All contemporaries agree in describing Philip as a man with a beautiful and noble appearance and graceful manners, but when characterizing his style of government, assessments diverge. Some testify that the king was a purposeful man of iron will and rare energy. Others characterize him as a meek and pious, kind, condescending and trusting person, often falling under the influence of others. The political line under him was carried out by noble upstarts: Chancellor Pierre Flott, keeper of the royal seal Guillaume Nogaret and coadjutor Anguerrand Marigny, to whom all the troubles and abuses that were in the reign of Philip are attributed.

Having become king, Philip immediately stopped the Aragonese war and recognized the Aragonese dynasty. In 1295, Philip called for trial as his vassal, and when he refused, he started a war against him. On the side were the German king, counts, and, the king. Philip was supported by the counts and, the duke, the king. While he was at war with the Scots, Philip attacked. Almost without resistance, Lille, Douai, Bruges and Ghent were captured. However, the strict rules introduced by the French ruler Jacques of Châtillon did not please the Flemings. In 1301 and 1302 uprisings broke out in Bruges. The second of them soon spread to the entire province. In one day in Bruges, more than 3 thousand French knights and soldiers were killed. An army led by Robert II of Artois was thrown against the rebels, but it was defeated at the Battle of Courtrai. Thousands of spurs taken from the slain knights were piled up in the Maastricht church as trophies. In 1304, the king himself led an army of 60,000. The Flemish army was besieged in Lille, and after several unsuccessful assaults, peace was concluded. was returned to the count, who was in French captivity. For his release, he had to pay a substantial indemnity. As a pledge, Philip kept the land on the right bank of the Lys, but, having received the money, he violated the agreement and did not return the land.

At the same time, Philip's relations with Rome began to deteriorate sharply. Pope, while still a cardinal, was on friendly terms with Philip. However, in 1296 the pope issued a bull forbidding laymen to demand and receive subsidies from the clergy. Philip responded by banning the export of gold and silver from France. The Pope stopped receiving his income from France. The position of the pope on the throne was rather precarious, and he backed down, but relations between the king and the pope began to deteriorate sharply. Soon the Archbishop of Narbonne wrote to the Pope to complain about the arbitrariness of royal dignitaries in his dominions. To resolve the issue, he sent to Paris the Bishop of Pameres, Bernard Sesse, an arrogant and quick-tempered man. Bernard began to threaten the king with an interdict. Angry, Philip took him into custody and demanded that the pope depose the recalcitrant bishop. The Pope sent a bull in which he demanded the release of Bernard. Philip burned it on the porch of the cathedral Notre Dame of Paris. In 1302, he convened the first Estates General in French history. The king read a specially made forged bull to the deputies and enlisted their support in the matter of protecting the French state and church from violation of their rights.

In April 1303 he excommunicated Philip from the church. In response, the king declared him an antipope, a heretic and a warlock, and demanded that an ecumenical council be convened to hear accusations against him. In the summer, the faithful Guillaume Nogaret was sent to Rome with a large sum of money. Allied with the pope's enemies, he formed a vast conspiracy. The rebels broke into the palace in Anagni, began to shower insults on the pope, threatened with arrest and demanded abdication. Unable to withstand these attacks, he lost his mind and died in October of the same year. The new pope excommunicated Nogaret, but did not touch Philip. A year later, he also died. The new pope under the name was the Archbishop of Bordeaux Bertrand de Go. He did not go to Rome, but was ordained in Lyon. In 1309 he settled in Aviyon, making this city the papal residence instead of Rome, and until his death he was an obedient executor of the royal will. In particular, in 1307, Clement agreed with the accusations against the Knights Templar, to whom Philip owed a huge amount. 140 knights were arrested and the property of the order was confiscated. In March 1314, the head of the order, Jacques de Molay, was burned, but before his death, he cursed Philip and his entire family, predicting the imminent end of the Capetian dynasty. Philip himself was not yet old and in good health, besides, he had three adult sons, and therefore did not take the prophecy seriously. However, shortly after that, he fell ill from a strange debilitating disease that no doctor could recognize, and died on November 29, 1314.

The era of Philip the Handsome was a turning point in the history of France. Philip further expanded the royal possessions, subjugated the church and feudal lords, introduced royal courts and Roman law. Public life took on a completely different character than under his predecessors. However, the curse of Jacques de Molay hung over the Capetians ...

R.A. Zakharov (Moscow)

Rice. 1. Turnoza, 1305, silver (4.1 grams, 958 assay, diameter 25 mm). On the obverse there is a symbol of the city of Tours (chapel or city gate) with the inscription turonis civis and twelve lilies around, on the reverse there is a cross with an inner circular inscription - the name of the ruler PHILIPPVS REX + and an outer circular inscription Benedictum sit nomen domini nostri Jesu Christi.

In 1266, the French king Louis IX, the grandfather of Charles IV the Handsome, began minting in the city of Tours much larger than denarii silver coins grossi Turonenses (Turnois pennies), they are also tournois pennies. In the numismatic literature, the name turnose was assigned to them. The average weight of the coin was about 4.20 g with the 958th test. Turnoza was equal to 12 denarii, therefore 12 lilies are depicted on the coin. This denomination was widely developed in Western and Central Europe in connection with the strong growth of trade and economy that began in the 13-14th centuries, which in turn required the introduction of a larger denomination into the money circulation than the denarius that prevailed before that period in Europe.

Philip IV the Handsome was born at Fontainebleau in 1268 to Philip III and Isabella of Aragon. He came to the throne very young, at the age of 17. He ruled for a long time and he succeeded a lot. He was a political king, a king who managed to create his own team, with the help of which he was able to solve the most difficult problems. It would be fair to list the closest associates of Philip: Chancellor Pierre Flotte, keeper of the seal Guillaume Nogaret and coadjutor of the kingdom of Enguerrand Marigny. All these were people of no nobility, raised to the heights of power by the king himself.

The beginning of the reign of Philip the Handsome unfolded against the background of contradictions with the pope aggravated every year. At first, there were no signs of this conflict. None of the European kings was so loved by Pope Boniface VIII as Philip the Handsome. As early as 1290, when the pope was only Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani and came to France as a papal legate, he admired the piety of the young king. Having ascended the throne in 1294, Boniface zealously supported the policy of the French king in Spain and Italy.

Boniface VIII was the first pope to start the tradition of celebrating so-called "jubilees" (from 1300) or "holy years", which were originally established as the centenary of the church. Pilgrims who visited Rome during the Jubilee years were granted full remission of sins. The income from the influx of pilgrims was so great that the successors of Boniface VIII repeatedly shortened the periods between the Jubilee years to replenish the papal treasury and to popularize the ideas of Catholicism. For example, from 1475, the period between jubilee years was reduced to 25 years. In the church itself, the pope pursued a balanced policy towards mendicant orders, limiting their freedom. In addition, this pope is the author of the well-known aphorism "Silence is a sign of consent."

The first signs of mutual distrust between the pope and Philip the Handsome appeared in 1296. In August, the pope published a bull in which he forbade the laity to demand and receive subsidies from the clergy. By a "strange accident" Philip at the same time forbade the export of gold and silver from France. By doing this, he cut off one of the main sources of papal income, because the French church could no longer send any money to Rome. Even then, a quarrel could have arisen, but the position of Boniface VIII on the papal throne was still fragile, and he yielded to the king.

After that, for several years, the opponents hesitated to take decisive measures, but the hostility between them grew. Finally, in response to the demarche of Philip IV in April 1303, Boniface excommunicated the king from the church, and in turn, Philip declared Boniface a false pope (indeed, there were some doubts about the legality of his election), a heretic and even a warlock. He demanded that an ecumenical council be convened to hear these accusations, but at the same time he said that the pope should be at this council as a prisoner and accused.

He moved from words to deeds. Nogaret with a large sum of money went to Italy, where he entered into relations with the enemies of Boniface and made an extensive conspiracy against him. The Pope at that time was in Anagni, where he wanted to betray Philip to a public curse. Then the conspirators from the Colonna family, led by Nogare, broke into the papal palace, surrounded Boniface, showered him with all sorts of insults and demanded his resignation. Nogaret threatened that he would put him in chains and, like a criminal, take him to the cathedral in Lyon to pass a sentence on him, and then he took and publicly gave the Holy Pope a couple of slaps in the face. When, three days later, the inhabitants of Anagni freed the pope, he fell into such a nervous breakdown from the humiliation he had endured that he went mad and died. As it was written in one very touching pre-revolutionary book, "unable to bear the insults, the proud old man died a few days later." The new pope Benedict XI excommunicated Nogaret, but stopped the persecution of Philip himself. In the summer of 1304 he also died. In his place was elected the Archbishop of Bordeaux Bertrand du Goth, who took the name of Clement V. He did not go to Italy, but was ordained in Lyon. In 1309 he settled in Avignon and turned this city into a papal residence. Until his death, he remained an obedient executor of the will of the French king. The period of the so-called "Avignon captivity of the popes" began.

Contemporaries did not like Philip the Handsome, people close to him were afraid of the rational cruelty of this unusually beautiful and surprisingly impassive person. Violence against the pope caused outrage throughout the Christian world. Large feudal lords were dissatisfied with the infringement of their rights and the strengthening of the central administration, which consisted of people without roots. The tax-paying estate was outraged by the increase in taxes, the so-called "spoilage" of the coin, i.e., the decrease in its gold content while forcibly maintaining its face value, which led to inflation. Meanwhile, France, under Philip IV the Handsome, reaches the height of its power. This is the largest state in the Western Christian world in terms of population (13-15 million, or a third of the entire Catholic world). The economy of the kingdom is flourishing, for example, the area of ​​​​arable land has increased or trade has flourished at the fair in Champagne.

The presented coin according to French catalogs dates back to 1305. It was in this year that Clement V, obedient to the will of Philip IV, becomes pope. Philip the Handsome was in dire need of money and owed half a million livres to the Templars. How not to repay a debt and still have money?

There were only two ways to do this: lead the Knights Templar and make it royal, or destroy it. In addition, the Templars were also the most powerful political force of that time. And if Philip wanted, and he wanted to, and rigidly built a vertical of power, autocracy in France, then a clash with the Templars was inevitable. We must pay tribute to the courage of Philip the Handsome and his organizational abilities. Not every king could decide to defeat such a rich order with a huge number of experienced warriors, moreover, very popular in European public opinion of that time. He went for broke, prepared for a long time and carefully ... It turned out to be easier to deal with the pope, at the right time he simply took advantage of the old Guelph-Ghibelline struggle between the oldest Roman patrician families Orsini and Colonna, financed the Ghibelline Colonna and sent his resident Nogare to correct the situation on the spot in Italy.

With the Templars, he first tried to "negotiate kindly", especially since most of the members of the order were French. It was in the same 1305 that Philip the Handsome wanted to join the Order of the Temple himself. However, the chapter of the Order answered him that among the brothers there could be no crowned lords. Then Philip made a new proposal. Since the war in Palestine came to an end and the knightly orders were outside the Holy Land, it is necessary to unite two of them - the Order of the Temple and the Order of John of Jerusalem. At the head of the united Order, in order not to belittle the honor of either the Templars or the Hospitallers, the son of the most Christian king of France, a descendant of the famous crusader Saint Louis, that is, he himself, should stand. However, this plan also failed.

And then Philip the Handsome chose the second path - the path of destroying the order, which for the last 150 years has absorbed the main passionary part of European chivalry. The confessor of the king and the Grand Inquisitor of France, doctor of theology Guillaume of Paris, began to collect witnesses from among the knights expelled from the Order. There were very few such exiles, but one had to start somewhere. By 1307, the accusations had been prepared, and throughout France, secret letters with instructions to royal officials were carried by royal messengers. On September 14, 1307, the royal troops at the same time at the X hour captured the castles of the Templars throughout France without resistance. For the first time, Philip IV entered the Temple Castle, which towered in the center of Paris, not as a guest and debtor of the order, but as the master of a conquered enemy fortress. The Templars offered no resistance - the charter of the order did not allow the knights to raise weapons against Christians. Although the charter was a charter, but the leadership of the order, who knew in advance about Philip's intentions, simply hid all their relics, documents and gold and ... went like lambs to the slaughter. Why? This question has long been of concern to most historians, but there is no obvious explanation for everyone yet. One thing is clear, the Templars, through their superbly debugged spy network, knew about this, but decided not to resist, although they could have done it if they wanted to, who knows - Philip the Handsome would have kept his crown and life itself.

Shortly before the start of the arrests, Jacques de Molay managed to burn many documents and send a special letter to all order houses, in which he ordered not to provide even minimal information about the customs and rituals of the Templars. According to one of the nights, on the eve of the start of the campaign against the Order, the treasures of the Templars were taken out of Paris on wagons under the guise of hay (who carries hay from the city to the village with a whole caravan of wagons with an armed escort, and even at night ???). This cargo was delivered to the largest naval base of the Templars, the port of La Rochelle, where it was loaded onto 18 galleys of the order, which departed in an unknown direction. There is a hypothesis that then the flotilla was divided into two parts and went to Portugal and Scotland. Where were the relics and gold of the Order taken? Where exactly did these 18 galleys with crews and cargo go? It was not possible to find the treasures of the Templars, as well as subsequently no one found either the gold of the Third Reich or the gold of the CPSU.

The arrested Templars were put on trial, many were tortured. The process was long and bloody. In the dungeons, not just the accused perished or slandered themselves, but the knights, hitherto without fear going on the attack on the infidels. By the way, according to the charter of the order, the Templar could retreat before the infidels only with their threefold advantage! But let's also not forget that, for example, in 1937, in the dungeons of the NKVD, many courageous people also signed monstrous, absurdly incredible confessions .... Under torture, for several years, the accusers made terrible confessions! The Templars were accused of not recognizing Christ, the Holy Virgin and the saints, spitting on the cross and trampling it underfoot. They blamed those thanks to whose courage for more than 170 years Christian states existed in the Holy Land! They were said to worship in a dark cave an idol depicting a figure of a man covered with human skin and with shining carbuncles for eyes, while they smear it with the fat of fried little children and look at it as their god. They were accused of worshiping the devil in the form of a cat, burning the bodies of the dead Templars and giving the ashes to their younger brothers, mixing them with their food. They were accused of various crimes, of terrible debauchery and superstitious abominations, in which only madmen can be guilty. Directly medieval 1937!

The boredom of the dragging false trial was revived from time to time by the execution of knights who did not want to confess to crimes of which they were not guilty. 59 knights were once led out into the field behind the monastery of St. Anthony. They were offered forgiveness if they confessed, but they refused and were burned in a slow fire. In the city of Sanli, nine knights were burned, and many more throughout France. Since the order was founded by a church council, a council also had to be convened to try the Templars. However, the Vienna Council of 1312, convened for this purpose, did not wish to bring any charges against the Order. Then pocket pope Clement V dissolved the order on the basis of his bull "Vox clamantis", in which all the property of the order was transferred to the knightly order of St. John. However, in fact, the property was divided between the French king and the dukes.

Church commissions were set up to try the Templars. They included the bishop of the city and mendicant monks: 2 Carmelites, 2 Franciscans and 2 Dominicans. The Benedictines and Cintercians, who participated in the creation of the Order of the Temple, were removed from the investigation. Clement V demanded that the highest dignitaries of the order be transferred to the papal court, but the leaders were not taken to the pope, it was announced that they had contracted a contagious disease along the way and therefore would be temporarily kept in France. The pope swallowed this too, but the papal commissions were still allowed to see the arrested and conducted interrogations. During these interrogations, the Templars categorically denied most of the accusations.

The knights unanimously refused the charge of sodomy - homosexuality encouraged by the authorities. However, they did not deny that at the initiation ceremony the newcomer was kissed on the navel, tailbone and lips. Moreover, no one could explain the meaning of these kisses: those who were admitted to secret knowledge were in no hurry to tell, and those who simply copied the ritual did not understand its meaning. Just imagine some illiterate seventh son of an impoverished count, who from his youth got into the order and served in remote border castles somewhere in Syria. Prayer and martial exercises interspersed with skirmishes with Muslims. Drag every day on yourself metal armor and weapons under 40 kg of weight in 30-40 degree heat there ... What kind of homosexuality is that ??? Those of the readers who served in the army in combat units will understand the absurdity of all these accusations.

The charter of the order required the knights to sleep half-dressed, so that in the event of a sudden attack by Muslims, they could quickly prepare for battle.

On March 18, 1314, already at the farce trial in Paris of 4 leaders of the Knights Templar, two of them - the Grand Master of the Order Jacques de Molay himself and the Commander of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnet SUDDENLY renounced their testimony, which had been extorted from them under torture in exchange for a promise of a life sentence. “We are guilty before the Lord, but we do not plead guilty to the crimes named by the judges. We are guilty of the fact that our spirit was weaker than the flesh and under torture we slandered the Order of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. At the trials of 1937, none of the defendants dared to make such a demarche, but these two knights were able to ... After a short meeting, he and his closest associates were quickly sentenced to be burned at the stake. It is known that often before being burned at the stake, the executioner killed his victim in advance, and the already dead body burned. And here, infuriated by the failed trial with the "frank confessions" of the Templars, Philip ordered Jacques de Molay and Geoffroy de Charnay to be burned alive on a slow fire. This detail speaks of some special level of hatred of the king for the executed, which, in the words of the Strugatsky brothers, exceeds the normal level of medieval atrocities.

The Grand Master, who ascended the fire, cursed Pope Clement, King Philip and Chancellor Nogaret, declaring that all of them would be called to the judgment of God within a year and, in addition, cursed the entire royal French family. The crowd that had come to watch the execution of the proud Templars as an amusing spectacle fell silent as they heard the curse of Jacques de Molay. Show crashed...

The king, however, did not attach much importance to this curse, attributing this curse to the anger and despair of the dying de Molay. Philip had no worries about the succession of power to the Capetian dynasty, who had been on the French throne since 987, in principle, because he had three sons. Three already adult sons! With a small interval in age. What is there to worry about?

BUT!!! The predictions of Jacques de Molay, who was dying at the stake, came true exactly. On April 20, Pope Clement went to God in agony. His stomach ached, and the doctors prescribed crushed emeralds to drink, which tore the high priest's intestines. In November, King Philip IV of France fell off his horse while hunting. Paralyzed, he was picked up and brought to the palace by courtiers. There Philip the Handsome died, stiff and unable to move. A year later, Angerran de Marigny, who prepared the process against the Templars, ended his life on the gallows. Guillaume de Nogaret, who led the investigation, died in agony. The sons of Philip the Handsome could not pass the throne to their children, they all died prematurely, leaving no male heirs.

Their nephew Edward III of England went to war with France, claiming his right to the French throne as his rightful inheritance. Like, the heir is the closest male relative. Do you remember Maurice Druon's book It's Not Good to Spin Lilies? This war went down in history as the Hundred Years War. France, the country that robbed and killed the Order of the Temple, was itself plundered and humiliated.

When in 1793 the guillotine blade fell on the neck of Louis XVI, a man jumped onto the scaffold, dipped his hand in the blood of the dead monarch and shouted loudly: - Jacques de Molay, you are avenged! The unfortunate Louis was the thirteenth descendant of King Philip the Handsome.

Before his execution, Louis XVI was kept in the former residence of the Templars, the Temple, which was turned into a prison in those years, and then during the years of the revolution, the Temple was destroyed to the ground so that it would not become a place of worship for the royalists.

The whole world perished with the Templars: chivalry, crusades ended with them.

But not everywhere the Templars were persecuted severely. Scotland granted them asylum. In Lorraine they were acquitted. In Germany, the process broke down altogether when the Templars called to the court in Frankfurt appeared in full combat attire and with spears in their hands. The court did not sit long, and all charges were dropped. Many German knights of the Temple joined the Teutonic Order, strengthening and strengthening it. In Castile and Aragon, the Knights of the Order of the Temple entered in full force and with all their property into the Order of Calatrava and continued their struggle against the Muslims, but already in the Pyrenees. In Portugal, the templars were acquitted by the court and in 1318 changed their name, becoming the Knights of Christ. Under this name, the Order existed until the 16th century. Vasco da Gama was a Knight of the Order of Christ, and Prince Henry the Navigator was its Grand Master. At the expense of the Order, the prince founded an observatory and a nautical school, promoted the development of shipbuilding in Portugal. He equipped ocean expeditions, discovering new lands and ships sailed under the eight-pointed Templar crosses. Under the same symbols, the caravels of Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic. The great discoverer of America himself was married to the daughter of an associate Enrique the Navigator, a knight of the Order of Christ, who gave him his sea and pilot charts. This is a hypothesis. I looked for the source of this information on Columbus, but did not find it. Was his father-in-law really a member of the Order of Christ or not? Maybe I didn't search well?

Templars...

So who were they really? For hundreds of years, people have been occupied with the question: are these servants of the Lord or malicious heretics who received what they deserved?

My first acquaintance with the Templars happened at school, when I read Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. There the templars are the personification of evil, the templars are actually the Templars. Briand de Boilguillebert, for example, is a dishonorable villain. After reading a lot of literature about the Crusades and about the Templars, in particular, I realized that everything was not so simple in black and white and I want to give some facts that will allow the reader to draw their own conclusions on this issue. The brothers chose the Holy Mother of God as the patroness of the Order. St. Bernard, who created the Charter of the Templars, emphasized that the vow of poverty was the main one for the Templars. Paragraph 2 of the Charter, for example, even ordered two templar brothers to eat from the same bowl. Any secular entertainments were forbidden - visits to spectacles, falconry, dice and other joys of life. Laughter, singing, vain talk were forbidden. The list of prohibitions was more than 40 items. Free time these "monks in spirit and fighters in arms" were to be filled with prayers, the singing of sacred psalms, and military exercises.

A white cloak, worn over the rest of the clothes of the same color, became a kind of symbol of the templars. The knight - a monk who took three obligatory vows: poverty, chastity and obedience, with white clothes symbolized the pure holy life that he led, dedicating his soul to the Lord.

Simple brothers - novices, wore black cloaks and camisoles, and therefore, when the Templar warriors rushed to the attack, their first line was made up of horsemen in white, and the second - horsemen in black. The order also adopted a banner made of striped linen, white and black, called "Bosean" and this word became the battle cry of the knights. On the banner was a cross with an inscription addressed to the Lord in Latin: "Not to us, not to us, but to your name." In this regard, the ruble of our Emperor Paul immediately comes to mind with exactly the same motto.

The Templars never ran and always showed themselves worthy of their reputation - proud to the point of arrogance, brave to the point of recklessness and at the same time surprisingly disciplined, unmatched by all the armies of the Mediterranean of that era. The charter required complete and unconditional heroism from the knights. Not one Crusade, starting with the Second, could not do without their active participation. More than 20,000 knights of the order died in the Holy Land, including 6 Grand Masters out of 23. They were always in the most difficult areas, something like a crusading special forces. So in the famous battle in the mountains near Laodicea in 1148 during the Second Crusade, 200 knights (mostly Templars), who made up the retinue of King Louis VII, managed to contain the violent attacks of about 20,000 Muslims. It is known that Muslims were especially afraid of the Templars and Hospitallers. The famous Sultan Saladin hated the knights - monks so much for their fearlessness that he said "I will cleanse the earth of these filthy orders." Still, after all, together with the hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, the Templars constituted the standing army of the Christian states of the East. Without these orders, all the states of the crusaders would have been destroyed for several decades, and they lasted about two centuries. During the battle, the Templar had no right to retreat, even fighting against three opponents. Those who were captured by the Saracens had no right either to offer a ransom for themselves or to renounce their faith in order to save their lives. Muslims who were captured by the Templars, as later in our days in Afghanistan or in Chechnya, our soldiers were offered to renounce Christ, otherwise death. In 170 years of fighting with the Muslims, only a few Templars agreed, the rest preferred to be martyred. Somehow it does not fit at all with the accusation of their deviation from Christianity. Who would go to their death for something they didn't believe in? But there were also negative sides. Exorbitant pride from belonging to the Order of the Temple. Alienation. For example, when meeting a caravan of pilgrims whom they were supposed to accompany, the Templars did not utter a single superfluous word, as well as their vow never to touch a woman, which was not characteristic of the spirit of medieval chivalry with its cult of worship of a beautiful lady - all this gradually served to isolate them and gossip about homosexuality.

From the very beginning, the Order of the Temple was dual: on the one hand, knightly, and on the other, monastic. In the Order there were monk brothers, knight brothers (they did not take monastic vows), sergeants (just warriors in the service of the Temple) and monastic and artisan brothers (people under the auspices of the Temple). Most of the knight brothers were in Palestine and fought with the infidels. They said about knight brothers: "drinks like a Templar" and "swears like a Templar." Pride and arrogance they were not to hold. So it was something to be proud of! Today, sailors, paratroopers, border guards, and Afghans are proud of their service. They have in fact proved their devotion to Christianity in the Holy Land. In contrast, the monk brothers organized a network of commanderies throughout Europe, in which the wealth of the Order was kept. Once, during a crop failure, only one commandery fed 10,000 people in a week.

The Templars also minted their coin, or rather, it was not a coin, but rather one of the first European tokens, made not even from billon, but from bronze. A rare thing, I saw this denarius only in a book about the crusader coinage and in an auction catalog eight years ago. It depicts a cross with a legend, and on the obverse - the Cross of the Lord on Golgotha. This coin was used to calculate among the pilgrims when they were transported to the Holy Land on Templar galleys and were already guarded in the Holy Land by the same Templars.

In 1291, the crusaders were finally expelled from Palestine and the Templars moved first to Cyprus and then to Europe, where they created a powerful organization for which there were no national borders. The Grand Masters of the order spoke to the kings as equals. In those years, the Templars numbered more than 30,000 people. They owned hundreds of castles and a huge amount of land throughout Europe. The order, created as a symbol of poverty and simplicity, became the richest organization. They "reinvented" the bill and became the largest usurers of their era, and the Parisian house of the order became the center of European finance.

Due to constant contact with Muslim and Jewish cultures, the Templars had the most advanced technology of their time. The order did not skimp, allocated funds for the development of geodesy, cartography and navigation. It had its own ports, shipyards, as well as its own fleet, the ships of which were equipped with a curiosity unprecedented in those days - a magnetic compass.

Like these ones interesting events associated with this turnoza, which caught crucial moment in the history of medieval Europe - the end of the era of the crusades and the omnipotence of the popes.

A resonant slap in the face to Pope Boniface VIII, publicly slapped on him by Guillaume Nogaret, the curse of Jacques de Molay at the stake under the cloudy Parisian sky, Philip the Handsome, paralyzed while hunting, being carried to the castle by his frightened servants ... Here it is - the aroma of medieval history!

Used sources.

1. M. Melville. History of the Knights Templar. M, 2000.

2. J. Duby. Europe in the Middle Ages. Smolensk, 1994.

3. Ch. Heckerthorn. Secret societies of all ages and all countries. M, 1993

4. L. Charpentier. Templars. M, 2003.

5. R.Yu. Vipper. History of the Middle Ages. Kyiv, 1996.

6. N.A. Osokin. History of the Albigensians and their time. M, 2003.

7. K. Ryzhov. All the monarchs of the world. M, 1999.

8. R. Ernest, T. Dupuy. World history of wars. M, 1997.

9. Clio Magazine

10. P.P. Reid. Templars. M, 2005.

11. Gergely E. History of the papacy. M, 1996.

Philip IV got his nickname the Handsome for a reason. Correct facial features, large fixed 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 personality in history ...

Philip was the second son of King Philip III and Isabella of Aragon. Unusual beauty was already 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 royal Capetian 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 in Aragon in order to punish the Aragonese king for taking Sicily from the pope's favorite (Charles of Anjou), Philip could not resist, and the French army went on a campaign. Fate was not on the side of Philip: the French suffered a heavy defeat, and the king himself died on the way back.

Philip IV the Handsome

His seventeen-year-old son, who fought alongside his father, learned one but very important lesson from this deplorable enterprise - a steady unwillingness to serve someone else's, even papal, interests. 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 the legacy of his father, to solve the Aragonese problem. He solved it in the most beneficial way for France - he completely stopped hostilities, despite the urgent objections of the Holy See.

The real shock for medieval Europe was the refusal of a very inexperienced monarch from the services of his father's high-ranking advisers. Instead, he established a Royal Council, membership of which was provided by special merit, and by no means noble origin. For a feudal society, this was a real revolution.

Thus, not noble, but educated people got access to power. For their knowledge of the laws they were called legalists and hated very much. Three of his entourage played a special role at the court of Philip the Handsome: Chancellor Pierre Flott, keeper 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 the entire policy of the state.

And the whole policy of Philip IV was reduced to solving two problems: how to attach new lands to the state and where to get money for this.

Jeanne I of Navarre, Princess of the House of Champagne, reigning Queen of Navarre since 1274, daughter and heiress of Henry I of Navarre and Queen of France since 1285 - wife of Philip IV the Handsome.

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

But this was not the ultimate dream of the king. Abandoning complicity with papal interests, Philip focused his attention on the affairs of the English. The stumbling block was the desire of the monarch to get 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. Upon learning of this, Pope Boniface VIII urged 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 for the conduct of 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 warmer from 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 from the church. And then the legalists took up "arms", that is, feathers, and brought against the pope a whole series of accusations of both intrigues against France and heresy.

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

Philip was always short of money. The policy of unification and accession, which he led, was costly. The first victim of the king's financial difficulties was the coin. Its weight was significantly lightened, and the output was increased, which led to an increase in inflation. The second point of the king's financial program was taxation. Taxes were constantly rising, which caused popular unrest. And finally - the case of the Templars.

The Knights Templar arose at the beginning of the 12th century in Jerusalem. He represented himself as knights guarding the Holy Sepulcher. In addition, the Knights Templar guarded their own, very considerable, wealth and the money of those who trusted them. The onset of the Muslims forced the Templars to leave the Holy Land, and over time, their main function was precisely financial. In practice, they became a bank that kept and invested money.

One of the debtors of the order was Philip the Handsome himself. As life has shown, the king really did not like to repay debts, and therefore in 1307, under the tacit consent of the pope, all the Templars throughout France were arrested on the same day. The trial of the order was clearly sewn with white thread, the charges were far-fetched, the interrogations were conducted with the use of torture, and the case ended in blazing bonfires 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 the death of the first in forty days, and the second in twelve months. The prediction surprisingly came true.

The pope died of dysentery thirty-three days after the execution of Molay, and the king then fell ill with some strange disease and died on November 29, 1314. The curse fell on the descendants of Philip. Three of his sons - "damned kings" - did not leave offspring on the throne, according to the curse of the Templars, and the Capetian family was soon interrupted.

Philip the Beautiful 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 not fully formed, but in the end, finances were upset.

The zigzags of his politics, as well as frequent mood swings, as well as the manner of freezing, staring at one point without blinking, many modern researchers associate with the manic-depressive disorder of his consciousness.

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

Philip IV the Handsome

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

His reign played an important role in the decline of the political power of the feudal lords and the strengthening of monarchism in France. He continued the work of his father and grandfather, but the conditions of his era, the peculiarities of his character and the qualities of the advisers and assistants around him emphasized and intensified the coloring of violence and cruelty, which was not completely absent in previous reigns.

War for Flanders

Philip IV managed to win over the Flemish urban population; the count of Flanders was left almost alone in front of the invading French army and was captured, and Flanders was annexed to France. In the same (1301) year, unrest began among the conquered Flemings, who were greatly oppressed by the French governor Châtillon and other henchmen of Philip. The uprising swept the whole of Flanders, and at the Battle of Courtrai (1302) the French were utterly defeated. After that, the war with varying success lasted more than two years; only in 1305 the Flemings were forced to cede to Philip a fairly large part of their territory, to recognize the vassal dependence of the rest of the lands on him, to extradite about 3,000 citizens for execution, to destroy fortresses, etc. The war with Flanders dragged on, mainly because attention Philip the Handsome was distracted just during these years by the struggle with Pope Boniface VIII.

Fight with dad. Avignon captivity of the popes

In the early years of his pontificate, Boniface was rather friendly to the French king, but they soon fell out for purely fiscal reasons. In the autumn of 1296, Boniface issued the bull clericis laicos, which categorically forbade the clergy from paying taxes to the laity, and the laity from demanding such payments from the clergy without the special permission of the Roman Curia. Philip, who was always in need of money, saw in this bull a damage to his fiscal interests and a direct opposition to the doctrine that was beginning to dominate at the Parisian court, the main supporter of which, Guillaume Nogaret, preached that the clergy were obliged to help the needs of their country with money.

In response to the bull, Philip the Handsome forbade the export of gold and silver from France; The pope thus lost a prominent source of income. Circumstances were in favor of the French king - and the Pope relented: he issued a new bull, nullifying the previous one, and even, as a sign of special favor, canonized the late grandfather of the king, Louis IX.

This compliance did not lead, however, to a lasting peace with Philip, who wanted further quarrels: he was tempted by the wealth of the French church. The legalists who surrounded the king - especially Nogaret and Pierre Dubois - advised the king to remove entire categories of criminal cases from the jurisdiction of church justice. In 1300, relations between Rome and France became extremely tense. Bishop Bernard Sesseti of Pamere, sent by Boniface to Philip as a special legate, behaved extremely impudently: he was the representative of that party in Languedoc, which especially hated the northern French. The king brought a lawsuit against him and demanded that the Pope defrock him; the bishop was accused not only of insulting the king, but also of treason and other crimes.

The pope (in December 1301) answered the king by accusing him of infringing on spiritual authority and demanded him to his court. At the same time, he sent a bull (Ausculta fili) to the king, in which he emphasized the fullness of papal power and its superiority over any (without exception) secular power. In April 1302, the king (according to legend, having burned the bull beforehand) convened the Estates General (the first in French history). The nobles and representatives of the cities expressed their unconditional sympathy with the royal policy, and the clergy decided to ask the Pope to allow them not to go to Rome, where he called them to the council that was being prepared against Philip. Boniface did not agree, but the clergy still did not go to Rome, because the king categorically forbade them to do so.

At the council, which took place in the autumn of 1302, in the bull Unam sanctam, Boniface again confirmed his opinion about the supremacy of spiritual power over secular, "spiritual sword" over "worldly". In 1303, Boniface resolved part of the lands subject to Philip from the vassal oath, and the king, in response, convened a meeting of senior clerics and secular barons, before which Nogaret accused Boniface of all kinds of atrocities.

Shortly thereafter, Nogaret, with a small retinue, went to Italy to arrest the Pope, who had mortal enemies there, which greatly facilitated the task of the French agent. The pope left for Anagni, not knowing that the inhabitants of this city were ready to betray him. Nogare and his companions freely entered the city, entered the palace and behaved here with the greatest rudeness, almost even violence (there is even a version of a slap given to the Pope). Two days later, the mood of the inhabitants of Anagni changed and they released the Pope. A few days later, Boniface VIII died, and 10 months later, his successor, Boniface IX, also died. Since this death came in handy for the French king, rumor attributed it to poison.

The new pope (French) Clement V, elected in 1304 (after a nine-month election struggle), moved his residence to Avignon, which was not in power, but under the direct influence of the French government. Having done away with the papacy, making it an instrument in his hands, Philip began to fulfill his cherished dream.

Defeat of the Knights Templar

The beginning of this confrontation, which claimed many lives, as contemporaries noted, was caused by chance. King Philip the Handsome was informed that a certain man awaiting his death sentence was seeking his audience. This man claimed to have information of national importance, but he could only communicate it personally to the king. This person was eventually admitted. He said that while sitting on death row together with a certain condemned man, he heard the following from his confession (at that time in Europe there was a judicial measure not to allow people who had committed especially serious crimes to church communion, so such criminals often confessed their sins to each other before execution ). This someone was a member of the Knights Templar and told about the grandiose conspiracy of this order against secular monarchies. Possessing gigantic financial capabilities, the Order gradually, with the help of loans, as well as bribes and bribes, actually took control of almost half of the nobility and noble families of France, Italy and Spain. Also, this man claimed that, founded at first as a Christian, this Order had long since departed from Christianity. At their meetings, members of the order (including the witness himself) were engaged in spiritualism and divination. Members of the order, upon joining it, spat on the cross, loudly renounced the power of the church over themselves. After listening to the scammer, Philip ordered to pardon him, and "to reward him with a purse of coins for valuable information."

Having communicated with Rome, Philip, in secret even from the closest with several people entrusted to him, developed an operation to arrest members of the order. It should be said that the war with the Order lasted for many years and claimed a large number of lives. The population as a whole had a negative attitude towards the order, the estates and castles of its members were traditionally notorious. For example, the peasants of the southern provinces accused the Templars of stealing girls and young boys in order to attract them to participate in orgies, which were supposedly carried out by the knights of the order.

Numerous trials that took place after the arrest revealed "details" that stirred public opinion in Europe. In addition to open disobedience to state power in the person of the king on the part of the heads of the order and, above all, his master, Jacques de Molay, numerous facts of tax evasion (royal taxes), financial fraud with real estate (primarily with land in the southern provinces ), usury (it was forbidden at that time), facts of giving bribes, speculative inflation of food prices in lean years, buying up stolen goods and many other crimes, the bulk of the "evidence" for which was fabricated by the royal legalists.

The order was liquidated and banned, property was confiscated and nationalized. However, many researchers believe that not all of the Templars' finances were traced and seized. It is believed that a significant part of the funds was evacuated outside of France (primarily to Spain and Italy). Given the short period in which the order managed to be restored in Spain, this version can be considered not without plausibility.

The position of Rome in this confrontation is very curious from a historical point of view. The Pope rather weakly insisted on the accusation (given the severity of the offenses from the point of view of Catholic dogma), many Templars shied away from responsibility in the provinces where the Pope or the Italian nobility had great influence. Researchers of the issue quite reasonably believe that the Italian nobility owed huge sums to the Templars, it is possible that the Pope himself was their borrower.

Financial activities

The main nerve of all Philip's activities was the constant desire to fill the empty royal treasury. For this, the States General and separately city representatives were convened several times; for the same purpose, various positions were sold and leased, forced loans were made from cities, goods were subject to high taxes (for example, Gabel was introduced in 1286, which existed until 1790), and estates, low-grade coins were minted, and the population, especially non-commercial suffered heavy losses.

In 1306, Philip was even forced to flee Paris for a while, until the popular fury had passed over the consequences of the ordinance he issued in 1304 on the maximum price.

The administration was highly centralized; this was especially felt in the provinces, where feudal traditions were still strong. The rights of feudal lords 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.

The extremely active foreign policy of Philip regarding England, Germany, Savoy and all the border possessions, which sometimes led to the rounding of the French possessions, was the only side of the king's rule that both his contemporaries and the next generations liked.

Death

Philip IV the Handsome died on November 29, 1314, at the age of 47, at the place of his birth - Fontainebleau, probably the cause of his death was a massive stroke. Many associated his death with the curse of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, who, before his execution on March 18, 1314 in Paris, predicted the death of the king, his adviser Guillaume de Nogaret and Pope Clement V in less than a year - all three really died in the same year. He was buried in the Basilica of the Abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris. He was succeeded by his son Louis X the Grumpy

Family and Children

He was married from August 16, 1284 to Jeanne I (January 11, 1272-April 4, 1305), Queen of Navarre, and Countess of Champagne from 1274. This marriage made it possible to attach Champagne to the royal domain, and also led to the first unification of France and Navarre within the personal unions (until 1328).

In this marriage were born:

• Charles IV(June 18, 1294 - February 1, 1328), King of France and Navarre (since 1322)
• Isabel(1292-August 27, 1358), wife from January 25, 1308 of the English King Edward II and mother of Edward III. From Isabella come the Plantagenet claims to the French crown, which served as a pretext for the beginning of the Hundred Years War.
• Philip V(November 17, 1291 - January 3, 1322), King of France and Navarre (since 1316)
• Louis X(October 4, 1289 - June 5, 1316), King of France (from 1314) and Navarre (from 1307)
• Robert(1297-August 1308)
• margarita(1288-December 6, 1312)
• Blanca (1290-1294)

Philip IV the Handsome

philip handsome war duchy

Philip IV the Handsome (1268-1314)- King of France since 1285. Continuing the work of his ancestors, especially his grandfather, the king Louis IX Saint, he sought to strengthen royal power and free the country from the power of the Pope. To do this, it was necessary to develop cities and strengthen the influence of the third estate, that is, the townspeople. Philip took small knights and wealthy citizens as associates and created a government apparatus that would obey only him. They were humble and obligated to the king, so they faithfully served Philip and supported him in everything. The supreme authority was Parlement of Paris, Supreme Court and Court of Accounts (Treasury).If earlier people lived according to the laws of the church and customs, then under Philip they began to live according to the laws Roman law.

Taking care of France, Philip tried to expand the borders of the country. So in 1295-1299he fought with the king of england Edward I for the Duchy of Aquitainein southwestern France. This territory was owned by the English kings as vassals of the French. Philip found fault with the violation of the rights of the feudal lords and summoned Edward to court. He knew that at this time England was at war with Scotland, and the king of England could not be present at the trial. Failure to appear in court was a serious violation of the law. Edward offered Philip this duchy as a pledge for 40 days, and in return guaranteed his presence at the court. But Philip later refused to return it, but in 1299he still had to do it. The county threatened from the north of France Flanders. Which was vassal to the French crown. But an ally of England.

The war between France and Flanders began in 1297., when Philip defeated the Count of Flanders at the Battle of Furne.The townspeople were unhappy with their count and helped Philip capture Flanders. But the Flemings did not like both Philip's administration and May 18, 1302they rebelled. It went down in history as "Bruges Matins". A July 11in the battle of Courtraythe foot militia of the Flemings defeated the cavalry knightly army. The victors laid down the spurs of the knights in the main square, and this battle was called "battle of the golden spurs". August 18, 1304by winning the battle in Mont-en-Pevel, the French managed to conquer the Flemings.

During the war with England, the conflict with the Papacy escalated. More Saint Louisdid not want Rome to interfere in the state affairs of France. Louis was pious and did not allow conflict to break out. But his follower , Philip IVwas not so pious. First, his relationship with Pope Boniface VIIIwere friendly enough. But in 1296The pope forbade the clergy to pay taxes to the state. Philip needed money for the war with England and Flanders. In addition, he believed that all residents, regardless of class, should help their country. Philip forbade the export of gold and jewelry from France. The papacy no longer received church fees from France. Boniface canceled the decree. However, the peace did not last long. The king demanded that everyone in the kingdom submit to a single royal court, and the Pope insisted on obeying ecclesiastical laws.

In 1302year Philip for the first time in history convened Estates General- a legislative assembly of representatives of the three estates: the clergy, the nobility and the third estate (citizens). At this meeting, the first ever French Chancellor Pierre de Flotannounced France's disagreement with the Pope. The nobles and townspeople fully supported the king. Boniface at the Council announced that in all matters, both spiritual and secular, one must obey the Pope. This was the condition for the salvation of the soul. Philip was excommunicated and his subjects were released from the oath. In response to this new Chancellor and Privy Seal of the Kingdom of France Guillaume Nogaret de Saint-Felixcalled Boniface a heretic. He sent an army to Rome. Dad fled to the city Alanya. September 7, 1303the French army ran into Alanya and arrested the Pope. A few days later, the mood of the townspeople changed, they expelled the French and released the Pope. However, Bonniface, after so many upheavals, died. his successor Benedict XIable 10 months later. People said that Philip poisoned him.

In 1305 French Bertrand de Gobecame Pope and took the name Clement V. He canceled the excommunication of the king from the church and transferred the papacy from Rome to Avignonwhich was located in France. Roman pontiffs became French court bishops.

In 1308Philip called again Estates General, on which he accused the knights of the Knights Templar of heresy and executed. The king decided on a new campaign in Flanders, which wanted to fight France. August 1, 1314he called Estates Generalto approve a new tax for this war. But the trip did not take place. November 20, 1314 Philip IV died. Soon died Pope Clement V and Chancellor Nogaret. They were said to have been poisoned by Templar supporters to avenge the execution of their brethren.

The family life of Philip the Handsome was happy. IN 1284he married Zhanna Navarskayawhich brought the Kingdom of Navarre and the County of Champagne. They had four children: Louis, King of Navarre, who was King of France since 1314. They called him Louis X the Grumpy. Second son - Philipwas king with 1316. They called him Philip V the Long. His daughter Isabelmarried the King of England Edward II. Younger son - Charlesbecame king Charles VV 1322.