Philip II Augustus
Philip II Augustus quadrupled the French royal domain and broke the Angevin empire. Born in 1165, the long-awaited son of Louis VII, he was crowned at fourteen and took power at fifteen when his father was incapacitated. He began by breaking the influence of his mother's Champagne relatives and expanding at the expense of Flanders. His life's work was against the Plantagenets, who as kings of England held Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Aquitaine — far more of France than he did. He could not beat Henry II militarily, so he set the sons against the father, supporting Richard's rebellion in 1189. He went on the Third Crusade with Richard in 1190, took Acre in 1191, and went home ill, immediately attacking Richard's lands while he was still in the east and intriguing with his brother John to keep him imprisoned in Germany. Richard, released, beat him repeatedly and built Château Gaillard to block the Seine. Richard's death in 1199 gave Philip his opening. He summoned John to his court as a vassal over the seizure of Isabella of Angoulême, declared his fiefs forfeit when he did not appear, and by 1204 had taken Normandy, Anjou, Maine and Touraine — an enormous transfer of territory achieved largely by legal process and siege. At Bouvines in July 1214 he destroyed a coalition of the emperor Otto IV, John and the Flemish, which secured everything. He built walls and paved streets in Paris, began the Louvre, chartered the university, and created a salaried administration of baillis. He died in 1223.
- Lived: 1165 CE – 1223 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
