PHILIP II AUGUSTUS, King of France. — Having succeeded his father, Louis VII, in 1180 at a very young age (he was born in Paris on 21 August 1165), his entire life was spent in defending the monarchical institution and in the struggle against the overweening power of the great feudal lords. At the beginning of his reign, he had the support of the Count of Flanders, Philip of Alsace, against whom he would later turn, with the aid of Henry II of England, against whom he would in turn fight in an attempt to weaken English power in France, where it was predominantly exercised. And, with the unexpected support of Henry II’s own son, Richard the Lionheart, he was able to strike the first blows against the English king. Meanwhile, the fall of Constantinople had stirred in Christendom the expectation of a crusade.
Philip II Augustus, with Frederick Barbarossa and Richard the Lionheart—who had by then succeeded Henry II—took part in II. After the first signs of conflict at Messina, the events of the siege of Saint-Jean-d’Acre turned Philip II and Richard into enemies. The former quickly returned to France; the imprisonment of his rival first by the Duke of Austria and then by Henry VI delayed Richard’s presence on the contested soil, giving Philip II the opportunity to seize English fiefs in France. The attempt, however, failed, first because of Richard’s ransom and then because of the latter’s military fortune. Only the intervention of Innocent III saved the Capetian monarchy. The sudden death of Richard and the mediocre worth of his successor, John Lackland, reopened the path to Philip II’s unifying enterprise. The rivalry between the English king and Arthur, Count of Brittany, furthered French ambitions: at the beginning of the new century, Normandy, Brittany, Poitou, and Aquitaine were incorporated into the French monarchy. Once again, it was the intervention of Innocent III, indignant at the vexations suffered by the English clergy, that decisively favored Philip II’s cause. In 1213, the invasion of England was on the verge of being carried out, when John’s submission to the Pope put a stop to II. Meanwhile, a matrimonial dispute had deeply divided Philip II and Innocent: the divorce from his second wife, Ingeborg of Denmark, and his new marriage to Agnes of Merania. There followed a series of papal acts (among them an interdict on France), a council at Soissons, a feigned reconciliation, and then the real imprisonment of the unfortunate Ingeborg. Later, upon Agnes’s death, the king restored Ingeborg to her rights.
It was the hoped-for invasion of England, with the practical need it entailed for Danish alliance, that carried the weight that the Pope’s word had not been able to achieve. There was also a clash between king and pope over the imperial crown: Philip II supported the Swabian, his namesake, while the pope backed Otto of Brunswick. In 1214, at Bouvines, Philip II defeated Otto, allied with his rebellious vassals.
In the last years of his reign, he linked his name to the crusade against the Albigensians and to the final episode of the long struggle with the rival Plantagenet dynasty: the expedition to England by his son Louis. With extreme duplicity, he publicly disavowed the crime while secretly aiding its execution. And Louis, husband of John Lackland’s niece, entered victorious into London, while the defeated king died. The English, however, recovering their solidarity, forced the invader to return to France. A few years later, Philip II died on 14 July 1223, the architect—if there was one—of French unity around the monarchy, despite all his flaws.
Pier Fausto Palumbo