THE PERSONALITY OF PHILIP AUGUSTUS
Philip II, the only child of Louis VII, was raised from birth to be a king. 66 He suceeded his father in 1180, at the age of fifteen. In the first few years of his reign he foiled the plots of the nobles against him, particularly those of' the house of Champagne, to which his mother belonged.
His marriage in 1180 to the daughter of Count Baldwin V of Hainault and niece of Count Philip of Flanders turned the tables on the plotters. By diplomatic and military prowess Philip established himself as his own master despite his youth. Already he had shown qualities that were indispensable to all successful rulers of that period.The first decade of his reign was dominated by shifting political alliances with and against Philip of Flanders and Henry II of England. The second decade saw an alliance with the German emperor (first Frederick Barbarossa, then Henry VI) against Richard I of England, which was followed in the early 1200s by Philip's conquest of most of the French parts of the English king's domain -- Normandy, Maine, Touraine, Poitou, and Anjou. The great military skill and power of Philip reached its culmination in the Battle of Bouvines ( 1214), where the French forces routed those of Flanders,
Germany, and England.
Philip's ability as a politician and warrior were matched by his ability as an administrator and lawmaker. He surrounded himself with persons trained in law, who gave him counsel and acted as his agents. Impressed with the organizing genius of the Normans in Normandy, England, and Sicily, he adopted for all his territories -- especially after the conquest of
-463-
Normandy in 1203-1204 -- various institutions resembling those of the Anglo-Norman itinerant justices and sheriffs. Increasingly he commuted feudal services to money payments in order to pay mercenary troops. He asserted strong rights of overlordship over the barons.
He played off clergy, feudal lords, and town authorities against one another, favoring especially the towns, to which he granted considerable self-government, and the great merchants, to whom he granted trading privileges and monopolies.In all these abilities, interests, and policies, Philip resembled the other great royal lawmakers of his time, especially Roger II of Sicily, Henry II of England, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and Philip of Flanders. He also resembled them in personal traits: according to contemporaries he had great physical strength, was a lover of good cheer, wine, and women, and was an indefatigable hunter and swordsman. He was generous to his friends and harsh to his enemies, combining a hot temper with a cold reserve to control it. He was a devout Roman Catholic. Though he withdrew from the Third Crusade because he fell out with Richard II of England, he undertook the repression of the Albigensian heretics with full ruthlessness. He was willing and eager to borrow, adapt, experiment, and innovate in order to achieve his goals. What Heinrich Mitteis calls "imperturbable self-assurance and resourcefulness" were the hallmarks of his character, as they were hallmarks of other great monarchs of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.
His belief in law as an instrument of power was matched by his belief in law as an instrument of justice. He told his son Louis before his death that he should "maintain justice for low and high and poor and rich." 67