Philip IV of France

Giovanni Villani, a Florentine contemporary, tells how the king arrested the bishop of Pamiers, kept the revenues of vacant sees, refused to let the French bishops go to the pope’s court and had Boniface VIII accused of heresy before an assembly at Paris, and how his envoy William of Nogaret organized the seizure of the pope at Anagni in 1303 (Giovanni Villani, Chronicle 8.62–63). Villani also reports, as something done in secret, a bargain by which Philip secured the election of the archbishop of Bordeaux as Clement V in return for promised favours (Giovanni Villani, Chronicle 8.80). Clement declared in 1306 that the bull Boniface VIII Issues Unam Sanctam did the king and kingdom no prejudice (Clement V, Meruit).

Villani dates Philip’s death to November 1314, after a fall from his horse while hunting, when he had reigned twenty-nine years (Giovanni Villani, Chronicle 9.66).