Philip V of France - Domestic Reform

Domestic Reform

Domestically, Philip proved a "strong and popular" king, despite inheriting an uncertain situation and an ongoing sequence of poor harvests. He followed in the steps of his father, Philip IV, in trying to place the French crown on a solid fiscal footing and revoked many of the unpopular decisions of his predecessor and older brother, Louis X. He also instituted government reforms, reformed the currency and worked to standardise weights and measures. Amongst Philip's key appointments was the later cardinal Pierre Bertrand, who would play a key role in successive French royal governments in subsequent years.

Starting in 1317, Philip reissued an act first passed by his father in 1311, condemning the alienation, of theft, of royal resources and offices in the provinces. By 1318, his political situation strengthened, Philip went further, setting out in a new act a distinction between the French royal domain – the core set of lands and titles that belonged permanently to the crown – and those lands and titles that had been forfeited to the crown for one reason or another. If the French crown was to bestow or grant new lands to nobles, Philip declared, they would usually be given only from the second source: this was a double-edged announcement, at once reinforcing the core, unalienable powers of the crown, whilst also reassuring nobles that their lands were sacrosanct unless they were forfeited to the crown in punishment for a crime or misdemeanour. Philip was responsible for the creation of the cours des comptes in 1320, a court responsible for auditing the royal accounts to ensure proper payment; the courts still exist today. In practice, Philip did not entirely keep to his self-declared principles on grants of royal lands and titles, but was far more conservative in such matters than his immediate predecessors.