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| Seal of Philip II Capet |
Philip
II Capet of France has gone down in French history as Philip Augustus, another
way of saying Philip the Great or Philip the Magnificent. He earned this
epithet primarily for wresting territory away from King John of England and
restoring the control of the French monarchy over the vast lands in Continental
Europe that had been controlled for half a century by John’s father (Henry II)
and brother (Richard I). Philip II was able to reduce the English-controlled
territories to a small enclave near Bordeaux. Having successfully subdued the
most powerful of his insubordinate vassals, he proceeded to systematically re-establish
the primacy of the monarchy over all the barons of France. By the end of his
reign he had greatly increased the wealth, prestige and power of the central
government in Paris, built the Louve, and established the University of Paris. He
ruled a total of 43 years, from 1180 to 1223, and was the first king to style
himself “King of France” instead of “King of the Franks.”
But
most of this occurred well after Philip’s brief sojourn in the Holy Land, and
the focus of this post is on Philip Capet at the time of and during the Third
Crusade.
Philip
had been born in August 1165, or eight years after Richard of England. He had
been crowned king in late 1179 while his father yet lived, and became sole king
of France at the age of 15 the following year. Almost at once he started fighting
with the Count of Flanders over territory, and while this was resolved by
treaty in 1185, Philip had meanwhile started making demands on Henry II for the
return of his sister’s dowry. (His sister Marguerite was the widow of Henry the
Young King, Henry II’s eldest son, who had died in 1183) This war with the Plantagenets was to last
the next thirty years, with periodic truces.
The
war between the Capets and Plantagenets was an intimate affair. Eleanor of
Aquitaine, Henry II’s queen and mother of Henry the Young King, Richard,
Geoffrey and John, had been married to Philip’s father. Philip had two
half-sisters, who were Eleanor’s daughters by his father ― and they, of course,
were half-sisters of the young Plantagenets also, by their mother. Philip’s sister
Marguerite was married to Henry the Young King, making them brothers-in-law.
Philip’s other sister Alys was betrothed to Richard. Henry the Young King and
his brothers represented their father at Philip’s coronation in 1179, they
attended the French court at other times as well. Philip knew the Plantagenets
well, and they him.
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| This medieval illumination is meant to depict Philip II's Coronation. The Figure on the Right Represents Henry II, who was not present. Henry II is also shown wearing three lions/leopards, a device that was not adopted by the English royal house until Richard returned from the Holy Land. |
In
1186, Philip succeeded in pulling the third Plantagenet son, Geoffrey, into his
net. Geoffrey was preparing to rebel against his father (again), when he was
killed in a tournament. Philip allegedly tried to throw himself into the grave from
grief. Two years later, Philip lured the eldest of Henry’s surviving sons,
Richard into his camp by claiming (almost certainly untruthfully) that Henry
did not intend to name Richard his heir. Richard publicly paid homage to Philip
as his liege after confronting his father about his inheritance, and then
fought at Philip’s side until his father was defeated, humiliated and dead.
During this period of alliance, Philip and Richard were said to be so close
that they shared a bed, a fact that has given rise to many accusations of
homosexuality against Richard but, curiously, not against Philip.
In
any case, everything changed the minute Richard was King of England. Richard and Philip might have been allies
against Henry II, but they were enemies the moment Richard took up his father’s
mantle. Richard Plantagenet had no more intention of playing humble vassal to
Philip than his father had; he intended to retain control over all his
territories. Philip and Richard were thus on a collision course from July 6,
1189 onward.
But
on the surface they had a common cause. They had both taken the cross and vowed
to recover Jerusalem for Christendom. Richard had been the first prominent
nobleman in the West to do so, and his subsequent actions attest to his sincere
commitment to restoring Christian rule to the Holy City. Philip on the other
hand is widely believed to have been pressured into crusading by his nobles and
clergy; his subsequent actions seem to bear this out. Nevertheless, from 1189
to 1190 Philip was engaged in preparing for what would become known as the
Third Crusade.
On
July 1, 1190, Philip met up with Richard at Vezelay in Burgundy and travelled
together at the head of their respective hosts as far as Lyon, before
proceeding by different routes to the next rendezvous: Messina on Sicily.
Philip was by now mourning the loss of his wife Isabelle, who had died giving
him twin sons, who died shortly afterwards. He therefore arrived in Sicily a
widower. Evidently to the disappointment of the spectators ― but very
indicative of Philip’s nature ― he made no great show of his arrival. He
arrived in a single ship (i.e. ahead of his fleet) and immediately disappeared
inside the castle on the harbor.
In
Sicily, King William II, a staunch supporter of the crusader cause and
brother-in-law to Richard of England, had died unexpectedly in November 1189,
shortly before the Kings of France and England arrived. Lacking any direct
heirs, the Sicilian throne had been seized by his illegitimate first cousin
Tancred, who made the tactical error of placing the Dowager Queen of Sicily (Richard
the Lionheart’s sister Joanna Plantagenet) under arrest.
Richard
of England, in contrast to Philip, arrived in Sicily with his entire fleet and
a with a showy fanfare of trumpets, fluttering banners, banging shields and the
like. On landing and learning that his sister had been impressed, he demanded
not only her release but the restoration of her dower portion (or compensation)
and the full payment of everything William II had pledged to the crusade
itself. Tancred capitulated rapidly, and Joanna Plantagenet made an immediate
conquest: in Philip of France.
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| This illustration allegedly shows Richard, Joanna and Philip in Sicily |
Accounts
suggest that Joanna, who like Philip was just 25 years old, was beautiful (she
was Eleanor of Aquitaine’s daughter, after all), and, of course, she was a
dowager queen by marriage and a princess by birth. As Richard was already
betrothed to his sister Alys, Philip may have seriously considered
strengthening the bonds by taking Joanna to wife. Richard absolutely refused to
think about this because he had no intention of marrying Philip’s sister Alys
Capet.
Meanwhile,
however relations between Richard and Philip, already brittle with unspoken
rivalry and latent hostility, had broken into the open when fights broke out
between the local inhabitants and Richard’s troops. The English claimed they
were being cheated, the locals claimed the English were disorderly and
disrespectful. There were too many fighting men in a strange town, harassing the
girls and probably being pick-pocketed etc. The situation is perennial and
resurfaces whenever there are large armies in foreign territory. Something
ignited an all-out fight, and while Richard first tried to calm tempers, he
soon lost his own and came to the aid of his men. Philip of France, probably
out of spite for Richard rather than sympathy for the Sicilians, took the side
of the locals against his fellow crusader. The break was so public and bitter that it
took the efforts of many noblemen on both sides to get the two kings to reconcile.
The
atmosphere between them deteriorated further when suddenly Eleanor of Aquitaine
arrived in the company of Berengaria of Navarre. Richard
now announced that he had chosen her as his wife instead of Alys. To an
astonished and furious Philip, Richard explained that he could not possibly
marry Alys because his father had known her carnally. The brilliance of this
argument against a marriage that had been agreed years earlier was that this
allegation stemmed from none other than Philip himself. Philip had used the
accusation in his web of lies to induce Richard to turn against his father. As
a result, Philip could do little more than swallow his own pride (and bile no
doubt). But a marriage with Joanna was now obviously off the table. The kinship
ties so elaborately devised by Philip and Richard’s fathers had all broken, and
what remained was open and growing hatred.
But
first there was a crusade to carry out, and the Kings of England and France
publicly vowed to share all spoils in the upcoming campaign in the Holy Land.
Then at the first opportunity Philip embarked his army and set sail for the Holy
Land on March 30, 1191.
Philip’s
entire fleet crossed the Mediterranean without notable incident. On May 20, the
King of France arrived off the city of Tyre, the last Frankish stronghold in
the Kingdom of Jersualem. Tyre was controlled by a distant relative of Philip’s,
Conrad de Montferrat,
one of the two contenders for the throne of Jerusalem. Philip immediately threw
his support behind Montferrat, bolstering his claim to the crown against those
of his rival, Guy de Lusignan. He and Conrad together proceeded to the
Christian siege of Acre.
Here Philip brought not only new troops but new vigor to the siege, at once
erecting a number of powerful siege engines.
However,
he soon became ill with what the contemporary chronicles call “Arnoldia,” a
debilitating illness that caused the loss of hair and nails and could be fatal.
Furthermore, with the arrival of King Richard there were two commanders in the
same camp and frictions between them sparked almost at once. Allegedly, Richard
refused to let his troops support at least one attack ordered by Philip. But then Richard too fell ill with “Arnoldia.”
Various
assaults and above all the action of the siege engines continued as both kings
gradually regained their strength. Most significantly, the arrival of the French
and English fleet had enabled the sea blockade of Acre to become completely
effective and no supplies, munitions or reinforcements were slipping into the
city. By early July the Saracen garrison of Acre had reached the breaking
point. The commanders of the Saracen garrison therefore sought a truce in which
to seek instructions from Saladin. They told the French and English kings that
they would surrender if Saladin did not come to their aid within a set period
of time, asking to be allowed to take their arms and their moveable valuables
with them and enjoy a safe-conduct to wherever they wished to go. King Philip,
supported by his nobles, agreed. King Richard insisted they should not be
allowed their arms and valuables. Negotiations broke down.
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| Medieval depiction of the Surrender of Acre -- notably to Philip. Richard is beside him. |
Ten
days later, with still no relief from Saladin, the garrison again sought terms
and this time agreed to much harsher conditions: the return of the Christian relic
known as the “True Cross” that had been captured at the battle of Hattin, the
release of an unspecified number oChristian prisoners taken at or after Hattin, and the payment
of 200,000 Saracen gold pieces, all to be delivered one month after the signing
of the agreement. Members of the garrison (the numbers vary according to source) were to be
held as hostages to ensure the release of the Christians, the remaining members
of the garrison were free to go ― but without their arms or valuables. The
kings of France and England accepted these terms.
On
July 12, the hostages were surrendered, the remaining garrison marched out ―
proudly by all accounts ― and the crusaders took possession of Acre after four
years of Saracen occupation. They found the churches desecrated, but otherwise
most of the city intact. It was divided equally between the French and English,
with Richard’s men notably (and foolishly as it turned out) throwing down the
banner of the Duke of Austria because that represented a claim to the spoils
and Richard wasn’t sharing with anyone but Philip of France.
But
now that Acre was in the hands of the crusaders, the issue of who was the
rightful King of Jerusalem came again to the fore. As noted above, Philip backed the claims of
Conrad de Montferrat (a kinsman), who was married to the sole remaining
legitimate heir, Isabella of Jerusalem, and was supported by the High Court of Jerusalem.
Richard, however, stubbornly backed the architect of the disaster at Hattin, King Guy, who was a
vassal of the Plantagenet. After much bitter fighting, a compromise was found.
Guy was recognized as king for his life-time, but Conrad was recognized as
Count of Tyre (to include Sidon and Beirut, if/when these cities were ever
recovered) and heir to the throne at Guy’s death. Curiously, however, Guy’s
elder brother Geoffrey, who had come out from the West with the crusaders, was
also awarded the title of Count of Jaffa and Ascalon, the county that
traditionally belonged to the heir of the throne. To be sure Jaffa and Ascalon
were at this point in still in Saracen hands, but it was an ominous hint that
the Lusignans did not really accept ― and did not intend to respect ― the
agreement to make Montferrat king at Guy’s death.
With
that dispute at least temporarily out of the way, Philip dropped a bombshell: he announced that he
was turning over his share of all the booty to Conrad de Montferrat and
intended to return to France. No one, not even his own nobles, had expected or
approved of this abandonment of the crusade. His official excuse was “ill-health.”
(He had either never fully recovered from the Arnoldia or he had contracted dysentery
subsequently.) No one accepted this as a legitimate reason to break-off a
crusade. Crusaders were supposed to achieve their objective, or die in the
attempt. No one, however, was able to reason with or shame Philip into changing
his mind. Despite alleged curses and bitter recriminations, Philip prepared to
depart. Richard, suspicious that Philip’s intentions were to attack his lands
in his absence, demanded that Philip swear on holy relics that he would leave
the Plantagenet territories in peace until Richard’s return.
On
August 1, 1191, Philip boarded an galley loaned to him by Richard of England
and sailed for Tyre. He took Conrad de Montferrat and the most valuable of the
Saracen hostages from the surrender of Acre with him. The exact date of his
departure from Tyre is not recorded, but he was no longer in Outremer when the
deadline for the delivery of the True Cross, captives and cash payment expired
in mid-August. The decision to massacre the hostages fell to Richard of England
alone.
Philip
was back in Paris by late 1191. He immediately began undermining Richard’s
authority and drawing the last and youngest of the Plantagenet brothers, John,
into his net. His vow not to attack Richard during his absence was as
meaningless as the crusader vow he’d taken before leaving for the Holy Land ― and
as meaningless as the marriage vows he exchanged with Ingeborg of Denmark.
Philip Capet, great as his legacy was for France, lacked any sense of personal
honor, integrity, and a fear of God. While his qualities served his kingdom
well, he remains for me a distasteful character.
