The Iron King, Philip the Fourth, is well deserving of the title. As we see this episode, he let nothing get in the way of his ambitions. Italian merchants, Jewish moneylenders, even the Pope, all would be crippled by the French king for the crime of standing in his way. This fate also awaited the Knights Templar; for political and financial gain, Philip seized on unsubstantiated rumours and strong-armed every authority in his grasp the ensure the complete and utter destruction of the military order.   This episode primarily makes use of the following texts: Cohn, N. Europe's Inner Demons (London, 1975) Jochten Burgtof, Paul Crawford, Helen Nicholson (eds.) The Debate of the Trial of the Templars (1307-1314), 2013 For a full show bibliography and attributions for music and sound used in this episode, please see the website: http://thehistoryofwitchcraft.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices