80: Philip Augustus

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80: Philip Augustus

            At 11pm on 21 August 1165, trumpets blared and bells clanged throughout Paris. Many residents who had been sleeping burst awake and looked out their windows. So many people were waving torches that in places it looked like the city had caught on fire. In a sense, it had. Among those suddenly roused was Gerald de Barri. Born to a Norman family who settled in southern Wales, he was then in Paris as a student in its burgeoning university. Gerald opened his window, saw two old women passing by and called out, asking what all the commotion was about. Hearing his Norman accent, one of the women spat up at him, “Now we have a king given us by God, through whom your kingdom will be destroyed and damned.” There are many stories like this, likely apocryphal, which claim that signs in the heavens and prophecies heralded a great king who would unite France and break the power of House of Plantagenet. 

            The newborn babe’s father, King Louis VII, was outside the city proper and only heard about it while he was holding his daily matins, the morning prayers. Quickly he made for his residence in the city, where he found his wife, Queen Adèle of House Champagne, tired, face streaming with tears of joy she shed after finding out that the child was a boy. Louis VII already had four daughters from his previous two marriages, but Salic Law held that only a male could inherit the throne. With Louis VII at the age of 38 he and many others began to worry that the main line of House Capet would fail, plunging the kingdom into war and chaos. The boy’s birth came as such a relief that his first nickname was ‘Dieudonné,’ ‘God-given.’ He was also called ‘Auguste,’ because he was born during the month of August, and because many hoped he would become a great leader like Caesar Augustus.

            That day Louis VII had his son baptized at St-Michel-de-la-Place and gave him the name ‘Philippe’ in honor of his older brother, who had been first-in-line for the throne but had died in a tragic accident. Philippe was also the name of Louis VII’s grandfather, Philippe I. Philippe I ‘The Amorous’ inherited the French monarchy near its all-time low, when the royal domain was little more than the Île-de-France, even as Guillaume I ruled a personal empire as King of England, Duke of Normandy and overlord of Brittany. Philippe I had gone on the offensive, carefully forming alliances, turning his rival’s son against him and ultimately seizing territory from his foe. As he cradled the newborn, Louis VII understood that his son’s defining test would be how he dealt with Guillaume I’s successors who now held not only England, but half of France.

            Philippe II was a strong-willed child. As prince and heir to the throne he was tutored by the greatest scholars Europe could offer. Philippe II learned classic literature, theology and science, though he had no inclination towards any of those arts. Throughout his life he had little interest in the humanities. From a young age his capable mind was bent towards politics. At 12 years old, the prince accompanied his father to Gisors, the traditional meeting place for the King of France and his great rival, Henri II, King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, Duke of Aquitaine and overlord of Brittany. When the French contingent arrived, Louis VII’s vassals gazed in awe at the new castle, with its towers reaching towards the heavens, pennants flying high in the wind. Philippe II watched as his father’s vassals admired the castle and rebuked them for praising an enemy’s accomplishments. That event left an impression on the boy, as he recognized the power of monuments and the need to inspire awe in his vassals.

            Louis VII had no more sons after Philippe II. As such, he felt no pressure to make Philippe II co-king at an early age since the prince had no rivals. Yet, as the king’s health deteriorated, he felt that it was time to place his son on the throne. Even as his subordinates prepared the ceremony, news arrived that Philippe II had fallen gravely ill while hunting. Fearing the worst, Louis VII turned to God, as he always did in times of crisis. The elderly king even travelled to England to answer a call that the deceased Thomas Becket made to him in a vision. At Canterbury, Louis VII pleaded for mercy for his only son. On the return journey, Louis VII suffered a stroke that paralyzed him on his right side. Philippe II made a full recovery, meaning that even as Louis VII’s time was drawing to a close, his son would be ready to take up the crown.

            On 1 November 1179, the Archbishop of Reims, Guillaume aux Blanches Mains, (in English: William Whitehands), crowned Philippe II co-king to cries of ‘vive le roi,’ (long live the king!). Some of the greatest lords of the realm were present. Henri the Younger, eldest living son of Henri II, carried Philippe II’s crown. Two other members of House Plantagenet were there: Richard, called ‘The Lionheart,’ and Geoffroy, Count of Brittany. Philippe of Alsace, Count of Flanders, carried the young king’s sword. The only great lords who were not present were Henri II, who was still reestablishing his power over his personal empire following his sons’ revolt, Louis VII, who lay dying, and the queen mother Adèle who remained with her husband.

After the ceremony, the Count of Flanders hosted a banquet. The lords who attended all gave lavish gifts to their sovereign, but none compared to the amassed gold, silver, gems and finery that the Plantagenet gave their king. Their gifts were a double-edged sword; on the one hand, the Angevins flaunted their wealth in front of the lords of France, showing that they could offer far more than even the king to anyone who would join them. It was also a bribe to Philippe II. Henri II’s sons had a habit of rebelling against their father for more power and could usually count on the king to join them. Everything was political, and in this ceremony Philippe II clearly read the battle-lines that would define the first decade of his rule.

            Philippe II immediately took to governance. He seized his father's chancery seal to prevent his mother from taking it and issued charters in his own name without reference to his father. The young king understood that various factions at court would try to manipulate him. This spurred him into a flurry of action to demonstrate that he would not be anyone’s puppet. With realistic humility but pride in his station, Philippe II proclaimed, “I am only a man, but a man who is king of France.”

On 18 September 1180, Louis VII died. The following day the court held another coronation ceremony as Philippe II ascended from co-king to ruler in his own right. Philippe II distributed gold, silver, gems, ornaments and clothes to the poor in accordance with his pious father’s dying wish. Philippe II had his father buried at Barbeau Abbey in Fontaine-le-Port. His tomb contained the inscription, “You who survive him are the successor to his dignity; you diminish his line if you diminish his renown.” Philippe II took the words to heart and began the hard work of building the power of House Capet.

            Philippe II’s clear desire to be an independent monarch did not sit well with those around him. At court there were two primary factions that vied for power: House Champagne and the Flemish. House Champagne was well-established: the queen mother Adèle belonged to that house, as did her brothers, Guillaume aux Blanches Mains, the archbishop of Reims, Henri I, Count of Champagne, Thibaut V, Count of Blois and Chartres and seneschal of France, and Étienne, Count of Sancarre. Furthermore, Adèle’s younger sister, Marie, was married to Hugues III, duke of Burgundy. House Champagne effectively surrounded the royal domain, moreover, since some of their lands were in the Holy Roman Empire a few of their lords owed vassalage to the Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, who was a habitual enemy to the French king.

            The other faction vying for influence at court were the Flemish under their count, Philippe I of Alsace, known to history as Flanders’ greatest count. Under him the county prospered. It developed large cities that grew rich off their cloth-making industries, making the Count even wealthier than the king. The Count also controlled most of the castles in his territory, reducing chances of revolt by his vassals. Since Flanders relied on imported wool from England it was close to the Anglo-Normans. At the same time, some of the Count’s lands were in the Holy Roman Empire, making him a vassal of both the King of France and the Emperor. This was not necessarily a weakness, as clever counts played the two sides off each other. Finally, Philippe of Alsace had inherited Vermandois when he married Elisabeth of House Capet. These lands bordered the royal domain and meant that the Flemish could directly threaten Paris itself.

            Philippe II decided that House Champagne was the more dangerous of the two factions, and courted the Flemish. Already, he gave the Count of Flanders the honor of carrying his sword in the initial coronation ceremony. The 14-year-old king cemented his alliance by marrying Isabelle of Hainaut, the 10-year-old daughter of one of the count’s vassals. To make his intentions abundantly clear, Philippe II held the marriage at Baupaume, within the Count’s domain and outside the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Reims who normally oversaw royal weddings. No member of House Champagne attended the ceremony as a signal that they disapproved. To make matters worse, shortly thereafter the king removed his uncle Thibaut V from the position of seneschal and gave it to the Count of Flanders.

            Tensions erupted into open hostilities when Adèle began fortifying her dower lands. Her son had the lands seized, prompting the queen mother to flee to Blois for protection. Adèle sent messengers to Henri II, asking him for aid in recovering her territory. At Gisors, the King of England surprised everyone by offering to negotiate a peace favorable to Philippe II. The king would retain the land and in exchange he would receive House Champagne back into his good graces.

Henri II’s decision to support the young king shocked everyone, as House Plantagenet and House Capet were direct rivals for control of France. Yet, Henri II was imminently more powerful than Philippe II, with many times more forces and wealth. Henri II believed that the greatest threat to his many realms was not the king, but his own children. He had recently put down a major revolt that threatened to end his rule entirely, as his sons demanded their inheritance be given sooner and as each fought for a larger share of the Angevin Empire. Richard in particular loved war and had an insatiable thirst for power. The Great Rebellion had turned deadly due to Louis VII supporting Henri II’s sons. Thus, the King of England and Count of Anjou hoped that by supporting Philippe II’s attempts to control his own territory that Philippe II would return the favor. This later proved to be a disastrous mistake on Henri II’s part. Philippe II accepted Henri II’s help, but only until he was strong enough to face the Angevins, who he believed were his perpetual adversaries.

            Philippe II’s conflict with the Angevins was still a few years away; for now he had to deal with problems closer at hand. The Count of Flanders had hoped to be the power behind the throne by supporting the king against House Champagne. Yet, Henri II turned out to be the counterweight that Philippe II needed to cow his relatives. Philippe II happily accepted his family back into power; for the rest of their lives they played a major role in politics. Later on the king even named his mother and his uncle the archbishop of Reims as regents of France while he fought in the Third Crusade. Philippe II was perfectly fine with House Champagne in a position of power so long as they understood that he was the master.

            Philippe II’s familial bliss put the Count of Flanders in a sour mood, as the young king no longer needed his support to maintain his position. His demeanor only worsened in 1182 when the Count’s wife died. The Count claimed Vermandois for himself on behalf of the deceased, though Philippe II asserted his own claim through his sister. Philippe of Alsace angrily asked if the king’s word to recognize his claims meant nothing, to which King Philippe II replied that he had only agreed to recognize the count’s overlordship for a time and that he was a mere child when he had made the agreement, making the action moot. Philippe of Alsace refused to back down. He married Matilda, daughter of Afonso I of Portugal, giving him a strong ally in the south. Then he asked the Emperor for support. With a count, king and emperor against him, Philippe II backed down.

            Philippe II raged at this setback. In March 1184 he called a council of barons at Senlis where he announced his intention to divorce his wife. Philippe II did not give any reason for this, though everyone knew it was a rebuke to the Count of Flanders. Aside from this, it was also potentially a power play; the threat of Isabelle losing her position as queen may have pushed her father, the Count of Hainaut to support King Philippe II, despite being a direct vassal of the Count of Flanders. When the fourteen-year-old queen heard the news she donned a simple shift and walked barefoot through the streets, carrying only a candle. Weeping, she passed from church to church denouncing her husband’s evil councilors. The common people were moved to compassion and marched to where Philippe II was staying, demanding he change his mind. Philippe II backed down and embraced his wife.

            After another outbreak of violence, the two Philippes came to the negotiating table. There, the king claimed that Baudoin, Count of Hainaut had agreed to serve as guarantor of the peace. Baudoin publicly denied this, but the Count of Flanders suspected that his vassal had gone over to the king’s side. In response, Philippe of Alsace and his allies attacked Hainaut. Hopelessly outmatched, Count Baudoin begged the king for aid. Philippe II leapt at the excuse to go to war again and invaded Flanders. In response, the Count of Flanders prepared to assault Paris, boasting that he would raise his flag over the Petit-Pont.

            The Count of Flanders was outmatched. Philippe II was a strong and cunning leader. Moreover, the Emperor was busy campaigning in Italy, leaving the Flemish without allies. In 1185 Philippe II took the important castle of Boves. Recognizing his defeat, the Count of Flanders agreed to a humiliating treaty that divided up his territory. The king’s sister Aliénor got Valois (with Philippe II holding rights there), Philippe II gained Artois and Vermandois was divided. Philippe of Alsace remained count of Vermandois, but King Philippe II would receive the territory after the Count of Flanders died.

            With House Champagne and the County of Flanders brought to heel, the only force that could rival Philippe II’s power was the Angevins. Tension had simmered ever since 1183. That year Henri II’s eldest living son Henri ‘the Younger’ died suddenly of dysentery. His death meant that his widow Marguerite, Philippe II’s sister, could take back her dower lands in the Vexin. Yet, Henri II refused to return the territory to House Capet. While most legal scholars agreed the land belonged to Marguerite, Henri II won the argument by having more swords than his rival, which is one of the best ways to win any debate. That, and Philippe II was occupied fighting the Flemish, so he had to temporarily let his sister’s lands go.

            Philippe II went to war with Henri II in 1185, using the excuse that since Richard continually delayed his promised marriage with the king’s sister Alix that the dower lands must be returned. The King of France successfully manipulated the ever-ambitious Richard into again rebelling against his father. Henri II had tried to placate Richard, who was now his oldest son and heir apparent, but the 28-year-old prince would never be satisfied. Henri II promised to give Richard all the lands he had allocated to Henri the Younger, making him King of England, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou. His brother Geoffroy would be Duke of Brittany while the youngest, Jean, would receive Aquitaine, a territory which was then under Richard’s control. But Richard refused to give up Aquitaine, and a rift opened between the Angevins. Henri II eventually settled this by coming to a compromise with Philippe II: Philippe II would transfer Marguerite’s dower lands to Alix, who would marry Richard, and the Angevins would pay an annual rent for the territory. This was a partial victory, but Philippe II was happy to take it; given how much stronger the Anglo-Normans were than the French, any victory was surprising.

            The King of France signed a peace with Henri II, then immediately began plotting his next moves against House Plantagenet. Philippe II could always count on Richard to fight against his father; the hot-headed warrior barely needed a reason to go into rebellion. Philippe II decided to add Henri II’s second-eldest living son, Geoffroy, to his list of allies. Geoffroy greatly feared Richard, who was set to inherit England, Normandy and Aquitaine, and demanded his father give him the County of Anjou as a counterweight against his brother. While Geoffroy negotiated with his father, Philippe II courted the Angevin noble. He invited him to court, to hunting events and even gave him the role of seneschal.

            In August 1186, Geoffroy participated in a jousting tournament in Paris. Take a guess where this is going. The 27 year-old noble got knocked off his horse and was trampled to death. Philippe II was likely not in attendance as he personally detested tournaments. Yet, when he heard the news he fell into a deep depression. Geoffroy had been a close friend and may have even been planning a campaign against his father before he died. Philippe II had Geoffroy buried with honors in Notre-Dame de Paris. According to the chronicles, when Philippe II saw the coffin pass by he was so aggrieved that he had to be restrained from jumping into the grave to join his beloved companion.

Afterwards, Philippe II claimed guardianship over Brittany. Brittany had a unique place in French politics, as its dukes were nominally independent but were effectively under the power of the Normans for over a century. Philippe II’s declaration was bold, if pointless, as Henri II maintained a firm grasp over the Bretons.

            Fighting recommenced when Richard pressed south into the County of Toulouse. The count begged the king for help, prompting Philippe II to invade the Vexin…which I’m sure wasn’t quite what the Count of Toulouse had in mind, since Philippe II was marching his forces north when he was in the south, but supposedly Philippe II was drawing the Angevin forces to him. Sure. After a series of engagements, the King of France and King of England met at Gisors. During negotiations, Henri II and his retinue took up a spot under the elm tree where the two crowns habitually met to negotiate peace, while Philippe II stood in the blistering sunlight. Afterwards, an angry Philippe II ordered the tree cut down and hacked to pieces. Perhaps he was just being petty, but the message was clear: he was done making peace.

            Philippe II’s primary tactic was to turn the powerful and headstrong Richard against his father. The two became close friends, who shared the same plate, food and even slept in the same bed, as a sign of trust. As the two grew closer, Philippe II fed Richard rumors that his father intended to disinherit him in favor of Jean. Richard remained unconvinced. Then Philippe II pulled off a political masterstroke. During negotiations between the three at Bonmoulins, 1188, Philippe II proposed that Richard and Alix wed and the barons in the dowry lands swear fealty to Richard as the heir to the English throne. Henri II balked at Philippe II’s suggestion; the King of England was furious that someone would tell him what to do in his own lands and he refused.

While Henri II was only protecting his rights, Richard watched his father refuse to name him heir to the throne and suddenly believed all the lies and half-truths that Philippe II had whispered in his ear. At that moment, Richard demanded that his father name him heir. Henri II again refused on the basis that it was his right to decide the succession. In response, Richard knelt before Philippe II and did homage for Aquitaine and Normandy, then asked the King of France if he would support him in securing his rightful inheritance. This was the beginning of the end for the great Angevin ruler.

            For the next six months Philippe II and Richard simultaneously attacked Henri II’s lands. They besieged Le Mans, Henri II’s birthplace, his favorite city and the resting place of his father. Despite vowing to defend his hometown, the English king eventually fled, after which his enemies reduced the city to ashes. While Henri II escaped, Philippe II managed to capture the English king’s baggage train and ate his enemy’s dinner while burning his birthplace to the ground. Philippe II and Richard pursued Henri II from one city to another until the wearied king finally agreed to negotiate peace.

            Henri II met his young rival and his faithless son, visibly worn. He was at that time 56 years old and had fallen ill, such that he could barely stay on his horse. In the ensuing peace treaty he agreed to pay an indemnity to Philippe II while naming Richard heir to all his lands. After signing the treaty he cursed Richard, saying “I hope God will not let me die before I have had my revenge on you as you deserve.” Richard laughed in his father’s face.

            While Philippe II and Richard dictated most of the terms, Henri II did manage to get them to agree to one thing he wanted: the old man demanded a list of all his vassals who had betrayed him. Perhaps Henri II believed that one day his strength would be restored and he would have vengeance on all those who opposed him. In a cruel twist of fate, his list of enemies became the very thing that killed him. When Philippe II’s messengers gave him the list, Henri II saw that the first name was his beloved son, Jean. In that moment, Henri II realized that all of his sons had betrayed him, save only his bastard Geoffroy, who had died tragically.

The revelation thrust Henri II into a deep melancholy and he became delirious, likely suffering a stroke. His subjects recognized that their lord would never recover. They placed him on a bed, which they positioned before the altar at the Chinon chapel. On 6 July 1189, Henri II died. Once the most powerful lord in Western Europe, ruler of a personal empire, he was reduced to a shell by those he most loved and abandoned by all who had sworn loyalty to him. After he passed, his own servants robbed him of his finery, leaving him in only breeches and a shirt.

            The first decade of Philippe II’s reign proved a stunning success. At just 14 years old he countered conspiracies by his mother’s family to make him their puppet. He cowed one of his most powerful vassals, subduing Flanders. With brilliant war tactics and even more cunning political maneuvering he killed off his most powerful rival. To add to his great triumphs, on 3 September 1187 his wife bore him a son, who would go on to succeed him as Louis VIII.

            Despite all these successes, Philippe II’s reign was still not secure. Philippe II’s strategy was to play the Angevins against each other, dividing up their lands between sons. Yet, of Henri II’s five sons that weren’t sent off to the church, three died, leaving only Richard and Jean. For all of his moral failings, Richard was a peerless warrior whose devoted followers named him Cœur de Lion, ‘Lionheart.’ Richard the Lionheart successfully took control of the entire Angevin Empire following his father’s death, while Jean received a small scattering of lands within his brother’s territory. Henri II was dead, but his empire lived. Philippe II was no closer to defeating House Plantagenet and may have even put in power a more worthy opponent.

            The war between House Capet and House Plantagenet had to wait. On 2 October 1187 the great Kurdish general Saladin captured Jerusalem. News of the fall of Christianity’s holiest city spread rapidly. Pope Gregory VIII called a crusade to retake the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This Third Crusade drew nearly all the great magnates of France and the Holy Roman Empire. For a time, Philippe II and Richard I would put aside their own power struggle as they travelled side-by-side to wage holy war.