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Historical person

Philip IV of France

1268–1314

Philip IV of France, known as Philip the Fair, ruled from 1285 to 1314 and greatly expanded the administrative and fiscal reach of Capetian monarchy. The son of Philip III, he inherited a kingdom already strengthening royal institutions and pushed that process further through professional legal advisers, taxation and aggressive assertions of sovereign authority. His wars with England and Flanders demanded enormous resources, while his government repeatedly sought new revenues from clergy, towns, Jews and other groups within the kingdom.

Philip’s conflicts with institutions that resisted royal demands became defining features of his reign. His confrontation with Pope Boniface VIII culminated in the assault at Anagni in 1303, after which the French crown exercised increasing influence over the papacy. In 1307 Philip ordered the mass arrest of the Knights Templar in France, using accusations of heresy, coercive interrogations and sustained pressure on Pope Clement V; the order was eventually dissolved in 1312. Philip died in 1314, leaving a powerful monarchy but also financial strain and a succession soon destabilised by the deaths of his sons.

Paul Doherty’s Spy in Chancery casts Philip IV as Edward I’s formidable rival during the struggle over Aquitaine, with espionage in both kingdoms extending the conflict beyond formal diplomacy. The Prince of Darkness returns to the covert contest between Philip’s France and Edward’s England, while The Poison Maiden brings his pressure directly into Edward II’s early reign through the English king’s marriage to Philip’s daughter Isabella and the threat of French intervention. Michael Jecks’s The Last Templar gives Philip a darker legacy through Baldwin de Furnshill, whose past is shaped by the king’s destruction of the Templars. Dan Jones’s The Templars examines that suppression directly, placing Philip’s arrests, coercive interrogations and pressure on the papacy within the final collapse of the order.

Periods

Periods linked to Philip IV of France

Medieval France987–1498 CE Reign of Philip IV of France1285–1314 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Philip IV of France (7 series)

Hugh Corbett Mysteries in Order

by Paul Doherty 24 books 4.4(54,121)

The Hugh Corbett Mysteries follow a royal clerk, diplomat and Keeper of the Secret Seal from the reign of Edward I into the troubled rule of Edward II. Corbett investigates murders that threaten royal government, foreign negotiations and the security of the crown. His work takes him from…

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Brethren Trilogy in Order

by Robyn Young 3 books 4.0(8,776)

The Brethren Trilogy follows the Scottish-born Will Campbell from his apprenticeship within the Knights Templar to the destruction of the order in the early fourteenth century. Beginning during the last decades of the Crusader states, the novels move through London, Paris, Acre, Syria and Egypt as Will becomes…

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Mathilde of Westminster Trilogy in Order

by Paul Doherty 3 books 4.3(2,977)

The Mathilde of Westminster Trilogy is narrated by a physician who once served Isabella of France before and after her marriage to Edward II. Looking back from later life, Mathilde records the murders, poisonings and acts of espionage that surrounded the young queen’s household. Her medical skill and…

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The Champion in Order

by David Pilling 5 books 4.4(2,669)

The Champion follows the Valencian soldier En Pascal across the wars of western Europe at the turn of the fourteenth century. His campaigns connect the Anglo-French conflict, the Scottish resistance to Edward I, warfare in Iberia and Flanders, presenting a mercenary's view of shifting alliances, faith and military…

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Templar Novel in Order

by Jack Whyte 3 books 3.9(9,515)

The Templar trilogy follows members of the St. Clair family and a secret brotherhood whose history is bound to the rise and destruction of the Knights Templar. Beginning in the aftermath of the First Crusade, the sequence moves through the disasters of Hattin and the Third Crusade before…

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The Accursed Kings in Order

by Maurice Druon 7 books 4.2(8,269)

The Accursed Kings follows the French and English monarchies from the final year of Philip IV's reign in 1314 to the capture of John II at Poitiers and the political crisis of the late 1350s. Across seven novels, the direct Capetian line fails, the Valois dynasty takes the…

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Last Templar Mysteries in Order

by Michael Jecks 32 books 4.2(20,880)

The Last Templar Mysteries follow Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, a survivor of the suppression of the Knights Templar, and his friend Simon Puttock, a Devon bailiff. Most of the sequence is set between 1316 and 1327, when the two men investigate deaths in villages, monasteries, ports and cathedral…

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Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Philip IV of France (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.