The Templars Nemesis: King Philip IV of France.

Who was King Philip IV, Le Bel, Literally, The Beautiful? I was curious about the man who went after the Knights Templar with the sole intent to destroy them. What was his motivation? His admirers through the centuries have pointed out how he changed France for the better: instituted new laws and brought order; this is definitely the case, but one could argue that the work he supposedly accomplished was the product of his powerful ministers, Flote, Marigny, and Nogaret, and that the king was an image projected by a very efficient propaganda machine that his ministers controlled. But why did he persecute the Knights Templar who at time were a much respected and admired order? Historians point to his courts previous persecution of the Jews and the Italian Lombard bankers, for the sole purpose of expropriating their assets, and conveniently erasing debts of the crown. So money, they point out, was the main reason, after all, the Templars were rumored to be extremely wealthy. Going after foreigners as the Italian bankers and the Jews, who were not considered French, was politically easy. No one rose to their defense. But going after the much-loved Templars was different, Philip and his ministers knew that he would be despised for it. But there is more to it. There are two incidents that gave me a good look at how Philip, and the court around him, operated. The first one had to do with his mother in law. She had been at odds with a local bishop, and wanted to get rid of him. She went to Philip for help. In short order the propaganda machine made the bishop into an evil figure with satanic connections who had put a curse on the mother-in-law. Philip had the man put in chains on charges of witchcraft. The second incident involved Philips daughter, Isabella, who came to her father and accused her three sisters in-law of adultery. He had them put in prison, where two died. Years later, after Philip had met his own end, it became evident that Isabella had been cheating on her husband, the Prince of Wales, for quite some time, going back to the time she made her accusation. She very cleverly pre-empted her sisters in-law accusing her. The two incidents point out that Philip had very devious people around him and that he was an easy pawn to manipulation. During Philips time, it was widely suspected that his prime ministers were the power behind the throne. They certainly knew how to appeal to his vanity, while padding their own positions for wealth and power, to the point that the monarchy became a large, bloated, and powerful bureaucracy. So much for law and order: they taxed and penalized people at will for their own benefit. It is this factor that led me to believe that one of Philips most trusted men, Cantor de Milly, was Otto de Grandsons (Englands Edward I chief diplomat) master spy. My evidence is that Cantor was perhaps the only man who served close to Philip who never got rich and powerful at his expense. As reward for long years of service, he got a position as clerk to Philips petulant and disagreeable daughter, Isabella, Philips confidant, and Cantors source of information since he wrote and read all the correspondence between the daughter and her father. People around Philip knew which buttons to push to get results; his religious fanaticism mixed with a grandiose sense of self and rather dull intelligence made him a ready target. His court portrayed him as someone above even the pope, Gods true lieutenant on earth. In fact, he did place himself above the pope when he handpicked a French bishop, Bertrand de Got, as his puppet pope.

His propaganda machine made Philip into a saint who performed miracles, filling in the shadow of his famous grandfather, Saint Louis. It is in this shadow that he lived. In fact, it is my assertion in the novel, based on solid evidence, that Philip IV had little choice in going after the Templars, because it was part of a larger plan handed to him by his father and grandfather, the French Scheme. Heres where his propaganda machine tried to pave the way for the grand plan, by first making him into a saint, then a candidate to become the first Rex Bellator in charge of all military orders; crusader of all crusaders, and ultimately the natural Holy Roman Emperor, king of all kings, ruler of Europe. There is no question that he wanted to be the emperor so that he could lead the ultimate crusade that would liberate the Holy Land once and for all; this is what drove him, why he believed that once he got a hold of the Templars treasure and got them and the English king out of the way, all he had to do was claim the Emperors crown and he would be the most powerful monarch since Charlemagne. Or so, he was led to believe. Studying Philips life under this light, things make sense: the expulsion of the Jews, the war with England, the invasion of Flanders and the murder of two popes. Certainly he, or more aptly, his ministers were after something big. Studying the prime ministers, Flote, Marigny and Nogaret, one finds very strong and able personalities who had risen through the ranks on their own merit. They set their own pace, and left their mark on French culture, so it makes perfect sense that they wanted their king to be all-powerful; this would translate into greater wealth and power for themselves. So who among those three wanted to get rid of the Templars? The surprising answer, as I make clear in my novel, is that none. They were all in turn manipulated by one man, Lord Otto de Grandson, a Swiss working as the English Kings chief diplomat. His goal was not the destruction of the Templars, but the creation of a very special nation, the first democratic republic in modern times, Switzerland. For this, he first had to stop the French monarch from becoming the Holy Roman Emperor, and he needed the Templars. But Philip was not the only king to be manipulated.. Otto de Grandson had to manipulate his own king Edward I and vie for control with another master manipulator, Bishop Anthony Bek, who ended up very wealthy as a result of his finagling of the English king. To understand how this manipulation worked, we need only to read Machiavellis The Prince. This type of intrigue ran rampant throughout Europe. Every court, from lowly counties, duchies, and earldoms, played their courtly games to various degrees. It was part of the fabric of high society. If you survived it meant that you became very adept at scheming. In the novel, an earls son is very adept at courtly games. In his case he used rape as a tool, and he created havoc with peoples lives. This was not unusual, in those games anything went. They became a fabric of courtly culture, and pervaded how everyone in the nobility behaved. We can then say that the master gamesman of them all was Otto de Grandson. He got wind of the French Scheme and used it very effectively to achieve what he wanted, but unlike the often-sadistic courtly games, he wasnt after the satisfaction of controlling someone, it was a far greater end result, the liberation of his homeland.