The Reign of Philip the Fair

by Joseph R. Strayer

The book description for the previously published "The Reign of Philip the Fair" is not yet available.

Genres: History, Biography, Medieval, Medieval History, France

470 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Joseph Reese Strayer taught at Princeton University for many decades, starting in the 1930s. He was chair of the history department (1941–1961) and president of the American Historical Association in 1971. Strayer has been credited with training a large percentage of the American medievalists profession; many of his students are still teaching and active. Notable students include Teofilo Ruiz, William Chester Jordan, and Richard W. Kaeuper. Norman F. Cantor often highlighted his status as a student of Strayer's, but several of Strayer's other pupils - who wish to remain anonymous for personal and professional reasons - have expressed their doubt that Strayer ever acknowledged Cantor as his student or that Cantor had any formal affiliation with him at all.

When not teaching medieval history at Princeton, Strayer was involved with the CIA, as a member of the CIA's Office of National Estimates. The extent of his involvement, at a time when the C.I.A was running covert operations to destabilize governments around the world (Iran, Brazil, Congo, Dominican Republic, Guyana and Chile), has never been fully assessed or verified.

Norman Cantor recognized three books as most important to Strayer's legacy: Feudalism (1965), which summarized three decades of his research and thinking on the topic; On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State (1970), in which he shows the relevance of medieval historical institutions to modern governmental institutions; and The Reign of Philip the Fair (1980), representing over 30 years of archival research and the most comprehensive work on the topic in any language - other than Jean Favier's Philippe le Bel (1978). Strayer was editor of the Dictionary of the Middle Ages, the largest and most comprehensive encyclopedia of the Middle Ages in the English language.

Reviews

[Andrew Dockrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most mysterious yet integral monarchs to have ruled France in the medieval ages and who has escaped the grasp of most historians for hundreds of years. Philip has often been known by many epitaphs such as "the iron king", the "marble king". On the other hand, Bernard Saisset, a bishop who stood trial for his blasphemous oratory on the pulpit, compared Philip to an owl "the handsomest of birds which is worth absolutely nothing... such is our king of France, who is the handsomest man in the world and who can do nothing except stare at men."

This book is arguably the only historical work on the reign of Philip the Fair to be done in English and takes the approach to his reign in categorical research essays which his grad students helped him to write. Most of the book deals with key figures in his administration such as Guillaume de Nogaret and Engurrand de Marigny - the two most notable in his reign, while Philip largely remains in the shadows, so if someone is looking to get to know the man, which is extremely difficult, you might as well look elsewhere. Strayer looks to explore some of the many questions of promotions and pay scales and how people typically rose in Philips administration while also examining the company the king himself kept. His wife Jean and his sons get little to no mention, which is a shame but Jean is often forgotten in the chronicles of his reign. Strayer also writes for an extremely academic audience as his voice is very formal and analytical while also assuming that the reader is well versed on Philips reign, so if you do not already possess a rough memory of the events of his reign you will be lost. Having already read George Minois book on Philip I managed quite well and the read was very enjoyable, but it is should not be mistaken for a chronological biography. Strayers approach to Philips reign in a sense tries to tread new ground in the sense that no one has yet to write explicitly on Philips bureaucracy but firmly sticks to the popular historical opinions held by Minois and partially agrees with Jean Favier, while disagreeing on some aspects of his reign such as Philips decision making.

I would only recommend this book for those who have a serious interest in the administration of Philips reign from head to toe, and who want theoretical explanations for some of Philips decisions, such as the persecution of the Templars and why Phillip chose to make war against Edward in the duchy of Aquitaine and against Flanders and while abstaining from getting too involved in external european affairs.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 4 out of 5]

His best books I've noted below

Administration of Normandy Under Saint Louis (1932)
+The Middle Ages, 395–1500 (1942) (4ed 1959)
+Western Europe in the Middle Ages: a Short History (1955)
[a 200 page version of his 1942 book which is 70% shorter)
The Interpretation of History (1950)
The Course of Civilization (1961)
Feudalism (1965)
On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State (1970)
Medieval statecraft and the perspectives of history (1971)
The Albigensian Crusade (1972)
The Royal Domain in the Bailliage of Rouen (1976)
+The Reign of Philip the Fair (1980)
Dictionary of the Middle Ages, editor (1982 to 1989)

[AskHistorians]

One of the few biographies of a medieval individual, examining the man who wielded together the French state and humbled the papacy in the process.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 2 out of 5]

Faktarik, men urbota tråkig.