As head of the regency for the young king Philip Augustus, Philippe d’Alsace arranged
for the king to marry his niece, Isabelle de Hainaut, in 1180, with Artois as her dowry.
When his own wife, Elizabeth, died in 1182, Philippe d’Alsace refused to give up her
lands in the Vermandois and so damaged his relations with the crown. In 1185, with the
Treaty of Boves, the count had to give in, and he lost practical influence in Vermandois.
When Queen Isabelle died in 1190, the county of Artois, her dowry, passed to her child,
the future Louis VIII.
Philippe d’Alsace joined the Third Crusade and died in Palestine in 1191. He was
succeeded by his nephew Baudouin of Hainaut, who became Baudouin VIII of Flanders.
David M.Nicholas
[See also: ARTOIS; FLANDERS; PHILIP II AUGUSTUS; VERMANDOIS]
Caenegem, R.C.van. “Criminal Law in England and Flanders Under King Henry II and Count
Philip of Alsace.” Actes du Congrès de Naples (1980) de la Société Italienne d’Histoire du
Droit (1980):231–54.
Verhulst, Aadrian, and T.de Hemptinne. “Le chancelier de Flandre sous les comtes de la maison
d’Alsace.” Bulletin de la Commission Royale d’Histoire 141 (1975):267–311.
Werveke, Hans van. Een Vlaamse graaf van Europees formaat: Filips van de Elzas. Haarlem:
Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1976.
PHILIPPE DE NOVARE
(ca. 1195–ca. 1265). A native of Lombardy, Philippe de Novare lived as a knight, legal
expert, and diplomat in the Latin kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem. His prose memoirs,
which incorporate three crusade poems and an episode modeled on the Roman de Renart,
recount his life in the East from 1218 until 1243 and detail the war between Emperor
Frederick II and the Ibelins. In the Livre a un sien ami en forme de plait, part of the
Assises de Jérusalem, he compiled and explained customary law in the courts of
Outremer. When he was over seventy, Philippe wrote Des quatre tens d’aage d’ome (ca.
1265; five manuscripts), a prose treatise on childhood, youth, middle age, and old age
that dispenses moral counsel, derived largely from personal experience, at each stage to
both sexes. More personal in its tone than some other didactic works, the Quatre tens
conveys a pessimistic view of human nature and advocates particularly restrictive roles
for women.
Roberta L.Krueger
[See also: MORAL TREATISES; RENART, ROMAN DE]
Philippe de Novare. Livre a un sien ami en forme de plait. In Assises de Jérusalem: recueil des
ouvrages de jurisprudence composés pendant le XIIIe siècle dans les royaumes de Jérusalem et
de Chypre, ed. Arthur Auguste Beugnot. 2 vols. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1841–43, Vol. 1:
Assises de la Haute Cour, pp. 469–571.
——. Des quatre ages de l’homme: traité de moral de Philippe de Novare, ed. Marcel de Freville.
Paris: Didot, 1888.
——. Mémoires (1218–1243), ed. Charles Kohler. Paris: Champion, 1913.
Langlois, Charles-Victor. La vie en France au moyen âge de la fin du XIIe au milieu du XIVe
siècle. 4 vols. Paris: Hachette, 1926–28, Vol. 2: D’après des moralistes du temps, pp. 141–75.
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