I was reading Imprudent King, and in it Geoffrey Parker says Philip II attended Mass every day, but took communion four times a year. Was attending Mass without taking communion a thing?
Yes. The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 ruled that laity were obliged to receive communion only once a year, though some took it more regularly. As the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ's body and blood in the bread and wine evolved in the 12th century, the communion elements were considered too sacred to be received regularly by lay people. In this same era, the communion wine was prohibited to the laity since it could be too easily spilled. By the 13th century, the liturgical gesture of the "elevation" of the Host developed, in which the priest--his back to the congregation--lifted the Host above his head so that people could see it. The idea developed that merely seeing the consecrated Host conveyed a blessing and protected one from harm during that day. Miri Rubn's Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (1991) is a classic work on this subject.
The 22nd session of the Council of Trent (1562) expressed a wish "that at each Mass the faithful who are present, should communicate" (Sess. XXII, chap. vi). And the Catechism of the council says: "Let not the faithful deem it enough to receive the Body of the Lord once a year only; but let them judge that Communion ought to be more frequent; but whether it be more expedient that it should be monthly, weekly, or daily, can be decided by no fixed universal rule" (pt. II, c. iv, n. 58). The Congregation of the Council in 1587 ruled that daily communion was permissible. (This from the 1909 ed. of the Catholic Encyclopedia.)