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ROYAL HERALDRY. 385
" pest of France." His interference with all classes at home was a source
of constant annoyance. He aggravated the nobility by raising Ralph, his
goldsmith, to their ranks, and allowing any persons, however low their
condition, to purchase fiefs whereby they became barons. He exasperated
his subjects, generally, by sumptuary laws regulating the number of
dresses they were to have, and the expense of each dress. He settled
how many dishes might be had for dinner and supper one dish of soup
:
and two dishes of meat being allowed for dinner at half-past eleven,
and for supper between four and five o'clock in the afternoon ;
and when
he found that they evaded the law by putting
the same dish, he made a special law forbidding
it.
several kinds of meat into
In 1292 he took advantage of Edward being engaged with his wars
in Scotland, to pick a quarrel with him on account of a disturbance
between the French and English fishermen at Bayonne, and cited him as
Duke of Aquitaine to appear before him. Edward sent his brother,
Edmond Crouchback, to make a temporary arrangement until he was at
liberty to attend to it. Philip insisted that Guienne should be given up
to him in pledge for this, and then, having obtained it, pronounced the
King contumacious, and declared all his fiefs in France forfeited. Of
course war was proclaimed in 1294; but after some time, as no decisive
advantage had been gained on either side, Pope
Boniface made efforts for
peace, and he was at length permitted to arbitrate in his private capacity,
his decision being that each monarch should retain his possessions, and
restore the ships and merchandise which had been seized during the war.
He also proposed, as a guarantee for future peace, that Edward should
marry the Princess Marguerite, Philip's sister, and the young Prince of
Wales be affianced to Philip's little daughter, Isabel, then six years old.
In 1302 he quarrelled with Pope Boniface, threw his legate, Bernard
de Saisset, Bishop of Pamiers, into prison, and ordered a bull issued by
His Holiness to be publicly burned ; then, summoning the States General,
composed of the clergy, nobles, and deputies of the Commons, or tiers etat,
he promulgated a stern defiance of the authority of the Pope. On this
the Pope excommunicated him. Philip rejoined by accusing him of
scandalous crimes. Boniface retaliated with a bull deposing him from
his throne, and retired to Anagni, his native town, for rest during
of summer. Philip instigated William de Nogaret, a professor
the heat
of civil
law, and Sciarra Colonna, to make a rapid journey to Italy, raise an uproar
at Anagni, storm the palace, and set fire to the church, where, on forcing
an entrance, they found the unhappy old man awaiting the approach of
his foes, seated on his throne, with the keys of St. Peter in one hand,
and the cross in the other.
Seizing him, they set him on a vicious horse,
with his face to the tail, conveyed him to the common prison, and