



PHILIP OF ORLEANS. 



PHILIPPE II. (OP FRANCE). 



by b second queen, one of whom, Don Carlo*, afterwards ascended 

 the Spanish throne u Charles HI. 



I'll I I.I I' UF ORLEANS, Itegent, [OftLBun, Hocu OF.] 



1'IIIl.IITi: I., King of Fnuoe, son of Henri I., and third both in 

 Jssrtnt and succession from Hugues Capet, founder of the third 

 dynasty of France. wa born in 1063, and inoooeded his father in 

 1060. Hi* mother wai Anne of Roma, daughter of the Czar 

 Jaroalaf I. On his death-bed Henri committed the care of the child 

 and the administration of the government to his brother-in-law, 

 Baudouin or Baldwin, count of KUuden. Baudouin did little more 

 till the time of hU death (1067) than occasionally visit his ward, who 

 was brought up sometime* at Paris, sometimes at one or other of the 

 royal castle*. The death of Baudouin removed from Philippe the 

 restraint which his station and inexperience required, and he plunged 

 into a aeries of excesses of the most disgraceful character. The 

 means of indulgence were supplied from various sources, especially 

 from the sale of ecclesiastical benefices and dignities, which subse- 

 quently drew upon him the hostility of the Church, but, although he 

 had not sufficient energy vigorously to struggle against the growing 

 spirit of ecclesiastical domination, his necessities and his profligacy 

 prevented his entire submission to the claims of the popes, who 

 desired to engross to themselves all the higher ecclesiastical appoint- 

 ments. Philippe was engaged not long after the death of Baudouin in 

 a war with Robert le Prison, or the Frisian, who had usurped the 

 county of Flanders from his nephew Arnolphe, the grandson of 

 Baudouin. The hasty and inadequate force assembled by Philippe 

 was surprised and routed by Robert near Cassel in 1071 ; the young 

 Count Arnolphe was killed, and the king only saved himself by a hasty 

 and inglorious Sight. In a second attempt to subdue Robert, Philippe 

 met witli no better success. He then made peace with him, and 

 married Bertha of Holland, his step-daughter. 



From 107S to 10S7 Philippe was engaged in occasional hostilities 

 with William, duke of Normandy and king of Englaud, which king- 

 dom he bad acquired by conquest (in 1066) during Philippe's minority. 

 But the war was languidly conducted, on the part of Philippe from 

 indolence, and on that of William from full occupation in other 

 quarters, and perhaps from the feudal sentiment of respect for his 

 suzerain. Philippe however encouragid the discontented vassal* and 

 rebellious children of William ; and the contest did not finally termi- 

 nate until the death of the Conqueror (1087). He had become exces- 

 sively corpulent, and a coarse jest of Philippe, who inquired " when 

 ho would be put to bed," excited bis indignation. "When I go to be 

 churched at St Genevicve, I will offer a hundred thousand tapers," 

 was the reply of the angry veteran. He entered the territory of Vexin, 

 and stormtd Mantes; but a hurt which he received by bis hone falling 

 proved mortal, and relieved Philippe from his hostility. 



The year 1092 was marked by the most important incident of 

 Philippe's life. He had become weary of his wife Bertha, by whom 

 he had four children, and had confined her in the castle of Montreuil, 

 which bad b*en settled on her by way of dower. He now married 

 Bertrade, wife of Foulques le Recbm, count of Anjou, who, dreading 

 her buiband's inconstancy, forsook him and took refuge with Philippe. 

 This marriage was so glaringly inconsistent, not only with food morals 

 and decency, but with ecclesiastical law, that it was with difficulty 

 that any bishop could be procured to solemnise the union. It 

 involved Philippe in two wan, one with Hobert le Prison, who took 

 up the cause of the repudiated Bertha ; and another with Foulques of 

 Anjou, who sought to recover licrtradc. The Church also took up 

 the matter, and Philippe was daily attacked with remonstrances, cen- 

 sures, and threats of excommunication. In return he threatened the 

 buhops, and even subjected one of them to a short imprisonment 

 Philippe had obstinacy enough to retain Bertrade, but not sufficient 

 strength of character to silence the bishops. Some of them indeed 

 embraced bis cause after the death of his injured wife Bertha (Him), 

 and in a council held at Reims showed a disposition to attack the 

 Bishop of Chartres, his sturdiest opponent. But the majority of the 

 French bishops, in a national council at Autun in 1094, excommuni- 

 cated both Philippe and Bertrade. Tbo pope, Urban II., did not how- 

 ever pursue him to extremity, and the tentence was only so far 

 enforced as to deprive him of the liberty of wearing the ensigns of 

 royalty, and to prevent the celebration of public worship in the 

 place where be was. He retained the exercise of such power as he 

 possessed, and was allowed to perform hi* devotions in his private 

 chapel 



Near the close of the llth or the beginning of the 1 2th century, 

 Philippe, being engaged in hostilities with William II., who then held 

 Normsndy, associated with himself on the throne bis son Louis VI., 

 then only eighteen or twenty years of age, nfterwards known as Louis 

 le Oros. The activity and good conduct of the prince gradually raised 

 the royal power from the contempt into which it liod fallen, but 

 excited the jealousy of bis step-mother Bertrnde. The court was 

 divulrd ; Louis is charged with seeking a pretext to have Bertrade 

 in nrd, red, and Bertrade practised on his life by poison. Neither the 

 divisions of hi* family nor the power of the church could prevail on 

 Philippe really to put away Bertrade, or to deprive her of the title of 

 queen. A declaration of penitence, and engagement no longer to 

 regard her or live with her as a wife, which engagement he afterwards 

 openly violated, were accepted by the church, and the excommuni- 



cation was Ukeu off in 1101. Bertrade afterwards succeeded in 

 reconciling both herself and Philippe with her former husband, 

 Foulques le Urchin, The remaining years of Philippe were marked 

 by little except the intrigues of Bertrade for the advancement of her 

 children by both marriages. 



Philippe died at Melun, of premature old age, the result of his 

 intemperance, in 1108, having nearly completed the forty-eighth year 

 of his reign, and was succeeded by Louis VI. His worthless character, 

 combined with the low state of the regal power, rendered him a 

 spectator rather than an actor in the event* of his reign. France 

 possessed at this time little national unity, uud the history of the tiuia 

 is the history of the great nobles and of the provinces, rather than the 

 history of the king or the kingdom. From the time of Philippe the 

 royal power revived. The activity of Louis had given on impulse to 

 it even in his father's time, and his activity and that of his immediate 

 successors gave permanence to the movement. 



PHILIPPE II., better known as PHILIPPE AUGUSTE (a name 

 which he is thought to have derived from being born in the month 

 of August), was the sou of Louis VII., surnamed Lo Jeuue, and Alix, 

 daughter of Thibaut le Grand, count of Champagne, his third wife. 

 He was born in 1165, and was crowned at Reims, when little more 

 than fourteen years of age, in his father's lifetime, upon whoso death 

 in the following year, 1 1 SO, ho came to the throne, lie hod however 

 exercised the sovereign power from his first coronation, his father 

 being disabled by palsy, and one of his earliest acts was a general 

 persecution of the Jews, whom, when assembled in their synagogues 

 on the Sabbath, he caused to be surrounded by soldiers, dragged to 

 prison, and despoiled of all the gold and silver that was found on 

 them. He also published an edict, by which all debts due to them 

 were to be annulled on condition that the debtor should pay to the 

 royal treasury a fifth part of the amount due. Other acts of perse- 

 cution followed, and in 1181, the Jews were commanded to dispose 

 of all their moveable property and quit the kingdom for over ; all 

 their real property was confiscated to the crown, and their synagogues 

 were ordered to be converted into Christian churches. The intercession 

 both of nobles and ecclesiastics, for whose good offices they paid large 

 sums, was in vain; and after experiencing a heavy loss from the 

 enforced sale of their effects, they were expelled from all the domains 

 of the crown. The great vassals of the crown were in no hurry to 

 repeat the royal edict, and in the county of Toulouse especially the 

 Jews remained undisturbed. Other acts of persecution followed, and 

 the king is recorded "not to have allowed to live in all his kingdom 

 a single individual who ventured to gainsay the laws of the church, or 

 to depart from one of the articles of the Catholic faith, or to deny 

 the sacrann 



The pride and ambition of Philippe led him, even before his father's 

 death, to embroil himself with the queen his mother and her four 

 brothers, the counts of Bloie, Champagne, and Sancerre, and the Arch- 

 bishop of Reims, who had taken advantage of the weakness of 

 Louis VII. to govern France in his name, and who concluded that it 

 belonged to them to direct the administration of a minor king. The 

 good offices of Henry II. of England arranged the dispute. Philippe 

 married, before his father's death, Isabella, niece of the Count of 

 Flanders, his godfather ; and was, with her, crowned a second time at 

 St. Denis by the Archbishop of Sens. This marriage was one of the 

 causes of dispute with his mother and uncles. He soon alienated the 

 Count of Flanders, as well as most of the other great vaaials of the 

 crown, who united to oppose his rising power ; but the good offices of 

 Henry of England again restored quiet (1182). It was a little after 

 this that he caused some of the streets of Paris to be paved. After on 

 interval of three yean (1185), war between Philippe and the Count of 

 Flanders again broke out, and ended, after a short campaign, by a 

 peace which added to the territory and resources of the king. A 

 struggle with the Duke of Bourgogne (1186) also terminated favour- 

 ably for the kinp. Hostilities with Henry 11. of Englaud followed, 

 and were attended with success ; and that powerful monarch died at 

 Chinon in 1189, broken-hearted at seeing his own sous in league with 

 his enemy. 



In 1188 Philippe bad taken the cross. In 1190 the combined forces 

 of Philippe and Richard I. of England rendezvoused at Vrzelay, not far 

 from Auxerre; and in the autumn of the same year they embarked, 

 Philippe at Genoa, and Richard at Marseille. They m< t ami wintered 

 at Mcssiua in Sicily, and in 1191 proceeded to the Holy Laud; but 

 before long, Philippe, jealous of the superiority of Richard as a 

 warrior, made ill-health an excuse for returning to France, and reached 

 Paris in December 1191. He had left his mother Alix, and his uncle, 

 the Archbi-hop of Reimi. regent* of his kingdom. The incidents of 

 the crusade had made Philippe and Richard rivals ; and the former, 

 on his return, commenced his attack on the other, at first by intrigues, 

 and afterwards by force. He made some acquisitions in Normandy, 

 but failed (1194) in attacking Rouen. The following years were 

 occupied with alternate periods of truce and hostility, in which the 

 policy and steadiness and the feudal superiority of the French king 

 rendered him a match for the more soldier-like qualities of Richard ; 

 and on the death of Richard (1199), the incapacity of John, his 

 snccesior, enabled Philippe to establish decisively the superiority of 

 the Capet race over the rival family of Plantagenet. During this war, 

 Philippe, now a widower, married, in 1193, Ingeburge, or Isamburge, 



