Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), also known as Philip Augustus (French: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks (Latin: rex Francorum), but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French monarch to style himself "King of France" (rex Francie). The only son of King Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne, he was originally nicknamed 'God-given' (Dieudonné) because he was a first son and born late in his father's life. Philip was given the epithet "Augustus" by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the crown lands of France so remarkably.
After decades of conflicts with the House of Plantagenet, Philip succeeded in putting an end to the Angevin Empire by defeating a coalition of his rivals at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. This victory would have a lasting impact on western European politics: the authority of the French king became unchallenged, while John, King of England, was forced by his barons to assent to Magna Carta and deal with a rebellion against him aided by Philip's son Louis, the First Barons' War. The military actions surrounding the Albigensian Crusade helped prepare the expansion of France southward. Philip did not participate directly in these actions, but he allowed his vassals and knights to help carry them out.
Philip transformed France into the most prosperous and powerful country in Europe. He checked the power of the nobles and helped the towns free themselves from seigneurial authority, granting privileges and liberties to the emergent bourgeoisie. He built a great wall around Paris ("the Wall of Philip II Augustus"), re-organised the French government, and brought financial stability to his country.
Philip was born in Gonesse on 21 August 1165, the son of Louis VII and Adela of Champagne. He was nicknamed "Dieudonné" (God-given) being the first born son, arriving late in his father's life. In 1173, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa proposed to marry his daughter, Beatrice (born c. 1163), to Philip. The proposal was successfully opposed by Pope Alexander III, since at the time Barbarossa recognized a rival pope in Callixtus III.
Louis intended to make Philip co-ruler with him, in accordance with the traditions of the House of Capet, but these plans were delayed when Philip became ill after a hunting trip. His father went on pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral to pray for Philip's recovery, and was told that his son had indeed recovered. However, on his way back to Paris, the king suffered a stroke.
In declining health, Louis VII had 14-year-old Philip crowned and anointed as king at Reims on 1 November 1179 by Archbishop William of the White Hands. Philip was married on 28 April 1180 to Isabella of Hainault, the daughter of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut and Countess Margaret I of Flanders. Isabella brought the County of Artois as her dowry. The marriage was held at Bapaume, with the bishops of Senlis and Laon in attendance.
From the time of his coronation, all real power was transferred to Philip, as his father's health slowly declined. The great nobles were dissatisfied with Philip's advantageous marriage. His mother and four uncles, all of whom exercised enormous influence over Louis, were extremely unhappy with his attainment of the throne since Philip had taken the royal seal from his father. Louis died on 18 September 1180.
Consolidation of the royal demesne
The royal demesne had increased under Philip I and Louis VI, but had slightly diminished under Louis VII. The first major increase to the royal demesne came in 1185, when Philip acquired the County of Amiens. He purchased the County of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis in 1218, and following the death of Robert I, Count of Alençon, in 1219, Philip obtained the city and county of Alençon. Philip's eldest son, Louis, inherited the County of Artois in 1190, when Queen Isabella died.
The main source of funding for Philip's army was the royal demesne. In times of conflict, he could immediately call up 250 knights, 250 horse sergeants, 100 mounted crossbowmen, 133 crossbowmen on foot, 2,000 foot sergeants, and 300 mercenaries. Towards the end of his reign, the king could muster some 3,000 knights, 9,000 sergeants, 6,000 urban militiamen, and thousands of foot sergeants. Using his increased revenues, Philip was the first Capetian king to build a French navy actively. By 1215, his fleet could carry a total of 7,000 men. Within two years, his fleet included 10 large ships and many smaller ones.
Reversing his father's tolerance and protection of Jews, Philip in 1180 ordered French Jews to be stripped of their valuables, ransomed and converted to Christianity on pain of further taxation. In April 1182, partially to enrich the French crown, he expelled all Jews from the demesne and confiscated their goods. Philip expelled them from the royal demesne in July 1182 and had Jewish houses in Paris demolished to make way for the Les Halles market. The measures were profitable in the short-term, the ransoms alone bringing in 15,000 marks and enriching Christians at the expense of Jews. Ninety-nine Jews were burned alive in Brie-Comte-Robert. In 1198, Philip allowed Jews to return.
In 1181, a conflict arose between Philip and Count Philip I of Flanders over the Vermandois, which King Philip claimed as his wife's dowry. Finally, the Count of Flanders invaded France, ravaging the whole district between the Somme and the Oise before penetrating as far as Dammartin. Notified of Philip's approach with 2,000 knights, he headed back to Flanders. Philip chased him, and the two armies confronted each other near Amiens. By this stage, Philip had managed to counter the ambitions of the count by breaking his alliances with Duke Henry I of Brabant and the Archbishop of Cologne, Philipp von Heinsberg. This, together with an uncertain outcome were he to engage the French in battle, forced the Count to conclude a peace. In July 1185, the Treaty of Boves left the disputed territory partitioned, with Amiénois, Artois, and numerous other places passing to the king, and the remainder, with the county of Vermandois proper, left provisionally to the Count of Flanders. It was during this time that Philip II was nicknamed "Augustus" by the monk Rigord for augmenting French lands.
Meanwhile, in 1184, Stephen I, Count of Sancerre, and his Brabançon mercenaries ravaged the Orléanais. Philip defeated him with the aid of the Confrères de la Paix.
A disagreement arose between Philip and King Henry II of England, who was also Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine in France. The death of Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, in June 1183, began a dispute over the dowry of Philip's widowed sister Margaret. Philip insisted that the dowry should be returned to France as the marriage did not produce any children, per the betrothal agreement. The two kings would hold conferences at the foot of an elm tree near Gisors, which was so positioned that it would overshadow each monarch's territory, but to no avail. Philip pushed the case further when King Béla III of Hungary asked for the widow's hand in marriage, and thus her dowry had to be returned, to which Henry finally agreed.
The death of Henry's fourth son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, began a new round of disputes, as Henry insisted that he retain the guardianship of the duchy for his unborn grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany. Philip, as Henry's liege lord, objected, stating that he should be the rightful guardian until the birth of the child. Philip then raised the issue of his other sister, Alys, Countess of Vexin, and her delayed betrothal to Henry's son Richard I of England, nicknamed Richard the Lionheart.
With these grievances, two years of combat followed (1186–1188), but the situation remained unchanged. Philip initially allied with Henry's young sons Richard the Lionheart and John, who were in rebellion against their father. The first attempt to seriously test Henry's resolve came when Philip II launched an attack on Berry in the summer of 1187 and captured the fortress of Issoudun, but by June made a truce with Henry, which left Issoudun in Philip's hands while also granting him Fréteval in Vendômois. Though the truce was for two years, Philip found grounds for resuming hostilities in the summer of 1188 and succeeded in seizing Châteauroux. He skillfully exploited the estrangement between Henry and Richard, and Richard did homage to him voluntarily at Bonsmoulins in November 1188.