kings of France: Louis X, Philip V, and Char
les IV.
Early years.
Born at Fontainebleau while his grandfather was still rulin
g, Philip, the second son of Philip III the Bold and grands
on of St. Louis (Louis IX), was not yet three when his moth
er, Isabella of Aragon, died on her return from the crusad
e on which Louis IX had perished. The motherless Philip an
d his three brothers saw little of their father, who, stric
ken by Isabella's death, threw himself into campaigning an
d administrative affairs. His troubled childhood and the se
ries of blows he suffered explain in some measure the confl
icting elements in his adult personality. In 1274 his fathe
r married Marie de Brabant, a beautiful and cultivated woma
n, and, with her arrival at court, intrigue began to flouri
sh. In the same year, the two-year-old Joan, heiress of Cha
mpagne and Navarre, was welcomed as a refugee. Reared wit
h the royal children, she would, when she was 12, become th
e bride of Philip the Fair.
In 1276 Philip's older brother, Louis, died, and the shoc
k of this event, which suddenly made Philip heir of the kin
gdom, was compounded by persistent rumours of poisoning an
d suspicions that Philip's stepmother intended to see Isabe
lla's remaining sons destroyed. Vague allegations were circ
ulated that Louis's death was linked with certain unspecifi
ed "unnatural acts" of his father. These rumours, never sat
isfactorily put to rest, together with the unexpected chang
e in Philip's fortunes, apparently served to arouse in hi
m feelings of insecurity and mistrust.
Consequently, Philip turned elsewhere in search of a mode
l for his own conduct. He found it in Louis IX, whose memor
y was increasingly venerated as the number of miracles attr
ibuted to him mounted. Reports of Louis's exacting standard
s of rulership and his saintly virtues were reinforced by t
he precepts of the religious advisers who surrounded the ad
olescent Philip. A more self-confident person might have be
en able to discriminate realistically among the sometimes a
rtificially exaggerated stories and the utopian ideals. Phi
lip, however, became convinced that it was his God-given du
ty to attain the lofty goals of his grandfather.
When Philip was 16, he was knighted and married to Joan o
f Navarre. In 1285 he accompanied his father to the south o
n a campaign to install Philip's brother Charles on the thr
one of Aragon. He had no sympathy with the enterprise, howe
ver, which was backed by his stepmother and aimed against t
he King of Aragon, his late mother's brother. When his fath
er died in October 1285, Philip immediatelyabandoned the ve
nture.
Wars with England and Flanders.
In the first years of Philip's reign the Aragonese affair w
as settled, and Philip intensified his predecessors' effort
s to reform and rationalize the administration of the realm
. He dispatched investigators to inquire into the conduct o
f royal officials and into infringements upon royal preroga
tives. Philip persisted in seeking such reforms, which stre
ngthened the monarchy's position but angered the nobles, to
wnsmen, and ecclesiastics who had profited from the laxer p
olicies of earlier kings.
War with England began in 1294, initiating a 10-year perio
d of conflict that severely strained Philip's resources. Th
ere had been some naval clashes, but full-scale war might