Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Dan Jones

The “Agnani Slap” was the melodramatic climax of a nasty feud between Philip IV and Boniface VIII. Its origin lay in the French king’s desire to tax the church in his realm, but its roots lay in the age-old issue of papal versus royal preeminence. Resistance to papal authority was traditionally the preserve of German kings and emperors (e.g., during the Investiture Controversy of 1075–1122 and the subsequent Guelph-Ghibelline wars, which persisted in Italy from the early twelfth century until the end of the fourteenth). But at the turn of the fourteenth century Philip IV briefly became chief papal tormentor. When Boniface opposed Philip’s attempts to assert royal supremacy, de Nogaret traveled to Italy, contracted a small private army loyal to the powerful Colonna family, and laid siege to the papal villa at Agnani, aiming to seize Boniface and remove him to France, where he might be put on trial. In the confusion of the siege, de Nogaret and his leading ally Giacomo “Sciarra” Colonna confronted Boniface. Sciarra slapped the pope in the face. They then imprisoned and seriously mistreated the pope for three days, before he was rescued by the people of Agnani. Boniface died soon afterward of a fever, during which it was said (inaccurately) that he went mad and chewed his own hands off.