Which country's ruler was nicknamed the "Counterfeit King"? and got the best answer

Answer from Valent[guru]

The main nerve of all Philip's activities was the constant desire to fill the empty royal treasury. For this purpose, the Estates General and separately city representatives were convened several times; For this purpose, various positions were sold and leased, forced loans were made from cities, both goods and estates were subject to high taxes, low-grade coins were minted, and the population, especially the non-trading population, suffered heavy losses.
In 1306, Philip was even forced to flee Paris for a time until the popular rage over the consequences of the ordinance he issued in 1304 on maximum prices passed.
The administration was highly centralized; This was especially noticeable in the provinces where feudal traditions were still strong. The rights of feudal rulers were significantly limited (for example, in the matter of minting coins). The king was not loved not so much for his nature, ready for any crime, but for his too greedy fiscal policy.

Answer from Pg[guru]
Maybe it's Ivan-Kalita?

Answer from Maremas[guru]
Philip the Silent or Owl is another nickname for King Philip the Fair of France. Presumably, he was poisoned by emissaries of the Templar Order. In addition to these two nicknames, he also had a third - the Counterfeit King. Due to constantly growing taxes and inflation, he began to reduce the silver content when minting coins.

Answer from Olesya corsair[guru]
Seven centuries have passed since that October day in 1285 when the people of Paris welcomed a 17-year-old boy. It was Philip of the Capetian family who, with solemn ceremony, was anointed to the French throne. Philip IV, as he could now be called, did not show his royal majesty to the Parisians for long; he had nothing to say to them. Casting a blind glance over the jubilant crowd, he turned around and disappeared, surrounded by courtiers. If anything more is expected of him, let those in his service do it. He, Philip, the king by the grace of God, will not speak to the mob. Philip the Handsome, so named soon by his contemporaries, went down in history under this name. Philip was the scion of an ancient family, the power and successes of his ancestors in the public sphere were very different. The Capetian family fought for three centuries for the unity of the kingdom. The founder of the family was Hugo Capet, who ruled from 987-996. In those days, the power of local feudal lords in the kingdom was practically unlimited; they had the right to mint coins and have their own mints. Hugo in best case scenario was first among equals, coins with his image were minted only in Paris and Orleans. Much water has passed under the bridge since then. After the wedding in 1284 of 16-year-old Philip with Joanna, heir to the throne of Navarre (she did not speak a word of Spanish) and Countess of Champagne, the number of his pseudo-independent possessions was reduced to four: Flanders, Brittany, Aquitaine and Burgundy. Philip the Fair was seized by an ambitious plan to subject the remaining areas to the absolute power of the king, so that no one else, but only he, would be the arbiter of temporal and spiritual affairs throughout France. Circumstances were not at all favorable for this. Philip also had a second nickname: counterfeiter. It remained with Philip IV to this day, although many rulers later surpassed him in this craft. The king earned his nickname because he was a “political blacksmith from Reims,” as the king’s brother Charles of Valois used to say. This “Reims blacksmith” also attracted the attention of Dante Alighieri, who, having fired many sarcastic arrows at the Capetians in The Divine Comedy, devoted several lines to Philip’s monetary manipulations and connected Philip’s death from the tusks of a boar with the royal counterfeit of coins. (Philip died on November 29, 1314 as a result of several blows, the first of which overtook him on November 4 while hunting. The legend that he fell from his horse and was attacked by a boar was widespread at one time.) Already in 1292, the the first sin of the French king. He introduces universal taxation of his subjects, which also applies to the clergy. The worldly nobility is taxed in the amount of one hundredth of their property (in some parts of the country the tax rises to "Up"), cities pay a turnover tax in the amount of one denier for each livre, the church is obliged to pay tithes to the royal treasury not only in times of war and in other emergency circumstances, but also in normal times. Here is also the “hearth tax” - six soles from each household, as well as the “Lombard tax”, which applies to Italian merchants and money changers in France, and the “Jewish tax”. Minting counterfeit coins, or, better to say, manipulating coins, is the second major sin of Philip the Fair, of which history accuses him. The third sin of the Capetian king will never be forgiven for him in Rome. table - the fourth immediately follows. The defeat of the Knights Templar is probably the most serious sin of Philip the Fair. The Babylonian exile, the relocation of the pope to Avignon, freed the French monarchs from the painful interference of the papal throne in their affairs. The coin manipulations that brought Philip into disrepute became the right of the king under his sons, who ruled until 1328, but especially under the representatives of the Valois dynasty, who came to power after them.

It was not for nothing that Philip IV received his nickname the Handsome. Regular facial features, large, motionless eyes, wavy dark hair. He was like a magnificent sculpture, motionless and bewitchingly inaccessible in his majestic detachment. Melancholy, an eternal imprint on his face, made him a mysterious and unique person in history...

Philip was the second son of King Philip III and Isabella of Aragon. Even then, extraordinary beauty was visible in the angelic features of the baby, and it is unlikely that the happy father, looking at his offspring, could have imagined that he would become the last large-scale representative of the Capetian royal family.

Philip III cannot be called a successful monarch. The feudal lords did not really obey him, the treasury was empty, and the papal legates dictated their will.

And when the almighty pope ordered the French king to lead a campaign to Aragon to punish the Aragonese king for taking Sicily from the pope’s favorite (Charles of Anjou), Philip could not resist, and the French army set off on a campaign. Fate was not on Philip’s side: the French suffered a heavy defeat, and the king himself died on the way back.

Philip IV the Fair

His seventeen-year-old son, who fought alongside his father, learned one very important lesson from this deplorable enterprise - a persistent reluctance to serve the interests of others, even papal ones. In 1285, the coronation of Philip IV took place and his era began, which in all respects could be called “new.”

First of all, the young king had to deal with his father’s legacy and solve the Aragonese problem. He solved it in the most beneficial way for France - he completely stopped military operations, despite the urgent objections of the Holy See.

A real shock for medieval Europe was the refusal of a completely inexperienced monarch from the services of his father’s high-ranking advisers. Instead, he established a Royal Council, membership in which was ensured by special merit, and not by noble origin. For feudal society this was a real revolution.

Thus, not noble, but educated people gained access to power. For their knowledge of the laws they were called legalists and were hated very much. Special role At the court of Philip the Fair, three of his close associates played: Chancellor Pierre Flotte, Guardian of the Seal Guillaume Nogaret and Coadjutor Enguerrand Marigny. Raised to power by the king himself, they were extremely loyal to him and determined the course of all state policy.

And the entire policy of Philip IV came down to solving two problems: how to annex new lands to the state and where to get the money for this.

Joan I of Navarre, Princess of the House of Champagne, reigning Queen of Navarre since 1274, daughter and heir of Henry I of Navarre and Queen of France since 1285 - wife of Philip IV the Fair.

Even Philip's marriage was subordinated to the great goal of the expansion of France: he married Joan I, Queen of Navarre and Countess of Champagne. This marriage gave him the opportunity to add Champagne to his possessions, and also led to the first unification of France and Navarre.

But this was not the limit of the king’s dreams. Refusing to support papal interests, Philip focused his attention on English affairs. The stumbling block was the monarch's desire to gain Flanders.

Having summoned Edward I to the court of the Parisian parliament, and using his refusal as a pretext for war, both sides, having acquired allies, began military operations with great pleasure. Pope Boniface VIII, who learned about this, called on both monarchs to reconcile. And both ignored this call.

The matter was further complicated by the fact that Philip was in dire need of money to wage the war, and therefore forbade the export of gold and silver from France to Rome. The pope lost one of his sources of income, and the relationship between Philip and Boniface did not become any warmer because of this.

Philip IV the Handsome - King of France from 1285, King of Navarre 1284-1305, son of Philip III the Bold, from the Capetian dynasty.

The Pope threatened to excommunicate Philip. And then the legalists took up arms, that is, their pens, and brought forward a whole series of accusations against the pope, both of intrigues against France and of heresy.

The agitation bore fruit: the French ceased to fear the papal wrath, and Nogaret, who went to Italy, concocted an extensive conspiracy against the pope. Soon, the already quite elderly Boniface VIII died and the protege of France, Clement V, sat on the papal throne. The papal dispute was resolved.

Philip always lacked money. The policy of unification and annexation that he pursued required great expenses. The first victim of the king's financial difficulties was the coin. Its weight was significantly lightened, and output was increased, which led to increased inflation. The second point financial program taxation became king. Taxes were constantly rising, which led to popular unrest. And finally - the matter of the Templars.

The Knights Templar arose at the beginning of the 12th century in Jerusalem. He imagined himself as knights guarding the Holy Sepulcher. In addition, the Knights Templar protected their own, quite considerable, wealth and money of those who trusted them. The Muslim offensive forced the Templars to leave the Holy Land, and over time, their main function became financial. They practically became a bank that stored and invested money.

One of the debtors of the order was Philip the Fair himself. As life has shown, the king really did not like to repay debts, and therefore in 1307, with the tacit consent of the pope, all the Templars throughout France were arrested on the same day. The trial of the order was clearly a whitewash, the charges were far-fetched, interrogations were carried out with the use of torture, and the case ended in blazing fires throughout France. The Grand Master of the Order, Jean Molay, was also burned.

Jacques de Molay is the twenty-third and last Master of the Knights Templar.

As popular rumor testified, before the execution the master cursed Clement V and Philip IV and predicted death for the first in forty days, and for the second in twelve months. The prediction miraculously came true.

The pope died of dysentery thirty-three days after the execution of Molay, and the king then fell ill with some strange illness and died on November 29, 1314. The curse also fell on Philip's descendants. His three sons - the “damned kings” - did not leave offspring on the throne, according to the Templar curse, and the Capetian line was soon interrupted.

Philip the Fair has remained a mysterious and controversial figure in history. Some call him a great reformer, others call him a cruel despot who fell under the influence of his advisers. The results of his reign were disappointing: the vertical of power was never fully formed, but in the end the finances were upset.

The zigzags of his politics, as well as his frequent mood swings, as well as his manner of freezing, staring unblinkingly at one point, are associated by many modern researchers with the manic-depressive disorder of his consciousness.

According to eyewitnesses, at certain periods he was cheerful, talkative and even joked. But he soon became gloomy, withdrawn, silent and indifferently cruel.

Philip IV the Fair

Well, the powerful of this world also have weaknesses. And, nevertheless, King Philip the Fair during his reign made France the most powerful country in the world and began a new era in the history of this state.

Philip also had a second nickname: counterfeiter. It remained with Philip IV to this day, although many rulers later surpassed him in this craft. The king earned his nickname because he was a “political blacksmith from Reims,” as the king’s brother Charles of Valois used to say. This “Reims blacksmith” also attracted the attention of Dante Alighieri, who, having fired many sarcastic arrows against the Capetians in the “Divine Comedy,” devoted several lines to Philip’s monetary manipulations and connected Philip’s death from the tusks of a boar with the royal counterfeit of coins. (Philip died on November 29, 1314 as a result of several blows, the first of which overtook him on November 4 while hunting. The legend that he fell from his horse and was attacked by a boar was widespread at one time.)

Already in 1292 it begins first sin French king. He introduces universal taxation of his subjects, which also applies to the clergy. The worldly nobility is taxed to the extent of one hundredth of their property (in some parts of the country the tax is raised to "Up"), cities pay a turnover tax of one denier for each livre, the church is obliged to pay tithes to the royal treasury not only in times of war and other emergencies. circumstances, but also in normal times. Here is also the “hearth tax” - six soles from each household, as well as the “Lombard tax”, which applies to Italian merchants and money changers in France, and the “Jewish tax”.

The “Lombard tax” alone brought the treasury in 1292-1293 about 150,000 livres.

Without a doubt, this taxation was caused not only by the deplorable state of the court's finances. Philip armed himself for the war for Aquitaine and Flanders.

In 1294, Philip's troops invaded Aquitaine, and Edward I sent troops from England to defend his duchy. It was a “quiet” war, and already in 1296 the opponents agreed to cease hostilities. The agreement was reinforced by the intentions of the royal families to become related. Dynastic marriages often protected peoples from bloody conflicts, but they were never a guarantee of peace.

And yet, the Gascon War, as this campaign came to be called, was very expensive for France. Before the final peace treaty concluded in Chartres in 1303, French troops were stationed in Aquitaine, which cost the treasury 2 million livres.

Today, millions, billions of dollars in transactions of the state budget, property of corporations, enterprises and even individuals do not surprise us. But at the end of the 13th century, a million livres was an overwhelming, unimaginable amount. Calculations were made in livres, soles and deniers. 12 deniers (d) were equal to 1 sole (s), and 20 soles were equal to 1 livre (l). The livre was only a unit of account, there were no coins in denominations of 1 livre, the most popular coins were denier and noon.

At the time of Philip IV, there were two currency systems in France: the old, Parisian (p) and the new (n). Four old livres were equal to five new ones.

A skilled artisan received at best 18 new deniers (ND) per day, or 27 new livres (NL) per year. The salary of a royal employee of non-noble origin (with the exception of senior officials) was 2-5 soles per day, a knight - 10 soles.

The income of senior officials was calculated on an annual basis. The salary of the chief judge or the highest official of the royal court ranged from 365 to 700 nl. Master of the Royal mint, at the same time, the king's adviser on coinage, Baten Cocinel, received only 250 nl. The highest paid person in the royal service, Enguerrand de Marigny, received 900 nl per year.

A document drawn up around 1296 gives an idea of ​​the sources from which funds were supposed to be raised to finance the Gascon War:

200,000 nl - solid income from royal estates 249,000 nl - tithes withheld from church income 315,000 nl - tax on barons (1/100 of property)

35,000 nl - tax on barons in Champagne ("/so)

65,000 nl - tax on pawnshops

60,000 nl - tax on the trade turnover of cities (in most cases in the form of a “hearth tax”)

16,000 nl - tax on transactions between pawnbrokers in France

225,000 nl - tax on Jews, including withheld fines

200,000 nl - loans from pawnshops

630,000 nl - loans from wealthy citizens

50,000 nl - loans from prelates and royal servants

50,000 nl - income from “lightening coins”

Total: 2,105,000 nl

Some positions (for example, taxation of Jews) are certainly overstated. Some are not fully disclosed: the list of cities from which the treasury receives tax revenues, clearly not complete.

We do not know whether this money was received, nor do we know for what period these receipts were calculated. Only church tithes corresponded to the annual amount. Of the loans in 1295, 632,000 nl were received, and not always and not everywhere by non-violent means. Overall, the royal call to help the treasury in the “defensive struggle” was a great success. Naturally, the people did not know that it was planned to start the war in 1292 at the latest.

But it was almost impossible to repeat what was achieved in 1295. The peculiarity of loans is that they must be repaid, also paying interest. Some cities, having learned the hard way about the financial morality of the crown, were able to get the amounts of loans placed by royal officials to be reduced, while refusing to repay them later. Thus, in 1295, 44,910 nl came from the city of Sainton-Poitou as gifts and only 5,666 nl as loans.

Philip IV later turned to internal loans, but with less success than in 1295. From this year, the tax pressure began to tighten so tightly that wealthy subjects preferred to refrain from voluntary donations. The French kings never took the payment terms for the loans received seriously. When it came to war loans, lenders one way or another had to take note that it was pointless to expect to receive their money while the war was going on.

In the document cited, no doubt, an interesting position is the income from “lightening the coins.” Already in 1293, the king had a confidential conversation with the Lombardian Muschiatto, experienced in financial matters.

Guidi on the advantages and disadvantages of manipulating g coins. Muschiatto did not advise the king to embark on this risky undertaking, because the consequences of such actions for the economy are negative, the income of the crown ultimately turns into losses. But Philip did not really understand the needs of the country's economy. His chief adviser on monetary matters, Batain Cocinel, who was the head of the Paris Mint, was also not an expert in this matter. He could only calculate the direct immediate gain of the crown from the reduction in the content of the coins precious metals. Unlike Muschiatto, he was, moreover, a devoted servant of his master. He had every reason to be useful to his king. In many courts it was customary to “save” precious metal when making coins. In any case, Cocinel undertook to carry out the king's instructions to mint a new, largest French coin (sol) with a face value significantly higher than the previous one in circulation, while simultaneously significantly reducing the content of precious metal in it. Jacques Diemer, auditor of the Paris Mint, submitted to “higher powers.”

The largest coin in circulation at the height of the fraud in 1305 had a face value of 36 deniers (instead of 12), which, ultimately, should have caused a corresponding rise in prices. True, this could not happen overnight. The economy in the Middle Ages responded to changes in the monetary economy much more slowly than in our days. The king was thus able to quickly free himself from a third of his debts by issuing counterfeit coins that were inflated compared to their real value. The barons and townspeople had it much worse. They received only a third of the rent that they expected to receive from the loans provided to the king.

To prevent unrest, the king already in 1295 instructed his officials to explain to the people the ongoing monetary policy as a kind of war loan: as soon as the state of war ceases, the deteriorated and inflated coin compared to its real value will be fully exchanged for new money.

Philip fulfilled this promise in his own way. Until 1306, he removed coins from circulation five times in order to replace them with new, improved ones, and restore their previous condition. Decrees, according to which all full-weight coins in circulation in the country and outside it, as well as products made of gold and silver, were subject to exchange for bad royal coins, complemented these measures of the crown, which, in addition, appropriated income from war spoils.

The scale of fraud with silver coins can be seen from the following data. Under Saint Louis (1226), coins were minted from a certain weight of silver, the value of which was more than three times lower than the declared record value of coins minted in April 1305 from the same weight of silver.

The income of the royal treasury from monetary fraud in 1296 was indicated by a modest figure of 101,435 nl. Just two years later, between June 24, 1298 and June 24, 1299, it already amounted to 1.2 million nl. The idea that in such a situation it would be necessary to increase the monetary income of their subjects was absolutely alien to Philip and his advisers. On the contrary, in their view, each soldier had to work three times as hard for his previous salary, and this could not continue for long.

In 1297, Philip's troops marched against Flanders. The northern county, thanks to the industriousness of its people, was considered the richest of the vassal possessions of the French king. And not only the ruler of Flanders, Guy de Dampierre, but also the rich cities of Ghent, Bruges, Lille, which supplied the whole of Europe with their linens, considered themselves completely independent. Philip made other plans. The attacks on Aquitaine (1294) were primarily intended to force England, the traditional ally of Flanders, to abandon the defense of the county. And the English king Edward I, whose hands were tied by internal affairs, the suppression of the Scottish rebels, gave Philip this pleasure. In 1300, Flanders was “pacified”; its peace and order were to be ensured by the French occupying troops.

The looting of the poorly paid French occupiers and the taxes Philip imposed on the cities led to a general uprising in May 1302. Philip sent 7 thousand horsemen and 20 thousand infantry to suppress it. In the bloody Battle of Kortrijk, the French troops were completely defeated. This is Philip's most crushing defeat during his entire reign.

The Parisian court was experiencing depression and disappointment these days. A search is underway for the reasons for what happened, and they carefully try to make the indignant king understand that the outcome of the battle may have been influenced by the low pay of well-armed soldiers. Philip does not accept any explanations: the defeat from the rebellious mob cannot be excused in any way. In addition, he has no money: “Tax collectors deceive us at every step, they collect much more than they hand over to the treasury.”

This is the first and only time when the king accuses those in his service of uncleanliness. He knows that his accusations are not based on anything. Treasury revenues from taxes and mint manipulations for the most part do not go towards payments to the troops. Huge sums were spent on the expansion of the royal palace, palace festivities, and generous gifts to foreign rulers to ensure non-interference in the king's military enterprises.

The minting of counterfeit coins, or better said, the manipulation of coins, is second major sin Philip the Fair, which history accuses him of. Third sin a king from the Capetian family will never be forgiven by him and Rome.

In 1296, Philip demands that the French Church double its tithes to the treasury to support the defense of the kingdom. Until now, Philip had never refused “reciprocal gifts” to the church, primarily in the form of expanding its land holdings, given that church tithes in difficult years accounted for from a quarter to a third of all state revenues. However, this time the church is demanding greater privileges from France. And unexpectedly, even before the start of negotiations, the Roman holy father, Pope Boniface VIII, intervenes in this matter, prohibiting in his bull any indemnities from the church and the benefit of worldly rulers.

The Holy See in those days was by no means an all-Christian institution. For centuries he fought with the royal houses for power even in this world. His true weapon so far has been refusal of blessing, threat or actual excommunication. This meant that the “excommunicated” person found himself outside of any temporal and spiritual laws. Henry IV (1056-1106) and Frederick II (1212-1250) experienced the power of the papal curse.

Boniface VIII, the 199th pope in church history, a power-hungry and hot-tempered man, was elected pope in 1294. This year he turned 76 years old, a biblical age at that time.

Philip IV responded to the papal bull by banning any export of gold and precious metals from France. After an exchange of letters in which each side defended its point of view, the pope finally relented and declared that his bull did not apply to France. And then something happened that temporarily stopped the constant, now smoldering, now flaring up like a volcano, struggle of the sacred throne for worldly power.

Philip also had a second nickname: counterfeiter. It remained with Philip IV to this day, although many rulers later surpassed him in this craft. The king earned his nickname because he was a “political blacksmith from Reims,” as the king’s brother Charles of Valois used to say. This “Reims blacksmith” also attracted the attention of Dante Alighieri, who, having fired many sarcastic arrows against the Capetians in the “Divine Comedy,” devoted several lines to Philip’s monetary manipulations and connected Philip’s death from the tusks of a boar with the royal counterfeit of coins. (Philip died on November 29, 1314 as a result of several blows, the first of which overtook him on November 4 while hunting. The legend that he fell from his horse and was attacked by a boar was widespread at one time.)

Already in 1292, the first sin of the French king began. He introduces universal taxation of his subjects, which also applies to the clergy. The worldly nobility is taxed in the amount of one hundredth of their property (in some parts of the country the tax rises to 1/50), cities pay a turnover tax in the amount of one denier for each livre, the church is obliged to pay tithes to the royal treasury not only in times of war and in other emergency situations, but also in normal times. Here is also the “hearth tax” - six soles from each household, as well as the “Lombard tax”, which applies to Italian merchants and money changers in France, and the “Jewish tax”.

The “Lombard tax” alone brought the treasury in 1292-1293 about 150,000 livres.

Without a doubt, this taxation was caused not only by the deplorable state of the court's finances. Philip armed himself for the war for Aquitaine and Flanders.

In 1294, Philip's troops invaded Aquitaine, and Edward I sent troops from England to defend his duchy. It was a “quiet” war, and already in 1296 the opponents agreed to cease hostilities. The agreement was reinforced by the intentions of the royal families to become related. Dynastic marriages often protected peoples from bloody conflicts, but they were never a guarantee of peace.

Nevertheless, the Gascon War, as this campaign came to be called, was very expensive for France. Before the final peace treaty concluded at Chartres in 1303, French troops were stationed in Aquitaine, which cost the treasury 2 million livres.

Today millions, billions of transactions state budget, the assets of corporations, businesses and even individuals do not surprise us. But at the end of the 13th century, a million livres was an overwhelming, unimaginable amount. Calculations were made in livres, soles and deniers. 12 deniers (d) were equal to 1 sole (s), and 20 soles were equal to 1 livre (l). The livre was only a unit of account, there were no coins in denominations of 1 livre, the most popular coins were denier and noon.

During the time of Philip IV in France there were two currency systems: old, Parisian (p) and new (n). Four old livres were equal to five new ones.

A skilled artisan received at best 18 new deniers (ND) per day, or 27 new livres (NL) per year. The salary of a royal employee of non-noble origin (with the exception of senior officials) was 2-5 soles per day, a knight - 10 soles.

The income of senior officials was calculated on an annual basis. The salary of the chief judge or the highest official of the royal court ranged from 365 to 700 nl. The master of the royal mint, at the same time the king's advisor on coinage affairs, Baten Cocinel, received only 250 nl. The highest paid person in the royal service, Enguerrand de Marigny, received 900 nl per year.

A document drawn up around 1296 gives an idea of ​​the sources from which funds were supposed to be raised to finance the Gascon War:

200,000 nl - solid income from royal possessions

249,000 Nl - tithe withheld from church income

315,000 nl tax on barons (1/100 of property)

35,000 nl - tax on barons in Champagne (1/50)

65,000 nl - tax on pawnshops

60,000 nl - tax on the trade turnover of cities (in most cases in the form of a “hearth tax”)

16,000 nl - taxes on transactions between pawnbrokers in France

225,000 nl - tax on Jews, including withheld fines

200,000 nl - loans from pawnshops

630,000 nl - loans from wealthy citizens

50,000 nl - loans from prelates and royal servants

50,000 nl - income from “lightening coins”

Total: 2,105,000 nl

Some positions (for example, taxation of Jews) are certainly overstated. Some are not fully disclosed: the list of cities from which the treasury receives tax revenues is clearly not complete.

We do not know whether this money was received, nor do we know for what period these receipts were calculated. Only church tithes corresponded to the annual amount. Of the loans in 1295, 632,000 nl were received, and not always and not everywhere by non-violent means. Overall, the royal call to help the treasury in the “defensive struggle” was a great success. Naturally, the people did not know that it was planned to start the war in 1292 at the latest.

But it was almost impossible to repeat what was achieved in 1295. The peculiarity of loans is that they must be repaid, also paying interest. Some cities, having learned the hard way about the financial morality of the crown, were able to get the amounts of loans placed by royal officials to be reduced, while refusing to repay them later. Thus, in 1295, 44,910 nl came from the city of Sainton-Poitou as gifts and only 5,666 nl as loans.

Philip IV later turned to internal loans, but with less success than in 1295. From this year, the tax pressure began to tighten so tightly that wealthy subjects preferred to refrain from voluntary donations. The French kings never took the payment terms for the loans received seriously. When it came to war loans, lenders one way or another had to take note that it was pointless to expect to receive their money while the war was going on.

In the document cited, no doubt, an interesting position is the income from “lightening the coins.” Already in 1293, the king had a confidential conversation with the Lombardian Muschiatto Guidi, experienced in monetary matters, about the advantages and disadvantages of manipulating coins. Muschiatto did not advise the king to embark on this risky undertaking, because the consequences of such actions for the economy are negative, the income of the crown ultimately turns into losses. But Philip did not really understand the needs of the country's economy. His chief adviser on monetary matters, Batain Cocinel, who was the head of the Paris Mint, was also not an expert in this matter. He could only calculate the direct immediate benefit to the crown from the reduction in the content of precious metals in the coins. Unlike Muschiatto, he was, moreover, a devoted servant of his master. He had every reason to be useful to his king. In many courts it was customary to “save” precious metal when making coins. In any case, Cocinel undertook to carry out the king's instructions to mint a new, largest French coin (sol) with a face value significantly higher than the previous one in circulation, while simultaneously significantly reducing the content of precious metal in it. Jacques Diemer, auditor of the Paris Mint, submitted to “higher powers.”

The largest coin in circulation at the peak of the scam, in 1305, had a face value of 36 deniers (instead of 12), which would ultimately cause a corresponding rise in prices. True, this could not happen overnight. The economy in the Middle Ages responded to changes in the monetary economy much more slowly than it does today. The king was thus able to quickly free himself from a third of his debts by issuing counterfeit coins that were inflated compared to the real value. The barons and townspeople had it much worse. They received only a third of the rent that they expected to receive from the loans provided to the king.

To prevent unrest, the king already in 1295 instructed his officials to explain to the people the monetary policy being pursued as a kind of war loan: as soon as the state of war ceased, the deteriorated and inflated coin compared to its real value would be fully exchanged for new money.

Philip fulfilled this promise in his own way. Before 1306, he removed coins from circulation five times in order to replace them with new, improved ones, and restore their previous condition. Decrees, according to which all full-weight coins in circulation in the country and outside it, as well as products made of gold and silver, were subject to exchange for bad royal coins, complemented these measures of the crown, which, in addition, appropriated income from war spoils.

The scale of fraud with silver coins can be seen from the following data. Under Saint Louis (1226), coins were minted from a certain weight of silver, the value of which was more than three times lower than the declared record value of coins minted in April 1305 from the same weight of silver.

The income of the royal treasury from monetary fraud in 1296 was indicated by a modest figure of 101,435 nl. Just two years later, between June 24, 1298 and June 24, 1299, it already amounted to 1.2 million nl. The idea that in such a situation it would be necessary to increase the monetary income of their subjects was absolutely alien to Philip and his advisers. On the contrary, in their view, each soldier had to work three times as hard for his previous salary, and this could not continue for long.

In 1297, Philip's troops marched against Flanders. The northern county, thanks to the industriousness of its people, was considered the richest of the vassal possessions of the French king. And not only the ruler of Flanders, Guy de Dampierre, but also the rich cities of Ghent, Bruges, Lille, which supplied the whole of Europe with their linens, considered themselves completely independent. Philip made other plans. The attacks on Aquitaine (1294) were primarily intended to force England, the traditional ally of Flanders, to abandon the defense of the county. And the English king Edward I, whose hands were tied by internal affairs, the suppression of the Scottish rebels, gave Philip this pleasure. In 1300, Flanders was “pacified”; its peace and order were to be ensured by the French occupying troops.

The looting of the poorly paid French occupiers and the taxes Philip imposed on the cities led to a general uprising in May 1302. Philip sent 7 thousand horsemen and 20 thousand infantry to suppress it. In the bloody Battle of Kortrijk, the French troops were completely defeated. This is Philip's most crushing defeat during his entire reign.

The Parisian court was experiencing depression and disappointment these days. A search is underway for the reasons for what happened, and they carefully try to make the indignant king understand that the outcome of the battle may have been influenced by the low pay of well-armed soldiers. Philip does not accept any explanations: the defeat from the rebellious mob cannot be excused in any way. Besides, he has no money:

“Tax collectors deceive us at every turn; they collect much more than they hand over to the treasury.”

This is the first and only time when the king accuses those in his service of uncleanliness. He knows that his accusations are not based on anything. Treasury revenues from taxes and mint manipulations for the most part do not go towards payments to the troops. Huge sums were spent on the expansion of the royal palace, palace festivities, and generous gifts to foreign rulers to ensure non-interference in the king's military enterprises.

Minting counterfeit coins, or better said, manipulating coins, is the second major sin of Philip the Fair with which history accuses him. The third sin of the Capetian king will never be forgiven in Rome.

In 1296, Philip demands that the French Church double its tithes to the treasury to support the defense of the kingdom. Until now, Philip had never refused “reciprocal gifts” to the church, primarily in the form of expanding its land holdings, given that church tithes in difficult years accounted for from a quarter to a third of all state revenues. However, this time the church is demanding greater privileges from France. Unexpectedly, even before the start of negotiations, the Roman holy father, Pope Boniface VIII, intervenes in this matter, prohibiting in his bull any indemnities from the church in favor of worldly rulers.

The Holy See in those days was by no means an all-Christian institution. For centuries he fought with the royal houses for power even in this world. His true weapon so far has been refusal of blessing, threat or actual excommunication. This meant that the “excommunicated” person found himself outside of any temporal and spiritual laws. Henry IV (1056-1106) and Frederick II (1212-1250) experienced the power of the papal curse.

Boniface VIII, the 199th pope in church history, a power-hungry and hot-tempered man, was elected pope in 1294. This year he turned 76 years old, a biblical age at that time.

Philip IV responded to the papal bull by banning any export of gold and precious metals from France. After an exchange of letters in which each side defended its point of view, the pope finally relented and declared that his bull did not apply to France. And then something happened that temporarily stopped the constant, now smoldering, now flaring up like a volcano, struggle of the sacred throne for worldly power.

Bishop of Parma

Bernard Sasse, Bishop of Parma, a loyal supporter of the pope, repeatedly spoke out against the despotism and autocracy of Philip, thereby winning applause not only in Rome. He spoke about Philip’s coins like this:

“This money is cheaper than dirt. They are impure and false; The one by whose will they are minted acts unrighteously and dishonestly. In the entire Roman Curia, I don’t know anyone who would give even a handful of dirt for this money.”

These speeches evoked a lively response from his flock. But they reacted differently in the palace. Philip did not tolerate any opponents, he was only waiting for a convenient reason to silence his opponent. Sasse himself soon provided the king with such an opportunity when he compared the king, endowed with the rank of God's viceroy in France, to an owl, “the most beautiful of birds, which is good for nothing... Such is our king, the most handsome man in the world, who, however , cannot do anything other than contemplate those around him.” This was an open insult to the royal majesty, high treason. At the end of October 1301, Bernard Sasse was taken into custody and brought to trial. It was a peculiar process. There was no shortage of witnesses confirming the seditious statements of the accused. He was even deprived of a defender. And yet Sasse was the pope's envoy. In any case, the court's decision was very lenient. There were also witnesses who urged not to take everything seriously. The bishop is an elderly man with a bad character, who, after taking a sip from a bottle, sometimes blurts out too much. Others said, not without irony, that he was simple “to the point of holiness.” The sentence took into account “mitigating circumstances.” Philip actually limited himself to depriving Sesse of his episcopal rank and property worth 40,000 nl, which “with the consent” of Sesse was transferred to one of the monasteries. Sasse never saw his money again, although seven years later his episcopal rank was returned to him.

The Chronicle reports that Philip was not happy with the process, and with good reason. He needed church tithes.

The reaction of the Holy See was not long in coming. Already on December 5, 1301 (the verdict dated back to the end of November), the papal ambassadors brought Boniface's bull (this message under the eloquent title “Hark, son” was prepared before the start of the trial against Sasse), in which he called himself the supreme judge. Boniface notified the “King of the French” about the liquidation of all privileges that the French court had in relations with the Holy Church. The most painful thing for Philip was the annulment of the right to impose a decimal tax on the French church without the consent of the pope, negotiated in 1297 from Rome. Philip was also irritated by the attacks on his policies contained in the very voluminous bull. They also discussed his export bans, the selection of royal advisers, royal decrees, financial policies and manipulation of coins. Boniface, however, refrained from directly calling Philip IV a counterfeiter.

Later sources devoted to this historical combat invariably report that Philip in February 1302 ordered the public burning of the papal bull. However, no convincing evidence is provided, and this is generally unlikely. Philip entrusted his first minister, Pierre Flote, to look into this matter, who informed only a narrow circle of advisers about the contents of the bull. It remained unknown primarily to the pope’s most faithful associates from the royal entourage. Instead of a detailed notice, Flote summed up the Roman reproaches in one sentence: “Know that you are our subject in both temporal and spiritual matters.” Boniface did not write this way, but it followed from the content of his message. And it was precisely by this phrase that the papal bull was to be judged at the meeting of the Estates General on April 10, 1302.

This April day is a very curious date in French history. For the first time, representatives of not only the nobility and clergy, but also the third estate in the person of the townspeople were invited. This move ensured victory for the king, and Fleet, as a sign of gratitude, was awarded the title of Keeper of the Great Royal Seal.

The old man who sat on the Holy Throne, having learned about the decision taken at the meeting of the three estates in Paris, was beside himself. He convenes a church council, to which only half of the French bishops (39 out of 79) arrive, and curses Flotet, “whom God has already punished with partial physical blindness and complete spiritual blindness.” Flote is called the second Ahithophel, and it is said that he will share the fate of the latter. The pope's prediction was very soon confirmed: Pierre Floete died on July 11 of the same year in the Battle of Kortrijk. We do not know what impression his death made on the French bishops.

Flotet's successor was Guillaume Nogaret, who was equally energetic and even more scrupulous in carrying out the will of the king, and was soon granted nobility by the king. Maurice Druon in his book “Curse from the Fire” characterizes this lean, dark-haired man with restless eyes as a merciless and “inevitable as the scythe of death” servant of the king, who looked like a devil and was devilishly persistent in carrying out his master’s policies.

On November 18, 1302, a new bull by Boniface follows, in which he develops the postulate that every creature between heaven and earth is subject to the Holy See: “We declare, proclaim and determine that every person is necessarily a subject of the Roman pontificate, if he values the immortality of his soul."

Boniface overestimated his strength in delivering this message, although it was expressed in a much more peaceful tone compared to the previous bull. Philip also had influential allies in Italy. These are primarily representatives of the family of the Counts of Colonna, whose property was sequestered by Boniface in favor of members of his family, greedy for power and wealth. In turn, Guillaume Nogaret knew from Colonne about the accusations brought against Boniface during the unusual abdication of his predecessor Celestine V. The content of the accusations was that Boniface was allegedly subject to heresy, sexual perversion and other sins. Hardly any of this list corresponded to reality. However, Philip’s lawyers were sophisticatedly experienced in scholastic-hook-making battles, and Boniface’s phrase, which he could actually utter in a passion: “I’d rather be a dog than a Frenchman,” was turned against him: “A dog has no soul, but the very last Frenchman has it. In other words, Boniface does not believe in the immortality of the soul. He's a heretic."

On June 13, 1303, at a meeting of representatives of the nobility and clergy in the Louvre, many similar finds were announced, which gave rise to a proposal to convene a church council at which Boniface’s heresy was to be discussed. The question of where and when to convene the council remained open.

Boniface, meanwhile, writes another bull, which on September 8 is delivered to Paris and published. The content of the bull is as follows: Philip of France is excommunicated from the church, because he forbade the French prelates to go to Rome, gave refuge to the apostate Stefano Colonna and lost the confidence of his subjects.

On the same day, the king confidentially talks with the keeper of his seal: “Nogare, no one should know about this message. We do not limit you in anything, but the pope must appear before the church council.” Guillaume Nogaret did not need many words, and the handshake with which the king honored him meant that the fate of the king was now in his hands. Nogaret wastes no time, he chooses the most reliable and bravest knights and, together with them, goes to Anagni, the personal possession of the pope. There, with the support of the Colonna family, he actually takes the 86-year-old dad captive. Apparently, Boniface was subjected to very harsh treatment. In any case, four weeks after the inhabitants of Anagna free him, he dies in the Vatican. But Boniface’s fading strength is enough to excommunicate Guillaume de Nogaret.

Dante finds bitter words to describe the attack in Anagni, qualifying it as murder, although Boniface does not evoke much sympathy from him.

In the struggle for power with Rome, Philip IV turns out to be the winner. But at what cost? In 1301-1303, his treasury did not receive church tithes, and this was a loss of almost 800,000 nl. Benedict XI, the newly elected pope, is peace-loving and ready to agree to the collection of church tithes by the French king, provided that Philip takes an oath in holy scripture of non-involvement in the assassination attempt in Anagni. Philip swears, but it is a false oath.

The 200th pope, Benedict XI, was destined to remain on the Holy See for only a year. His successor was Philip's protege, Archbishop of Bordeaux Bertrand de Gault, who was elected pope in 1305 thanks to the efforts of the French crown and took the name Clement V. Four years later, he moved his residence to Avignon, where the popes spent the so-called “Babylonian exile” [similar to captivity of the people of Israel in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (597-538 BC)] until 1377.

December 23, 1305 Clement V frees Philip from Boniface's curse and grants him absolution for numerous extortions of church money and manipulation of coins. He extols by the grace of God the King of France as "the brightest star among all the Catholic Monarchs." Philip, by no means deaf to flattery, responds by declaring himself the protector of those bishops and abbeys towards whom Clement V was too cruel, but he himself begins to collect taxes and forced loans from them. The King easily distributes reciprocal gifts - letters of grant privileges and freedoms - and just as easily forgets about them. His lawyers must take care of the loopholes, and they know their stuff.

The third sin - an attack on the Holy See - is immediately followed by the fourth.

Royal power in France especially strengthened under Philip IV the Fair (1285-1314). Having married favorably, he took possession of the Champagne region and the kingdom of Navarre beyond the Pyrenees, and then subjugated rich Flanders to himself. However, the cities of Flanders soon rebelled and were completely defeated in the so-called "Battle of the Spurs"(1302) selected French knighthood.

Philip IV the Handsome was indeed a handsome man - stately, pale-faced, fair-haired. He did not tolerate rudeness, treated ladies with respect, seemed meek and modest, almost quiet. But at the same time he could be decisive, strict, even cruel. He knew how to hide his real mood, but even more so - to select smart and reliable assistants. He was fond of hunting.

Philip IV the Fair was constantly short of money. He borrowed them from foreign bankers, even began counterfeiter . But the king pinned his greatest hopes on collecting taxes from the population, and ordered that the clergy also pay taxes.

In order for the people to come to terms with the new taxes, Philip IV the Fair 1302 convened Estates General- an obedient advisory body under the king, which existed in France until 1789. The States General included representatives of the clergy, nobility and townspeople. With the advent of the Estates General in France, the class monarchy became stronger.

The very thought that the church in France should pay a tax unsettled the pope. The Pope and the French king quarreled. But the king still won, and he made the popes dependent on the French crown for a long time, even forced them to move to Avignon, on French territory.

The victory over the Catholic Church freed Philip IV's hands. He took on his main creditors - the Templars, to whom he owed a lot of money. The king was worried not so much about the debt itself (he knew how not to repay debts), but about the power of the order, which was subordinate not to the monarch, but to the pope. The Templars owned lands in France, England, Flanders, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Germany, Hungary and the East. In France, their mighty fortresses held up the sky. The Templars were actively involved in usury, it was they who invented - bill of exchange . Therefore, it is not surprising that they had enough money to lend it even to kings. They behaved arrogantly and did not arouse sympathy from anyone.

In 1307, the French king, having demanded the consent of Pope Clement V, carried out a brilliant police action - he arrested and imprisoned many members of this order, including its Grand Master, Jacques de Molay. The king was eager to take possession of the treasures of the Templars, but they seemed to disappear into the ground. Material from the site

The king and the pope held a trial over the Templars. Obedient judges accused them of all mortal sins, in particular that they allegedly desecrated the cross and did not honor Jesus Christ. This trial ended with fifty Templars being burned alive in Paris. A legend has been preserved that Jacques de Molay, before his death, cursed Philip IV and Clement V and predicted their imminent death. This gloomy prediction came true - both the king and the pope soon left this world under very mysterious circumstances. Historians believe that they could have been poisoned to avenge the dead Templars - “lesser sinners than their judges.”

The death in 1314 of Philip IV the Fair, who was nicknamed the “Iron King,” opened a new, dark page in French history.

"Battle of the Spurs" - the battle received this name because the winners removed 4,000 gilded spurs from the dead French knights and hung them in the cathedral as a sign of their victory.

Counterfeiter - one who, for personal gain, mints an unreal, inferior coin.

Bill of exchange - a document according to which money deposited in one bank can be received in another.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Use the search