Philip II of France
Philippe II Auguste (also called
Philip Augustus) (
August 21,
1165 -
July 14,
1223) was King of
France from
1180 to
1223.
A member of the
Capetian dynasty, Philippe II was born
August 21,
1165 at
Gonesse,
Val-d'Oise, France, the son of
Louis VII of France and his third wife, Adèle de Champagne.
In declining health, his father had him crowned at
Reims in
1179.
\nHe was married on
April 28,
1180 to
Isabelle of Hainaut (
April 1170 -
March 15,
1190) and they had one son:\n* Louis VIII (
September 5,
1187 -
November 8,
1226)
A few years after Isabelle's passing, on
August 15,
1193 he married
Ingeborg of Denmark (
1175-
1236). The marriage produced no children and ended in divorce.
King Philippe II married for a third time on
May 7,
1196 to Princess
Agnès of Méranie (c.
1180 -
July 29,
1201. Their children were:
As king, he would become one of the most successful in consolidating France into one royal domain. He seized the territories of
Maine,
Touraine,
Anjou,
Brittany, and all of
Normandy from
King John of England. His decisive victory at the
Battle of Bouvines over King John and a coalition of forces that included
Otto IV of Germany ended the immediate threat of challenges to this expansion (
1214) and left Philippe as the most powerful monarch in all of Europe.
He reorganized the government, bringing to the country a financial stability which permitted a sharp increase in prosperity. His reign was popular with ordinary people when he checked the power the nobles and passed some of it on to the growing middle class his reign had created.
He went on the
Third Crusade with
Richard the Lionhearted and the Holy Roman Emperor,
Frederick I Barbarossa (
1189-
1192).
King Philippe would play a significant role in one of the greatest centuries of innovation in construction and in education. With
Paris as his capital, he had the main thoroughfares paved, built a central market,
Les Halles, continued the construction begun in
1163 of the
Gothic Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, constructed the
Louvre as a fortress and gave a charter to the
University of Paris (the Sorbonne) in
1200. Under his guidance, Paris became the first city of
teachers the medieval world had known.
King Philippe II Auguste died
July 14,
1223 at
Mantes and was interred in
Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his son by Isabelle of Hainaut,
Louis VIII.
{| align="center" cellpadding="2" border="2"\n|-\n| width="30%" align="center" | Preceded by:
Louis VII\n| width="40%" align="center" |
King of France\n| width="30%" align="center" | Succeeded by:
Louis VIII\n|}
\nCategory:French monarchs\nCategory:Crusades
\n \n\n \n \n
