Dynastica

Philip II Augustus

Philippe II Auguste

King of France

1165 – 1223

Biography

The first king to style himself king of France rather than king of the Franks, and the architect of medieval French royal power. He stripped John of England of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, and crushed the Holy Roman Emperor and his Plantagenet allies at Bouvines in 1214 — the battle that announced France as the dominant power in Western Europe. By his death the royal demesne had quadrupled.

Events

  • Conflict

    Battle of Bouvines

    1214· as commanding victor

    The decisive battle of medieval France. On 27 July 1214 Philip II Augustus crushed a coalition of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV, Count Ferdinand of Flanders, and the English under John, ending the Plantagenet attempt to recover the continental holdings John had lost a decade earlier. Bouvines confirmed France as the dominant power of Latin Europe and broke John's standing at home — the Magna Carta crisis followed within a year.

    Also there: John

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