Philip II (Augustus)

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King ofFrance, born 22 or 25 August, 1165; died at Mantes, 14 July, 1223, son of Louis VII and Alix de Champagne.

He was saved from a serious illness after apilgrimage made by hisfather to thetomb ofThomas à Becket; he succeeded to the throne 18 September, 1180. His marriage with Isabella of Hainault, niece of the Count ofFlanders, the conflicts which he afterwards sustained against the latter, and the deaths of the Countess (1182) and Count ofFlanders (1185), increased the royal power in the north ofFrance. His strife withHenry II ofEngland in concert with the sons of that monarch, Henry, Richard, and John, resulted in 1189 in the Treaty of Azay-sur-Cher, which enhanced the royal power in the centre ofFrance. The struggle with the Plantagenets was the rulingidea of Philip II's whole policy.Richard Cæur de Lion having become King ofEngland, 6 July, 1189, was at first on amicable terms with Philip. Together they undertook theThird Crusade, but quarreled in Palestine, and on his return Philip II accused Richard of having attempted to poison him. As Richard had supported inSicily the claims of Tancred ofLecce against those of theEmperor Henry VI, the latter resolved to be avenged. Richard, having been taken captive on his return from theCrusade by the Duke ofAustria, was delivered to Henry VI, who held himprisoner. Philip II sent William,Archbishop ofReims, to Henry VI to request that Richard should remain the captive ofGermany or that he should be delivered to Philip as hisprisoner. Without loss of time Philip reached an agreement with John Lackland, Richard's brother. Normandy was delivered up by a secret treaty and John acknowledged himself Philip's vassal. But, when in February, 1194, Richard was set free by Henry VI, John Lackland became reconciled with him and endless conflict followed between Richard and Philip. On 13 January, 1199,Innocent III imposed on them a truce of five years. Shortly after this Richard died. Subsequently Philip defended against John, Richard's successor, the claims of the young Arthur of Brittany, and then those of Hugh de Lusignan, Count of La Marche, whosebetrothed had beenabducted by John. Thewar between Philip and John, interrupted by the truces imposed by thepapal legates, became a nationalwar; and in 1206 John lost his possessions in centralFrance. Philip was sometimes displeased with the pontifical intervention betweenFrance and the Plantagenets, but the prestige ofInnocent III forced him to accept it. Protracted difficulties took place between him and thepope owing to the tenacity with whichInnocent III compelled respect for the indissolubility of even royal marriages.

In 1190 Philip lost his wife, Isabella of Hainault, whom he had married in order to inherit Artois, and in 1193 he married Ingeburga, sister of Canute VI, King ofDenmark. As he immediately desired to repudiate her, an assembly of complaisant barons andbishops pronounced thedivorce, but Ingeburga appealed toRome. Despite the remonstrances ofCelestine III, Philip, havingimprisoned Ingeburga, married Agnes de Méran, daughter of aBavarian nobleman.Innocent III, recently elected, called upon him to repudiate Agnes and take back Ingeburga, and on the king's refusal thelegate, Peter ofCapua, placed the kingdom under aninterdict (1198). Most of thebishops refused to publish the sentence. The Bishops ofParis and Senlis, who published it, were punished by having their goods confiscated. At the end of nine months Philip appeared to yield; he feigned reconciliation with Ingeburga, first before thelegate, Octavian, and then before the Council ofSoissons (May, 1201), but he did not dismiss Agnes de Méran. She died in August, 1201, andInnocent III consented to legitimize the two children she had borne the king, but Philip persisted thatRome should pronounce hisdivorce from Ingeburga, whom he heldprisoner at Etampes.Rome refused and Philip dismissed thepapal legate (1209). In 1210 he thought of marrying a princess ofThuringia, and in 1212 renewed his importunities for thedivorce with thelegate, Robert de Courçon. Then, in 1213, having need of the aid of thepope and the King ofDenmark, he suddenly restored Ingeburga to her station as queen.

Another question which at first caused discord between Philip II andInnocent III, and regarding which they had later a common policy, was the question ofGermany. Otto of Brunswick, who wasInnocent III's candidate for the dignity of emperor, was the nephew of Richard and John Lackland. This was sufficient to cause Philip to interfere in favour of Philip of Suabia. They formed an alliance in June, 1198, and when Philip of Suabia was assassinated in 1208 Philip put forward the candidacy of Henry of Brabant. However, the whole ofGermany rallied to Otto of Brunswick, who became emperor asOtto IV, and in 1209 Philip feared that the new emperor would invadeFrance. ButOtto IV quarrelled withInnocent III and wasexcommunicated and thepope by an unexpected move called upon Philip for subsidies and troops to aid him against Otto. They agreed to proclaim as emperor Frederick of Hohenstaufen, the futureFrederick II, Philip giving Frederick 20,000 "marcs" to defray the cost of his election (November, 1212). Thus was inaugurated the policy by whichFrance meddled in the affairs ofGermany and for the first time the French king claimed, like thepope, to have a voice in the imperial election.

The accord established betweenInnocent and Philip with regard to the affairs ofGermany subsequently extended to those ofEngland. Throughout his reign Philip dreamed of a landing inEngland. As early as 1209 he had negotiated with the English barons who were hostile to John Lackland, and in 1212 with theIrish and theWelsh. When John Lackland subjected to cruelpersecution theEnglishbishops who, in spite of him, recognized Stephen Langton asArchbishop ofCanterbury.Innocent III in 1212 placedEngland underinterdict, and thelegate,Pandulphus, declared that John Lackland had forfeited his throne. Then Philip, who received at his court all the exiles fromEngland, consented to go toEngland in the name ofInnocent III to take away the crown from John Lackland. It was to be given to his son, the future Louis VIII. On 22 May, 1213, the French expedition was to embark at Gravelines, when it was learned that John Lackland had become reconciled withRome, and some months later he became a vassal of thepope. Thus failed, on the eve of its realization, the project of the French invasion ofEngland. But thelegate ofInnocent III induced Philip to punish Ferrand, Count ofFlanders, who was the ally of all the enemies of the king. At the battle of Bouvines (27 July, 1214) Ferrand, who supportedOtto IV, was takenprisoner. This battle is regarded as the first French national victory. Philip II, asserting that he had on both sides two great and terrible lions, Otto and John, excused himself from taking part in theCrusade against theAlbigenses. He permitted his son Louis to make two expeditions into Languedoc to support Simon de Montfort in 1215, and Amaury de Montfort in 1219, and again in 1222 he sent Amaury de Montfort two hundredknights and ten thousand foot soldiers under theArchbishop ofBourges and the Count of La Marche. He foresaw that the French monarchy would profit by the defeat of theAlbigenses.

Philip's reign was characterized by a gigantic advance of the French monarchy. Before his time the King ofFrance reigned only over the Ile de France and Berri, and had no communication with the sea. To this patrimony Philip II added Artois, Amienois, Valois, Vernandois, a large portion of Beauvaisis,Normandy,Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and a part of Poitou and Saintonge. His bailiffs and seneschals established the royal power firmly in those countries.Paris became a fortified city and attracted to itsuniversity students from different countries. Thanks to the possession of Dieppe,Rouen, and certain parts of Saintonge, the French monarchy became a maritime and commercial power, and Philip invited foreign merchants toFrance.Flanders, Ponthieu, and Auvergne became subject fiefs, supervised by agents of the king. He exercised a sort of protectorate over Champagne andBurgundy. Brittany was in the hands of Pierre de Dreux, a Capetian of the younger branch. "History", writes M. Luchaire, "does not present so many, such rapid, and such complete changes in the fortune of a State".

Philip Augustus did not interfere in episcopal elections. In Normandy, where the Plantagenets had assumed the custom of directly nominating thebishops, he did not follow their example. Guillaume Le Breton, in his poem the "Philippide", makes him say: "I leave to the men ofGod the things that pertain to the service ofGod." He favoured the emancipation of communes, desiring to be liked by the middle classes of the districts he annexed. He often exacted a tax in exchange for the communal charter. But he did not allow the communes to infringe on theproperty ofclerics or the episcopal right ofjurisdiction. At Noyen he intervened formally in behalf of thebishop, who was threatened by the commune. He undertook a campaign in defence of thebishops andabbots against certainfeudal lords whom he himself desired to humiliate or weaken. In 1180, before he was king, he undertook an expedition into Berri to punish the Lord of Charenton, the enemy of themonks, and intoBurgundy where the Count of Chalon and the Lord of Beaujeu were persecuting theChurch. In 1186, on the complaint of themonks, he took possession of Chatillon-sur-Seine, in the Duchy ofBurgundy, and forced the duke to repair the wrongs he had committed against theChurch. In 1210 he sent troops to protect theBishop ofClermont, who was threatened by the Count of Auvergne.

But on the other hand, in virtue of the preponderance which he wished royalty to have overfeudalism, he exacted of thebishops andabbots the performance of all theirfeudalduties, including military service; although for certain territories he was the vassal of thebishops of Picardy, he refused to pay them homage. Moreover, he declared with regard to Manasses,bishop of Orléans, that the royal court was entitled to judge at the trials ofbishops, and he made common cause with layfeudalism in the endless discussions regarding the province ofecclesiastical tribunals, which at the beginning of the thirteenth century were disposed to extend theirjurisdiction. An ordinance issued about 1205 at the instance of the king, executed inNormandy and perhaps elsewhere, stipulated that in certain cases lay judges might arrest and try guiltyclerics, that the right of asylum of religious buildings should be limited, that theChurch might notexcommunicate those who did business on Sunday or held intercourse withJews, and that a citizen having several children should not give more than half of his estate to that one of his sons who was acleric. Finally he imposed on theclergy heavy financial exactions. He was the first king who endeavoured to compelclerics to pay the king a tenth of their income. In 1188 thearchdeacon Peter ofBlois defeated this claim, but in 1215 and 1218 Philip renewed it, and by degrees the resistance of theclergy gave way. Philip, however, waspious in his own way, and in the advice which St. Louis gave to his son he said that Philip, because of "God'sgoodness and mercy would rather lose his throne than dispute with the servants of Holy Church". Thus the reputation left by Philip II was quite different from that ofPhilip IV, orFrederick II ofGermany. He never carried out towards theChurch a policy of trickery or petty vexations, on the contrary he regarded it as his collaborator in the foundation of French unity.

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