“Philip had a crapload of enemies”. No more than the usual number for a Medieval King who wanted to unite (under his enlighten reign) a country: his enemies
- at the borders, but that more or less resolved due to the wedding of his Daughter with Edward, King of England, his own marriage with Jeanne of Navarre-Champagne, daughter of Henri the 1st, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne, who was the heir of her father, the purchase of the County of Chartres, the linking of Lyon within the Kingdom, and after 2 defeats, the final victory of Mons en Pevele against the Flanders and the reward of Lille, Douai and Bethune.
- his own Grand Feodaux and his own brother (he set-up a Parliament against his High Nobility),
- the Papacy (eh yes, Phillip was under the threat to be excommunicated so he took the offensive and tried to arrest the previous Pope –Boniface VIII- and trial him for Heresy) and the Church (imposing a tax on the Church Lands), then oblige the Popes to live in Avignon.
Largely enough for some to want to kill him but…
Philip IV Le Bel (also known as the King of Iron) was the first French King searching for the absolute Power, and he destroy without any hesitation all those who could be a threat. He saw the Templar as a potential army within his kingdom for the Pope, and the fact he owned them a lot of money didn’t improve their situation.
However, was the Templar so powerful? Philip burned 50 of them, but no army was sent against the Ost of France. A lot of people were quite happy to see the French King doing the dirty job, I suppose.
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