A Life of King Philip II “Augustus” of France

“The new king might have been young, but he was not stupid. Neither was he unprepared to face the task ahead: he had been the heir to the French throne since the day of his birth, he had spent his entire life learning at a rapid pace, and he was already in possession of a great deal of political acumen…he was fully aware of the nest of vipers that surrounded him.” (p. 1)

So begins this rather Anglo-centric biography of king Philip II “Augustus” who ruled France with an iron fist for over four decades. Born in 1165, the only son of king Louis VII, Philip came to the throne at the age of fourteen. He spent most of his long reign fighting a series of English kings: Henry II, Richard I, John, and Henry III. (In the great 1968 Hollywood film, The Lion in Winter, Philip was played by British actor Timothy Dalton (the fourth James Bond).

In the 12th century, France was not exactly a nation. Much of the land was held by semi-independent feudal lords, and important provinces like Normandy and Aquitaine were controlled by the English Plantagenet dynasty. All these knightly lords paid homage as vassals to the “king of the Franks,” who enjoyed the support of the powerful Church, but that didn’t stop them from conspiring against him, and making war on one another. The Plantagenets were not very “English”; their native language was French, and they spent most of their time and energy on their French estates, treating England as a cash-cow, and holding their Anglo-Saxon subjects in low regard.

Philip was a complex character. Fiercely pious, he damaged his health by going on the Third Crusade (1189-1192), and he expelled the Jews from France in 1182, seizing their property. Yet he defied the Church by repudiating his second wife, Ingeborg, a Danish princess, and taking a third wife, Agnes of Merania in 1196.

When king Richard I “Lionheart” of England was taken prisoner and held for ransom by a German prince while returning from the Crusade, Philip schemed to prevent his release. With advancing age, he suffered from anxiety and paranoia. Philip died at the age of 57 in 1223 and was succeeded by his son, the hapless Louis VIII, who failed in an attempt to invade England, and died after just three years on the throne.

This book has several good maps, including the decisive 1214 battle of Bouvines (where Philip’s knights routed the larger army of Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV), diagrams of castles, and three detailed family trees that help the reader keep track of who was related and how to whom. The author of Nemesis, Catherine Hanley, has a Ph. D. in Medieval History and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She wears her learning lightly, writing in a highly readable style with a charming sense of humor. For readers interested in medieval history, Nemesis will be a most enjoyable and informative read.

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Our Reviewer: Mike Markowitz is an historian and wargame designer. He writes a monthly column for CoinWeek.Com and is a member of the ADBC (Association of Dedicated Byzantine Collectors). His previous reviews include Caesar Rules: The Emperor in the Changing Roman World, Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen, Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint, Persians: The Age of the Great Kings, Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State, At the Gates of Rome: The Battle for a Dying Empire, Roman Emperors in Context, After 1177 B.C., Cyrus the Great, Barbarians and Romans: The Birth Struggle of Europe, A.D. 400–700, Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It, The Roman Provinces, 300 BCE–300 CE: Using Coins as Sources, The Cambridge Companion to Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Archaic Greece, Amazons: The History Behind the Legend, The Byzantine World, Classical Controversies, Reassessing the Peloponnesian War, and War and Masculinity in Roman and Medieval Culture,.

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Note: Nemesis is also available in e-editions.

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