'Philip II Augustus' (
French: ''Philippe Auguste'') (
21 August1165 –
14 July 1223) was the
King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the
House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at
Gonesse in the
Val-d'Oise, the son of
Louis VII and his third wife,
Adela of Champagne. He was originally nicknamed ''Dieudonné'' — the God-given — as he was the first son of Louis VII late in his father's life.
Philip was one of the most successful medieval French monarchs in expanding the royal demesne and the influence of the monarchy. He broke up the great
Angevin Empire and defeated a coalition of his rivals at the
Battle of Bouvines in 1214. He reorganized the government, bringing financial stability to the country and thus making possible a sharp increase in prosperity. His reign was popular with ordinary people because he checked the power of the nobles and passed some of it on to the growing middle class.
Early years
In declining health, Louis VII had him crowned and anointed at
Rheims by the
Archbishop William Whitehands on
1 November 1179. He was married on
28 April 1180 to
Isabelle of Hainaut, who brought the
County of Artois as her dowry. His father died on
18 September.
Consolidation of royal demesne
While the royal demesne had increased under
Philip I and
Louis VI, under Louis VII it had diminished slightly. In April
1182, Philip expelled all
Jews from the demesne and confiscated their goods.
Philip's eldest son,
Louis, was born on
5 September 1187 and inherited Artois in 1190, when Isabelle, his mother, died.
Wars with his vassals
In 1181, Philip began a war with the Count of Flanders, Philip of Alsace. Philip managed to counter the ambitions of the count by breaking his alliances with Henry I, Duke of Brabant, and
Philip of Heinsberg, Archbishop of Cologne. In July 1185, the Treaty of Boves confirmed to the king the possession of the Vermandois, Artois, and
Amiénois.
In 1184, Stephen I of Sancerre and his
Brabançon mercenaries ravaged the Orléanais. Philip defeated him with the aid of the Confrères de la Paix.
War with England
War with Henry II
Philip also began to war with the
Henry II of England, who was also
Count of Anjou and
Duke of Aquitaine in France. Two years of combat (
1186–
1188) followed, but the situation remained unchanged. Philip initially allied with Henry's young sons,
Richard and
John, who were in rebellion against their father. However, news of the
fall of Jerusalem to
Saladin, followed quickly by the death of Henry, diverted attention from the Franco-English war.
Philip was close friends with all of Henry's sons and he used them to foment rebellion against their father, but turned against both Richard and John after their respective accessions to the throne. With
Henry the Young King and
Geoffrey of Brittany he maintained friendship until their deaths. Indeed, at the funeral of Geoffrey, he was so overcome with grief that he had to be forcibly restrained from casting himself into the grave.
War with John Lackland
In May 1200, Philip signed the
Treaty of Le Goulet with Richard's successor John. The treaty was meant to bring peace to Normandy by settling the issue of the boundaries of the duchy and the terms of John's vassalage for it and
Anjou,
Maine, and
Touraine. John agreed to heavy terms, but Philip in turn recognised John as king, formally abandoning
Arthur I of Brittany, whom he had thitherto supported, and recognised John's suzerainty over the
Duchy of Brittany. To seal the treaty, a marriage between
Blanche of Castile, John's niece, and
Louis the Lion, Philip's son, was contracted.
This did not stop the war, however. In 1202, disaffected barons petitioned the French king to summon John to answer their charges and, when the English king refused, Philip dispossessed him of his French lands. Within two years, most of Normandy and the Angevin lands, including much of
Aquitaine, had been conquered. The war, called the "War of Bouvines," continued for the next decade until Philip won a decisive victory at
Bouvines (
1214) over a coalition of forces that included the
Emperor Otto IV and
Ferdinand, Count of Flanders.
Third Crusade
Philip went on the
Third Crusade with
Richard I of England (1189–99) and the Holy Roman Emperor,
Frederick I Barbarossa (
1189–
1192). His army left
Vézelay on
July 1,
1190. At first the French and English crusaders traveled together, but the armies split at Lyons, as King Richard I decided to go by sea, and Philip took the overland route through the
Alps to
Genoa. The French and English armies were reunited in Messina, where they wintered together. On
March 30,
1191 the French set sail for the Holy Land, where they launched several assaults on
Acre before King Richard I arrived (see
Siege of Acre). By the time Acre surrendered on
July 12, Philip was severely ill with dysentery and had little more interest in further crusading. He decided to return to France, a decision that displeased King Richard I, who said, "It is a shame and a disgrace on my lord if he goes away without having finished the business that brought him hither. But still, if he finds himself in bad health, or is afraid lest he should die here, his will be done." So on
July 31,
1191 the French army of 10,000 men (along with 5,000 silver marks) remained in Outremer under the command of
Hugh III, duke of Burgundy. Philip and his cousin
Peter of Courtenay, count of Nevers, made their way to Genoa and from there returned to France. This decision to return was also fuelled by the realization that with Richard campaigning in the Holy Land, English possessions in northern France (Normandy) would be open for attack. After Richard's delayed return home after the Third Crusade, war between England and France would ensue over possession of English-controlled territories in modern-day France.
Marital problems
After Isabelle's early death in childbirth, in 1190, Philip decided to marry again. On
August 15,
1193 he married
Ingeborg (
1175–
1236), daughter of King
Valdemar I of Denmark (1157–82). She was renamed Isambour, and Stephan of Dornik described her as "''very kind, young of age but old of wisdom''." For some unknown reason, Philip was repelled by her, and he refused to allow her to be crowned Queen. Ingeborg protested at this treatment; his response was to confine her to a convent. He then asked
Pope Celestine III for an annulment on the grounds of non-consummation. Philip had not reckoned with Ingeborg, however; she insisted that the marriage ''had'' been consummated, and that she was his wife and the rightful Queen of France. The Franco-Danish churchman
William of Paris intervened on the side of Ingeborg, drawing up a
genealogy of the Danish kings to disprove the alleged impediment of
consanguinity.
In the meantime Philip had sought a new bride. Initially agreement had been reached for him to marry Marguerite, daughter of
William I, Count of Geneva, but the young bride's journey to Paris was interrupted by
Thomas I of Savoy, who kidnapped Philip's intended new queen and married her instead, claiming that Philip was already bound in marriage. Philip finally achieved a third marriage, on
May 7,
1196, to
Agnes of Merania from Dalmatia (c.
1180 –
July 29,
1201). Their children were:
# Marie (
1198 –
October 15,
1224)
#
Philippe Hurepel (
1200–
1234),
Count of Clermont and eventually, by marriage,
Count of Boulogne
Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) declared Philip Augustus's marriage to Agnes of Merania null and void, as he was still married to Ingeborg. He ordered the King to part from Agnès; when he did not, the Pope placed France under an interdict in 1199. This continued until
September 7,
1200. Due to pressure from the Pope and from Ingeborg's brother, King
Valdemar II of Denmark (1202–41), Philip finally took Ingeborg back as his Queen in 1213.
Last years
Understandably, he turned a deaf ear when the Pope asked him to do something about the heretics in the Languedoc. When
Innocent III called for a crusade against the Albigensians or
Cathars, in 1208, Philip did nothing to support it, but neither did he hinder it. The war against the Cathars did not end until 1244, when finally their last strongholds were captured. The fruits of it, namely the submission of the
south of France to the crown, were to be reaped by Philip's son,
Louis VIII, and grandson,
Louis IX.
Philip II Augustus would play a significant role in one of the greatest centuries of innovation in construction and in education. With
Paris as his capital, he had the main thoroughfares paved, built a central market,
Les Halles, continued the construction begun in 1163 of the
Gothic Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, constructed the
Louvre as a fortress and gave a charter to the
University of Paris in
1200. Under his guidance, Paris became the first city of teachers the medieval world had known. In 1224, the French poet
Henry d'Andeli wrote of the great wine tasting competition that Philip II Augustus commissioned
The Battle of the Wines.
Philip II Augustus died
July 14,
1223 at
Mantes and was interred in
Saint Denis Basilica. Philip's son by Isabelle de Hainaut,
Louis VIII, was his successor.
Portrayal in fiction
Philip is a character in
James Goldman's historical play ''
The Lion in Winter''. The play maintains the historical theory that he and Richard the Lionhearted had previously had a homosexual relationship. In the 1968 film of ''
The Lion in Winter'', which downplayed the homosexual aspect present in the stage play, Philip was played by
Timothy Dalton.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers played Philip in a 2003 television version which somewhat resurrected the matter.
Ancestors
References
Sources
★ Payne, Robert. ''The Dream and the Tomb''. 1984.
★ Baldwin, John W. ''The Government of Philip Augustus''. 1991.
★ Meade, Marion. ''Eleanor of Aquitaine''.
★
Catholic Encyclopedia article
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