Philip IV's Centralization of Royal Power

Timeline

1. 1290–1295Throughout the Kingdom of France · FrancePhilip IV continued the institution of enquêteurs established since Louis IX, dispatching commissioners to tour the provinces to investigate misconduct by local officials and encroachments by nobles on royal rights, transforming a mechanism originally meant to protect subjects' appeals into a tool for strengthening royal power and uncovering new sources of tax revenue.
2. 1294–1298Louvre · ParisTo fund the wars against England and Flanders, Philip IV moved the royal treasury from the Knights Templar to the Louvre, relied on legal bureaucrats and the royal council to handle affairs of state, and expanded the fiscal base of royal power through currency debasement, taxation, and the levying of payments in lieu of noble military service.
3. 1296–1299Parlement of Paris · ParisThe Parlement of Paris, the highest judicial body of the realm, increasingly intervened in noble litigation and royal claims in the 1290s, and the crown used lawsuits and royal decrees to expand its intervention in vassal territories. The centralizing measures provoked discontent among nobles and clergy, but conflicts with the papacy, Flanders, and England instead drove the further expansion of royal power.