Western Civilization.p

The Beginnings of the Feudal Age153

central issue of west European politics until the fif-
teenth century.
The establishment of Henry II’s Angevin Empire in-
spired a reorganization of the French monarchy. Begun
by Louis VII, the work was completed by his son,
Philip II Augustus (reigned 1179–1223). Louis created
an effective royal army and, on the diplomatic front,
concluded an improbable alliance with his ex-wife,
Eleanor of Aquitaine. After sixteen years of marriage
and eight children, Eleanor decided that she would no
longer tolerate Henry’s infidelity or his increasingly
abusive behavior. She retired to Poitiers with her
daughter, Mary, countess of Champagne, and estab-
lished a court that was to become a veritable school of
chivalry. In 1173 she and Louis encouraged her sons in

an unsuccessful rebellion against their father. Two of

these sons, Richard I Lion-Heart (reigned 1189–99)

and John (reigned 1199–1216), would, as kings of En-

gland, bring ruin to Henry’s cause.

Richard spent most of his reign crusading in the

Holy Land at ruinous expense. On his return he was

captured by the emperor Henry VI and forced to pay

an enormous ransom that pushed the English to the

brink of revolt. His brother John compounded the folly

with a series of catastrophic mistakes. In 1200 he mar-

ried a woman who was already engaged to a vassal of

Philip Augustus. The vassal appealed to his lord, and

Philip called upon John, as duke of Normandy, to pre-

sent himself so that the case could be judged. It was the

normal way of dealing with disputes between vassals of

the same lord, but John, acting in his capacity as king

of England, refused to submit to the justice of another

sovereign. Philip responded by confiscating Normandy

in 1204.

John’s attempts to recover his lost duchy forced

him to extreme financial measures that further alienated

his subjects and brought him into conflict with the

church. He was excommunicated in 1209, and England

was placed under an interdict, a papal decree that for-

bade the administration of the sacraments. To lift it,

John had to declare England a papal fief and renounce

the royal appointment of bishops. The final blow oc-

curred at Bouvines in 1214 when Philip Augustus de-

feated John’s Anglo-Flemish-Imperial coalition in battle.

Disgusted, a coalition of English barons rebelled and

forced John to accept the Magna Carta (Great Char-

ter). Though the Magna Carta (see document 8.6) is

widely regarded as a landmark in the development of

Anglo-Saxon constitutional thought, it was primarily an

affirmation of feudal privileges. It did nothing for ordi-

nary men and women and was largely ignored by John’s

successors. A later age would see it as a bulwark of indi-

vidual rights against the claims of the state.

The failures of King John left Philip Augustus the

most powerful figure in western Europe. By 1204 he

had already added Artois and the Vermandois to his

realms. The struggle with John brought him Nor-

mandy, Maine, Anjou, and Touraine. Bouvines brought

him Flanders. To govern his new estates he appointed

royal officials known as baillisor seneschals.Their func-

tion was like that of an English sheriff, but they were

usually lawyers with no prior connection to the territo-

ries in which they served. They were therefore depen-

dent upon the king and had no opportunity to build a

power base of their own. This would be the pattern of

French administration until 1789: Provinces retained

SCOTLAND

North

Sea

ENGLAND

IRELAND

FLANDERS

London

English

Ch

an

ne

l

Atlantic

Ocean

ILE

DE

FRANCE

GASCONY

MAINE

AQUITAINE

POITOU

ANJOU

BRITTANY

NORMANDY

TOURAINE

BOURBON

BURGUNDY

CHAMPAGNE

BLOIS

Bourges

Paris

Bordeaux

Poitiers

HOLY

ROMAN

EMPIRE

LANGUEDOC

TOULOUSE

Lyons

SPAIN Toulouse

NAVARRE Avignon

0 100 200 Miles

0 100 200 300 Kilometers

French royal domain: 1180

French royal acquisition

1180–1223

1223–1337

English lands

MAP 8.2
England and France in the High Middle Ages