Philip II, known as Philip Augustus 1165-1223
First great Capetian King of France

The son of Louis VII, he was born in Paris and crowned joint king in 1179. He succeeded his father (1180) and married Isabella of Hainault, the last direct descendant of the Carolingians. He supported the sons of Henry II of England against their father. Richard I and he set out on the Third Crusade (1190-91), but he soon returned to France, and partitioned Richard's French territories with John. Richard's sudden return caused an exhausting war till 1199. Philip supported Richard's (and John's) nephew, Prince Arthur against John in France, but was distracted by his quarrel with the pope, who refused to let him divorce and remarry. After Arthur's murder in 1203 he won back English possessions in France. In 1204 he conquered Normandy, Maine, Anjou and Touraine, with part of Poitou, and secured the overlordship of Brittany. The victory of Bouvines (1214) over the Flemish, the English, and the Emperor Otto IV established his throne securely. His efficient, centralized government was based on royal officials controlling the feudal nobility, backed by the new university in Paris. Notre Dame remains a lasting monument of his attention to the fortification and layout of Paris.

Bibliography: Jean Jacques Quesnot de la Chesn�e, Le parall�le de Philippe II et de Louis XIV (1709)