Backstabber Report

Philip IV of France Backstabs The Knights Templar

King Philip IV of France was hugely in debt to the Knights Templar, among others, which was the real reason behind the backstabbing that saw one third of Templars burned at the stake, or otherwise executed. The remainder fled and disbanded. Back in those days you didn’t print money without funds to back it up, as is done today. You paid your debts, or saw your country controlled by those you owe unless, apparently, you are a King.

The Templars were a monastic military order who had been acting as zealots in expanding Christianity during the Crusades whose later role became more of bankers than effective warriors. As the popularity of the Crusades had decreased and expansion had lost ground due to defeats, support for the Order had waned, and Philip used a disgruntled complaint against the Order as an excuse to disband the Templars, so as to free himself from his debts.

On Friday, October 13, 1307, hundreds of Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philip the Fair, to be later tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. The Knights Templar were supposedly answerable only to the Pope, but Philip used his influence over Clement V, who was largely his pawn, to disband the organisation. Pope Clement did attempt to hold proper trials, but Philip used the previously forced confessions to have many Templars burned at the stake before they could mount a proper defence.

In 1314, Philip had the last Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay burned at the stake after a 7 year imprisonment, along with 3 other Templars high in the Order. Initially, they were to receive  imprisonment for life after having “confessed” to their crimes and that was the sentnce imposed. The affair was supposed to be concluded when, to the dismay of the judges in attendance and wonderment of the assembled crowd, de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney arose. They had been guilty, they said, not of the crimes they were accused of (which were, among others homosexuality and heresy) , but of betraying their Order to save their own lives. It was pure and holy; the charges were fictitious and the confessions false.

Hastily the cardinals delivered them to the Prevot of Paris, and retired to deliberate on this unexpected contingency, but they were saved all trouble. ‘When the news was carried to Philippe he was furious. A short consultation with his council and the canons pronounced that a relapsed heretic was to be burned without a hearing; the facts were notorious and no formal judgment by the papal commission need be waited for.

That same day the Templars were slowly burned to death, refusing all offers of pardon for retraction, and bearing their torment with a composure which won for them the reputation of martyrs among the people, who reverently collected their ashes as relics’.

According to legend, de Molay cursed both Philip and Clement V from the flames, saying that he would summon them before God’s Tribunal within a year. As is so common with the way Karma works (what goes around…), both King and Pope died within the next year.

The Templars’ curse extended beyond Philip IV. The throne passed rapidly through Philip’s sons, who all failed to produce male heirs. By 1328, the King Philip IV blood line was extinguished, and the throne had passed to the House of Valois.