The Reign of Philip the Fair: 5474 (Princeton Legacy Library, 5474)

476 Pages·2019·18.164 MB·English

by  Joseph R. Strayer

The Reign of Philip the Fair

THE REIGN OF
PHILIP THE FAIR
By Joseph R. Strayer
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright © 1980 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will be found
on the last printed page of this book
Designed by Bruce Campbell
This book has been composed in Linotype Janson
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Printed in the United States of America by Princeton
University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton Legacy Library edition 2019
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-691-65571-0
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-691-65713-4
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
A Note on French Monetary Units xvii
Abbreviations xix
I. The King and His Family 3
II. The King and His Officers 36
SOCIAL AND GEOGRAPHIC ORIGINS OF THE
KING'S SERVANTS 36
THE REWARDS OF OFFICE 55
POLICY MAKERS AND TECHNICIANS 68
III. The King and the Administration of the Realm ioo
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION IOO
FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION 142
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 191
IV. The King and the Church 237
APPENDIX: THE CASE OF BISHOP GUICHARD OF TROYES 3 OO
V. The King and His Neighbors 314
APPENDIX: THE FRENCH ARMIES 372
VI. The King and His People 380
Bibliography 425
Index 439

List of Illustrations
(facing page 5)
1. Administrative Map of France under Philip IV
(following page 220)
2. The Great Seal of Philip IV
3. A Gros Tournois of Philip's Reign
4. Philip and His Family
5. Sketch of Philip IV and Edward I
6. Parchment Receipt for Army Wages
7. View of the Palais de la Cite

Preface
This book has been a long time aborning. My interest in the
subject goes back to the 1930s, when I had completed a mono-
graph and edited a text dealing with the administration of Nor-
mandy under St. Louis. It seemed reasonable to go on and trace
the development of French institutions during the rest of the
century. I discovered, however, that although most of the sources
on the reign of St. Louis had been published, there were rela-
tively few sources for the time of Philip III and abundant, but
unpublished, sources for the reign of Philip the Fair. Grants from
Princeton University and from the Social Science Research
Council made it possible for me to spend about 18 months in
France between 1935 and 1937. During this period I took notes
on most of the financial documents later edited by Robert Faw-
tier, on the Chancery Registers, and on other material in the
Bibliotheque Nationale and the Archives Nationales. My mono-
graph on taxation under Philip the Fair, published in Studies in
Early French Taxation in 1939, was the result of this research.
As with many other scholars, my work was interrupted by the
war. A heavy teaching load and equally heavy administrative
responsibilities, plus some intermittent work for the government,
left little time for research. These burdens did not lessen at the
end of the war; in fact, I spent more than a year in government
service in 1953-1954. Only in 1955 was I able to begin the work
that I should have done ten years earlier. The time was not en-
tirely lost, however, because it was during these years that Faw-
tier began publication of the Comptes royaux, followed by the
Inventaire analytique of the Chancery Registers. These magnifi-
cent works of scholarship made it far easier to find, verify, and
compare the references to governmental activities that I had re-
corded, often imperfectly, in my notes.
After 1955 there were other reasonable and unreasonable
causes for delay. I did not want to spend all my time on Philip,
as this would have led to a narrow and distorted view of the
significance of the reign. Work on the Crusades brought me back
into the days of St. Louis, who was a rather different person from
his grandson; work on England under the Edwards showed me
that there were alternatives to the French pattern of government;