Philip IV Has the Knights Templar Arrested

At dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307, royal officers across the Kingdom of France executed secret orders issued a month earlier by King Philip IV. Military units seized Templar properties and arrested the knights without warning, capturing Grand Master Jacques de Molay in Paris alongside Hugues de Pairaud, the order's Visitor of France. Philip had dispatched these sealed directives to every bailiff and seneschal in his realm on 14 September. The sudden strike immobilized an internationally protected military order that was legally answerable only to the Roman papacy.

Historians have offered several explanations for the king's move against the order, including debt, a wish for its wealth, rivalry with the papacy, and belief in the rumors against it. Philip IV was severely indebted from extensive state expenditures and military campaigns, including the Flemish War. The Templars had previously lent money to the crown and, according to some accounts, had even sheltered Philip in their Paris headquarters during riots over taxes. Nevertheless, the king had earlier demonstrated a willingness to seize resources from vulnerable groups, expelling Lombard merchants in 1291 and Jewish communities in 1306. Philip's debts, the Templars' wealth and their privileged independence are among the motives most often cited.