Philip IV of France

**King Philip IV of France** (**Philip I of Navarre**) was the King of France at the start of the series. Philip was also King of Navarre by virtue of his marriage to his wife, Joan. He was good friends with Landry du Lauzon until he learned of the affair between him and his queen, Joan. He gave his wife a choice that if she agrees to raise her and Landry's unborn child as his own they would still be together and all would be forgiven. When she refused, he tried to kill Landry on the battlefield at Versailles and stabbed Joan in her belly, with the intention of killing her and the bastard child. Since Landry and his fellow Templars prevailed, he became hell-bent on eliminating the Knights Templar. Upon learning the news of the baby being alive, he gave his son, Louis X of France the charge of hunting down all christened babies until Landry and Joan's baby is put down.

## Personality

When he is first introduced, Philip is shown to be a kind, caring and good-hearted man who wanted to be a good king for France. He genuinely loved his wife, Joan, and all of his children, even going as far as to help raise Landry's child should she give him a chance at their marriage.

During Season 1, Philip was very good friends with Landry, treating him as his confidant and brother. However, after his affair with Joan was revealed by De Nogaret and Joan refusing to love Philip, the King's personality took a dark turn. He resorted to hitting his wife in anger, then rode out to Versailles to kill Landry. When Joan begged him to spare Landry's life out of his love for her, Philip was shown to be outraged by this. Instead of killing Landry, he stabbed Joan in her pregnant belly.

In Season 2, Philip is now a much different person. He has become much more cruel, hardened and brutal, such as tearing out Pascale's tongue and locking him up in the prison when the Knight tried to claim that Philip was lying (he made up a story that Landry had killed Joan instead of him). While he does love his children, he was shown to be somewhat abusive towards them, especially when Isabella expressed her disgust for marrying Prince Edward.

While he had become consumed by his hatred for Landry and the Templars, in the beginning of the season, he was still capable of being reasonable. This was shown when he agreed with De Nogaret that attacking the Templars while Pope Boniface was around would cause trouble and allowed his advisor to make a legal case against the Templars.

Due to Landry's betrayal, Philip is determined to do whatever he can to make him suffer and destroy the Templars. He orders his son, Louis, to kill innocent infants until Landry's daughter is killed; this allows him to frame the Templars for infanticide since Louis and his retainers dressed up as Templars. He even had Pope Boniface killed and replaced by Pope Clement, who he could easily manipulate.

He also developed a sexist view on women because of Joan betraying and rejecting him. He constantly warned Louis of Margaret potentially betraying him just as he was, much to his son's annoyance. He felt he was proven correct when Isabella framed her for adultery, locking her away in a tower with no trial and leaving her to starve. While talking to Louis about Margaret's adultery, he claims that 'all women are alike...eventually, they betray you.'

As Season 2 progressed, Philip's hatred began to overrule his judgment. He dismissed Gawain after he failed to apprehend Landry at the Church of St, Lazarus, despite knowing of how formidable of an opponent Landry is. He chooses to ignore De Nogaret's warnings of causing trouble with the Pope and outright decides to forget about the legal case. In 'While I Breathe, I Trust the Cross", he even goes as far as to tell Pope Clement to 'make God fall back in line', despite how blasphemous his words were, causing the Pope to abandon him. When De Nogaret informed Philip that the Templars hadn't been captured, the King brutally beat him, called him worthless and blamed the Templars being alive on him, completely ignoring the fact that De Nogaret's legal case was what kept the Pope from excommunicating Philip and possibly all of France.

In the end, Philip's hatred alienated all of his allies, leaving him with no one to help him when Landry came to kill him for ordering the attempt on Eve's life.

Overall, Philip was a man who was destroyed by his hatred for Joan and Landry.