Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/577

 PHILIP AUGUSTUS.] FRANCE 541 j-j 99. years ended in the annexation of the proud duchy to the kingdom. Richard Co3ur de Lion was too turbulent a prince to let things long remain at peace. Disputes sprang up as to frontier districts, such as the Vexin, and as to the falling-in of the Breton dukedom. Sometimes with Henry II., sometimes with his rebellious son, Philip was constantly conferring or quarrelling, though the grandeur of the old king of England overawed his young rival, whose policy with respect to him looks to us timid and irresolute, and sometimes mean. So things went on till 1187, when tid ings of the fall of Jerusalem seemed to still all lesser contro versy ; and Philip and Henry, meeting once more under the Gisors oak, made peace and took the cross. All Europe was stirred into action ; the emperor Frederick Barbaiossa and the chief German dukes, Richard Cceur de Lion, with all the greater lords and barons, prepared to set forth. But ere they went troubles again broke out between the two kings, and Henry, deserted by his sons, was forced to a shameful peace, which involved the cession of Berri to France, and involved also the death of the broken-hearted monarch (1189). With the death of Henry II. ve feel that we have passed the highest point in the fortunes of the house of Anjou, and that now the Capets must prevail in France, ivd Now followed the third crusade, which brought much e - barren glory to the new king of England, which caused the death of Barbarossa, drowned iu the little river Cydnus (Carasu) in Cilicia, which added nothing to the honour or the power of Philip Augustus. He saw the taking of Ptolemais, and ere long, wearying of the uncongenial sport, handed over his Frenchmen to his kinsman the duke of Burgundy, and, swearing not to molest Richard s territories, set sail for Europe. He broke his word at once by allying himself with John, and fanning that mean prince s jealousy of his nephew Arthur of Brittany. When tidings reached Philip that Richard had been taken prisoner by Leopold of Austria, the French king did not hesitate at once to take advantage of his misfortune. He attacked Normandy, and, in concert with John, laid siege to Rouen. When, however, the emperor let Richard go free, his onward course was checked, and the war ended by a truce, Philip be coming master of Auvergne and withdrawing his hand from Normandy (1 196). Richard at once did his best to raise up obstacles against him. Now rose the noble walls of Chateau Gaillard to protect Rouen, which, since Gisors had returned to France, was entirely open towards the east. For a while his warlike genius and skill in fortification seemed to check the French king s ambition. His end, however, was at hand ; besieging Chalus, he was wounded by an arrow, and the wound was fatal. He died in 1199, leaving his crown to his brother John, whose weakness was sure to be Philip s opportunity. Of all the great house of Anjou none re mained save John and little Arthur of Brittany ; it was clear that ill-will must spring up between these two princes, and what so clear as that Philip would be ready to pluck advantage from the quarrel. At once, on John s accession, while England and Normandy accepted him, the other French-speaking districts, Anjou, Maine, Poitou, and Touraine, as well as Brittany, declared for Arthur, and placed themselves under the willing protection of Philip, who sug gested a fair division the French-speaking lands, including Normandy, for Arthur, England for King John. It was clearly impossible that John, with his un-English character and bringing up, should accept banishment to the island; war broke out, and Philip, in Arthur s name, seized on Brittany, and presently making peace with John, abandoned Arthur s cause. He made his profit out of the short war and peace, no doubt ; but the true reason for his peaceable humour was his controversy with the pope, who had inter fered with him over the old royal difficulty, his wife. Philip had sent away Ingeborg, his Danish queen, and had 1200-17. taken the fair Agnes of Meran. The pope, Innocent III., came to the rescue of the wronged lady, threatening Philip with excommunication and France with interdict. In 1200 he carried out his threat. The proud king struggled awhile against papal interference ; in the end he found it better to yield, and replaced Ingeborg on his throne. He was now ready to interpose once more between King John and hap less Arthur. In 1202 John gave him the chance. Arthur fell into his uncle s hands, was lodged in the castle at Rouen, and from that day vanished from life and history. His subjects at once rose in his behalf, and Philip marched southwards into Poitou. Having there secured his authority as Arthur s avenger, he turned north again and swiftly fell on Normandy, In the autumn of 1203 he laid siege to Chateau Gaillard, then defended by Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester. In vain did Innocent HI. interfere between the kings. Philip now had justice and an outraged people on his side, and soon showed the pope that his in tervention would not be allowed. Early in 1204 the great fortress fell. John, who had done nothing to avert the blow, had actually fled from his capital Roueu to England ; from that day omvard the centre of the kingdom was des tined to be at London ; the controversy for precedence be tween England and Normandy on that day came to an end. Philip passed triumphantly through Normandy. Poitou, Touraine, Anjou, also placed themselves in his hand, and King John retained a few places near the coast, with Rochelle as his one port of entry into France. Brittany, hitherto a fief of Normandy, henceforth must pay homage to the conqueror of that duchy. The next decade of years was marked by the beginning The A1- of great troubles in the south. There flourished sciences, Ligen- literature, the arts ; there men thought and spoke as they siancr u- would ; there the Jew and the infidel could live side by sa e side with the Christian ; there the church was weak and feudalism had no hold. The earlier efforts of Innocent III. bearing little fruit, in 1208 his vengeance fell on Raymond of Toulouse, and the Albigensian crusade began. The pope called ou the French to help; and, though Philip himself did not interfere, he did not hinder crowds of his ecclesiastics and lay lords from taking the cross. Under the command of St Dominic, the spiritual power plied its merciless arms ; led by Simon of Montfort the elder, the lay sword vigorously supported the thunders of the church. Languedoc was laid waste, her fair culture trodden in the dust, her ancient cities, centres of civilization, burnt and ravaged. No war was ever more atrocious ; the grim fanaticism of Simon ably seconded the pitiless orthodoxy of Dominic. The war raged till 1212, when Raymond was forced to flee into Aragon. while Montfort seemed certain to found for himself a great southern principality. The attempt of Peter of Aragon to drive him out, and to keep back the northerner from his borders, ended in that prince s defeat and death, and by 1215 Simon was lord of almost all the south ; the great Lateran Council, held in that year, confirmed him and his crusadeis in possession of it. The two Raymonds of Toulouse, father and son, now made yet one more effort ; the south was weary of the foreign in vader, and made common cause with them ; Toulouse rose against Simon, and in the siege which followed he was killed (1217). Philip now interfered at last, with an army reinforcing Amaury, Simon s son ; the heroic south resisted gallantly, and the elder Raymond was able to be queath his whole inheritance to his son. For a few years the invader and the persecutor were driven out of the land. Meanwhile Philip had not been idle ; the crusade was doing his work in the south, and the incapacity of king John of England gave him an opening in the north. In