Philippe le Bel

by Jean Favier

On ne compte plus les clichés, les légendes, les fausses énigmes dont Philippe le Bel continue à être l'objet ou le prétexte. Les énigmes vraies sont bien suffisantes. Car il en est à chaque détour de la recherche. Le roi en est une à lui seul, et la première de toutes. Froid calculateur, timide, pauvre homme ballotté? Son silence est-il habileté, refuge ou abdication? Sa foi est-elle cause première ou prétexte? Son amitié est-elle fidélité ou favoritisme? Le gouvernement est une deuxième énigme. Roi de fer et hommes de paille? Prince sage et conseillers avisés? Jeu subtil de la compétence et du pragmatisme. Chacune de ces «affaires» dont est faite l'histoire du règne est en soi une question: Pourquoi les Juifs? Pourquoi le Temple? Pourquoi la dévaluation? Même si l'on met de côté les images traditionnelles, quel drame que cette lutte du roi chrétien et du Souverain Pontife! Quel drame que cet effondrement d?un ordre naguère respecté d'Orient en Occident! Quel drame que cette fièvre qui s'empare du marché monétaire et qui fait connaître à la France, pour la première fois, dans le même temps, l'inflation galopante et l'instabilité des valeurs!

584 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Jean Favier was a French historian, who specialized in Medieval history. From 1975 to 1994, he was director of the French National Archives. From 1994 to 1997, he was president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

He was a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

Reviews

[Andrew Dockrill · Rating 3 out of 5]

as the second book in french I've read on Philippe le Bel - the first being George Minois 2014 addition to the historiography of the monarch - this one, while enjoyable, was certainly harder to digest. Jean Favier who is an extremely accomplished French historian, takes on the challenge of writing on the illusive Capetien king Philippe IV who left little to nothing for writers to work with in attempting to flesh him out. This leaves the task largely down to trying to understand the king by looking at the events of his life and those around him, namely Guillaume de Nogaret and Enguerran de Marigny; there are other's of course but they were the two main ones to be taken away.

Favier approaches the book in a very categorical manner, which can be very confusing to someone who is just introducing himself to Philip, but not so bad to the familiar reader. He begins the book with the kings birth and then transitions somewhat smoothly into a categorical approach instead of the chronological approach, taking on the themes of his reign such as war, and monetary policy etc.

All in all, the book was alright, the writing still holds up, considering that it was written in 1978, but It certainly didn't have the charm of Minois biography nor did I really take away anything new from it as I had read Georges Minois book first and that was the most recent biography on Philip, so anything that George had included in his biography, he had added using Favier as one of his secondary sources. Would only recommend for those really interested.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

They picked the wrong name for the book, it should've been called "La France au temps de Philippe le Bel". I can't say I got to know the king better, but I learned a little about 15 other subjects. And therein lies the main problem of this work. For someone who's not already well-read about the period, it's impossible to follow all the issues and personalities presented in the book. At times it feels like a composition of wikipedia pages. I also question the author's choice to divide the book into topics and deal with each one separately rather than present the events in the chronological order. 90% of the time, I couldn't tell what year I was reading about.
Overall, this is a bad biography but a decent history book on the period. Especially if it's not your first one.