Philippe Le Bel

by Jean Favier

Le célèbre procès des Templiers laisse de Philippe IV le Bel l'Image d'un "roi de fer" cruel et impitoyable. Jean Favier rétablit Ici la vérité sur ce monarque au règne déconcertant. Ses combats en Flandre, contre le Saint-Siège et la féodalité, font de Philippe le Bel (1268-1314) l'un des premiers souverains modernes, à la tête d'un Etat fort et centralisé. Mais, affaibli par la prétendue malédiction lancée par le grand maitre des Templiers et par le scandale de l'adultère de ses belles-filles, il meurt dans des conditions mystérieuses. Ses trois fils, qui lui succèdent sans descendance masculine, céderont finalement le trône de France aux Valois, entraînant le royaume dans la guerre de Cent Ans.

608 pages, Paperback

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.