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Learn about the life and reign of Philip II, the first king of France to style himself "King of France" and the most powerful monarch of his time. Find out how he expanded his kingdom, defeated his rivals, and transformed his country.
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- Early life and kingship
- Territorial expansion
Philip II (born August 21, 1165, Paris, France—died July 14, 1223, Mantes) the first of the great Capetian kings of medieval France (reigned 1180–1223), who gradually reconquered the French territories held by the kings of England and also furthered the royal domains northward into Flanders and southward into Languedoc. He was a major figure in the...
Philip was the son of Louis VII of France and Adela of Champagne. In order to be associated as king with his father, who had fallen mortally ill, he was crowned at Reims on November 1, 1179. His uncles of the house of Champagne—Henry I, count of Champagne; Guillaume, archbishop of Reims; and Thibaut V, count of Blois and Chartres—hoped to use the youthful king to control France. To escape from their tutelage, Philip on April 28, 1180, married Isabella, the daughter of Baldwin V of Hainaut and the niece (through her mother) of Philip of Alsace, the count of Flanders, who promised to give the king the territory of Artois as her dowry.
When Henry II of England arrived in Normandy, perhaps with the intention of responding to an appeal by the house of Champagne, Philip II entered into negotiations with him and, at Gisors on June 28, 1180, renewed an understanding that Louis VII had reached with him in 1177. As a result, the house of Champagne was politically isolated, and Philip II was making all decisions for himself and acting as he saw fit when his father died, on September 18, 1180, leaving him sole king in name as well as in fact.
When the count of Flanders allied himself with the Champagne faction, there followed a serious revolt against the king. In the Peace of Boves, in July 1185 (confirmed by the Treaty of Gisors in May 1186), the king and the count of Flanders composed their differences (which had been chiefly over possession of Vermandois, in Picardy) so that the disputed territory was partitioned, Amiens and numerous other places passing to the king and the remainder, with the county of Vermandois proper, being left provisionally to Philip of Alsace. Thenceforward the king was free to run against Henry II of England.
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Henry’s French possessions—the so-called Angevin empire, consisting of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Touraine, with Aquitaine in the hands of his son, the future Richard I the Lion-Heart of England, and Brittany ruled by another son, Geoffrey (died 1186)—all were a constant menace to the French royal domain. Furthermore, there were long-standing disputes over the Vexin (between Normandy and the Île-de-France), Berry, and Auvergne.
Philip II launched an attack on Berry in the summer of 1187 but then in June made a truce with Henry, which left Issoudun in his hands and also granted him Fréteval, in Vendômois. Though the truce was for two years, Philip found grounds for resuming hostilities in the summer of 1188. He skillfully exploited the estrangement between Henry and Richard, and Richard did homage to him voluntarily at Bonmoulins in November 1188. Finally, by the Treaty of Azay-le-Rideau, or of Colombières (July 4, 1189), Henry was forced to renew his own homage, to confirm the cession of Issoudun, with Graçay also, to Philip, and to renounce his claim to suzerainty over Auvergne. Henry died two days later.
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Richard, who succeeded Henry as king of England, had already undertaken to go on Crusade against Saladin in the Holy Land (the Third Crusade), and Philip now did likewise. Before his departure, he made the so-called Testament of 1190 to provide for the government of his kingdom in his absence. On his way to Palestine, he met Richard in Sicily, where they promptly found themselves at variance, though they made a treaty at Messina in March 1191. Arriving in Palestine, they cooperated against the Muslims at Acre, until Philip fell ill and made his illness a pretext for returning to France, quite determined to settle the succession to Flanders (Philip of Alsace had just died on the Crusade) while Richard was still absent. Thus, by the end of 1191, Philip II was back in France.
In spite of promises he had made in the Holy Land, Philip at once prepared to attack the Plantagenet possessions in France. Informed of this, Richard also left the Crusade but was taken prisoner while on his way back by the duke of Austria, Leopold V of Babenberg. Philip did everything he could to prolong his rival’s captivity, but Richard was at last set free (1194) and went to war against Philip. The French king suffered a number of defeats (from that at Fréteval in July 1194 to that at Courcelles in September 1198) in a series of campaigns that were occasionally punctuated by negotiations. It was fortuitous for Philip, however, when Richard was killed in April 1199.
Philip II Augustus (August 21, 1165 – July 14, 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.
Philip II, byname Philip Augustus, was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip be...
Philip II, French Philippe known as Philip Augustus, (born Aug. 21, 1165, Paris—died July 14, 1223, Mantes), French king (1180–1223). Although crowned king in 1179, he did not become sole ruler until the death of his father, Louis VII, the following year.
May 14, 2018 · Learn about Philip II, the seventh Capetian king of France who ruled from 1180 to 1223. He expanded his kingdom by wars with England, reformed the royal administration, and made Paris the center of culture and learning.
Philip II was the duke of Burgundy (1363–1404) and the youngest son of the French king John II the Good. One of the most powerful men of his day in France, he was for a time regent for his nephew Charles VI; and when Charles went insane, he became the virtual ruler of France.
