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| 1302, June |
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| A French council, using trumped-up charges, accused Boniface of illegally gaining the papacy, of simony, heresy, and sexual perversion, and called for a general church council to depose him. Boniface prepared another bull (to be published Sept. 8, 1303), declaring Philip automatically excommunicated for preventing the French bishops from going to Rome, and stated that Philip had lost all authority and claim to his subjects' fidelity. | 1 |
| To prevent publication of the papal letter, Guillaume de Nogaret, Philip's influential councillor, and Sciarra Colonna, one of Boniface's bitterest enemies, forced their way into the Gaetani palace (Sept. 7, 1303) at Anagni (central Italy) and arrested Boniface. This event marks the culmination of Philip's struggle with the pope. Local townspeople released the pope after three days. He was taken back to Rome but died a broken man about a month after this humiliation. Boniface's successor, Benedict XI (1303–4), desperate to gain French friendship, dismissed all blame for the attack at Anagni, restored privileges revoked by Boniface VIII, and renewed the royal right to tax the clergy. | 2 |
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| 1302, May 18 |
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| Angered by heavy taxes imposed by French army of occupation, Flemish workers at Bruges rebelled and drove out the French garrison. Although not a great victory, this Matin of Bruges reflected Flemish artisan class's deep resentment at French domination. July 11. Flemish infantry crushed aristocratic French cavalry at Courtrai (Battle of the Spurs), killing all leaders of the French army and some of Philip's councillors. | 3 |
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| 1306 |
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| Convinced that he had a special duty to achieve unity and purity of faith in France, in response to anti-Semitic popular opinion, and anxious to pay off the debts of the war with England, Philip ordered the arrest of the Jews of France (about 10,000), seized their property, and gave them the choice of conversion or exile. Most chose exile in Flanders, in the Rhenish towns, across the Rhône, or in Spain. | 4 |
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| 1307 |
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| The new efficiency of the French government was demonstrated by the suppression of the Order of the Knights Templar, a large, wealthy, and influential religious order that served as Philip's bankers. On Oct. 13, 1307, almost every Templar in France was simultaneously arrested and the order's property seized, in a police action a modern dictatorship might envy. Using false charges (heresy and homosexuality), Philip waged a propaganda campaign, applied horrible tortures, and pressured Pope Clement V to suppress the order. | 5 |
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| 1312 |
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| The Order of the Templars was formally abolished by the Synod of Vienne. Its property was transferred to the Hospitalers (except in Spain and in France, where it passed to the crown). Philip made the Temple treasury a section of the royal finance administration. | 6 |
| New economic and social alignments. The rapid expansion of France, and especially the wars of Philip III and Philip VI against England and Flanders, raised an acute financial problem. Philip IV tried every device to raise money (feudal aides, war levies to replace military service, tallage of towns, special levies on clergy and nobles, “loans” and “gifts,” the maltôte or sales tax, debasement of the coinage, attacks on the Jews and Templars), but without finding an adequate solution. It was this situation primarily that explains the emergence of the Estates General. Levies on the nobles and clergy had long been arranged in meetings of representatives of these two orders; by negotiations between the towns and the royal agents, the burghers had been brought to contribute. Provincial estates had been called frequently during the 13th century. The convocation of the Estates General meant the substitution of national for provincial or local negotiation, but implied no principle of consent or control over royal taxation. The royal revenue was increased perhaps tenfold between the time of Louis IX and the time of Philip IV, but this meant overtaxation of all classes, harmful effects on economic life, and estrangement of public opinion. Antitax leagues were organized, and local assemblies drew up lists of grievances. Philip was obliged to call the Estates General again in 1314, but as the bourgeoisie and the nobility distrusted each other, no effective measures were taken and no permanent constitutional development took place. | 7 |
| Characteristic of the period was Pierre Dubois's De Recuperatione Sanctae Terrae (c. 1306), ostensibly an appeal to Philip to undertake a crusade to recover the Holy Land from the Saracens, in reality an extensive program of reform in the interests of stronger national monarchy. Dubois envisaged the formation of a European league to enforce peace through common military action and economic boycott, with disputes between parties to be settled by judicial methods. He called also for a system of universal education and for the secularization of Church property. (See France) | 8 |
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