Deja Vu

I was just doing a little reading and stumbled upon Philip the Fair, King of France. And just thought I'd summarize a bit... All statements below are quoted from wikipedia... Emphasis added is mine...

"Philip ascended the throne and became King at age 17, although according to the publication entitled "The Life And Times Of Jacques de Molay", Philip was 16. As a king, Philip was determined to strengthen the monarchy at any cost. He relied, more than any of his predecessors, on a professional bureaucracy of legalists. Because to the public he kept aloof and left specific policies, especially unpopular ones, to his ministers, he was called a "useless owl" by his contemporaries.^{[citation needed]} His reign marks the French transition from a charismatic monarchy...to a bureaucratic kingdom, a move, under a certain historical reading, towards modernity.

"Philip however had to resort extensively to monetary devaluations and reevaluations in order to finance his royal budget...

"In the shorter term, Philip arrested Jews so he could seize their assets to accommodate the inflated costs of modern warfare: he expelled them from his French territories on 22 July 1306 (see The Great Exile of 1306). His financial victims also included Lombard bankers and rich abbots. He was condemned by his enemies in the Catholic Church^[4] for his spendthrift lifestyle. He debased the coinage...he also levied taxes on the French clergy of one halftheir annual income...

"This landmark coin of Philip the Fair, called a "Masse d'or", was issued soon after the "false" double-parisis and tournois of 1295. It was minted from 10 January 1296 to August 1310. This coin was supposed to be a "Double Florin", but it was actually debased (it was a "false" Double-Florin). The weight of the coin was indeed double that of the "Petit Royal assis" (7.10g), but its title was only 22 karats (instead of 24 karats), a title of only 0.916. The copper alloy used actually hardened the coin, so that it was nicknamed "Royal dur" ("Hard Royal"). Its value was one "livre Parisis" (one "Parisis pound"). It represented a major devaluation, and represented an attempt by Philip IV to obtain revenues through minting. At minting, the coin was attributed an account value of 25 sols tournois (one pound parisis).^[1]

^{"Philip was hugely in debt to the Knights Templar, a monastic military order who had been acting as bankers for some two hundred years. As the popularity of the Crusades had decreased, support for the Order had waned, and Philip used a disgruntled complaint against the Order as an excuse to disband the entire organisation, so as to free himself from his debts. On Friday, 13 October 1307, hundreds of Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philip the Fair, to be later tortured..."}