Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/424

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410 PHILIP IV. (FEANCE) PHILIP VI. (FEANCE) to the lie de France and portions of Picardy and Orleanais, included in 1206 in addition all or nearly all of Vermandois, Artois, the Vex- in-Francais and the Vexin-Normand, Berry, Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, and Auvergne. But it was less as a soldier than as an administrator that he was distinguish- ed. He succeeded in part in establishing a cen- tral power by assembling about him a parlia- ment of his grand vassals, of which he himself as suzerain was the head. He was still more successful in his efforts to free royalty from the power either of the pope or of the national clergy. In 1209 he seized the domains of the bishops of Orleans and Auxerre, who had re- fused their contingent dues for the fiefs they held, and, in spite of a papal interdict, compel- led the prelates to admit his claim. He caused the streets of Paris to be paved, extended and heightened the walls, constructed numerous public buildings, conferred its chief privileges upon the university of Paris, and walled in and strengthened other principal towns. PHILIP IV., the Fair, the llth king of France of the Oapetian line, born at Fontainebleau in 1268, died there, Nov. 29, 1314. He succeeded his father, Philip the Bold, in October, 1285, and was crowned at Eheims, Jan. 6, 1286. The beginning of his reign was disturbed by the war with Aragon, begun in 1283, but this was speedily settled. He had long been medi- tating the invasion of Guienne, then held by Edward I. of England, when in 1293 a sort of piratical war waged between the sailors of the cinque ports and France gave him a pretext for summoning that monarch before the parlia- ment of Paris. The English king, acknowl- edging the suzerainty of Philip, but detained by his contests with the Welsh and Scotch, sent his brother Edmund with full power of nego- tiation; and this credulous prince was so out- witted through a fictitious treaty, that the sur- render of all the fortresses in Guienne was pro- cured. Philip then charged Edward with con- tumacy for not appearing in person, and de- clared his fiefs confiscated. The latter formed an alliance with the German emperor, Adolphus of Nassau, and the count of Flanders. A truce was however agreed upon, by the terms of which the question of Guienne was referred to the decision of the pope. In 1299-1300 Flanders, which had not been included in the treaty, was reduced, and its count enticed to Paris and imprisoned. Philip now engaged in a quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII., and in 1302 summoned a meeting of the states general. A rebellion broke out in Flanders, and in attempting to suppress it the French were defeated with terrible slaughter at Cour- trai, July 11, 1302. The next year Philip marched into the Flemish territory at the head of a large army, but was unable to effect anything ; and about this time the expul- sion of the French garrison from Bordeaux led to the restoration of Guienne to England (1303), and to a treaty of peace between the two crowns. In the mean while, his quarrel with the pope continuing, Philip summoned a meeting of the prelates and nobles, and accused Boniface of heresy, simony, sorcery, sensual- ity, and disbelief in the eucharist and in the immortality of the soul. An appeal to a gen- eral council was adopted. But Philip, trusting more to force than to pacific measures, sent into Italy Guillaume de Nogaret, who by the aid of the Oolonnas made the pope prisoner ; and although Boniface was released by a rising of the people, he shortly afterward died, probably from ill usage. He was succeeded by Benedict XI., who did not live long, and in turn was succeeded by Clement V., a pontiff wholly in the French interest, who transferred the papal residence to Avignon. Philip now prosecuted his Flemish war, but with little success, and a treaty of peace was finally concluded in 1305, by which the independence of Flanders was partially recognized. Actuated, it is supposed, by want of money, which had previously led him to persecute the Jews and depreciate the coinage, Philip next resolved to suppress the order of the templars. Charges of heresy and unnatural crimes were brought against the body, and in October, 1307, all the knights of the order were arrested on the same night. Con- demned by diocesan tribunals, numbers of them were burned, and others, who through fear of torture or death had confessed, were sentenced to minor punishments. To sanction the sup- pression of the order, the council of Vienne assembled in October, 1311, and in the spring of 1312 the pope pronounced it dissolved, and its property was made over to the hospitallers, but the crown absorbed the greater portion of it. In 1314 two leading officers of the templars, Guy of Auvergne and the grand master Jacques de Molay, were burned for recanting their con- fessions; and on this occasion, it is said, the grand master summoned the pope and the king to appear before the judgment seat of God, the former within 40 days, the latter within a year and a day. Whether this summons was real or not, both sovereigns died within the stated periods. The last years of Philip's life were taken up with the collection of taxes, and prosecutions and executions for political offences. In 1313 the wives of his three sons were charged with adultery ; one of them waa sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, and one, Margaret of Burgundy, wife of his eldest son Louis, was strangled in prison, while the third was acquitted. Involved in new difficulties with the Flemings, he was obliged by an insurrection of his own people to make a compromise with them. His power was most despotic, and there was often much disaffection among the people in consequence of the enormous taxes and de- basement of the coinage. PHILIP VI., of Valois, the first king of France of the house of Valois, born in 1293, died at Nogent-le-Roi, near Chartres, Aug. 22, 1350. He was the son of Charles of Valois, brother of Philip the Fair, and during the reign of Philip