Pétain later said that he headed the Régime de
Vichy to try to protect the French people as much as
possible from repressive measures by the occupying
German forces. However, in areas where the Germans
ceded control to his government, he set up an adminis-
tration which aided in the expulsion of Jews; its slogan
was “Work, Family, Fatherland.” Despite his compli-
ance with the Nazis, Pétain did try to hinder German
ambitions in Europe, including working secretly with
General Francisco Franco of Spain and sending mes-
sages to Admiral William Leahy, the U.S. ambassador
to the Vichy government from 1940 to 1942. Although
Pétain argued with Adolf Hitler over policy, he refused
to resign, realizing that such a move would allow the
Germans to exercise even stricter control over France.
In December 1940, he dismissed his vice premier, Pierre
Laval, replacing him with Admiral François Darlan,
but in April 1942 Hitler forced Pétain to accept Laval’s
return.
When American forces landed in North Africa in
November 1942, Pétain publicly denounced the move
but secretly ordered Darlan to order French troops in
Africa to aid the Allied forces. However, his playing both
sides came back to haunt him. When the Allies invaded
France in June 1944 and moved on Paris, he ordered
that power be transferred peacefully to the French forces
commanded by General Charles de Gaulle. The Ger-
mans, angered at his attempt to arrange a peace, arrested
him and took him to Germany. At the end of the war,
he was handed over to the French and taken back to his
homeland to stand trial. Found guilty of collaboration
with the enemy, Pétain was sentenced to death in August
1945, although the sentence was eventually commuted
to life imprisonment. He was sent to the castle prison
on the Île d’Yeu off the coast of Brittany on the Atlantic
Ocean, where he died on 23 July 1951 at the age of 95.
Although an energetic military officer who played
a key role in the First World War and the subsequent
Allied triumph at the end of that conflict, Pétain’s repu-
tation was ruined by his acceptance of the Nazis occupa-
tion. Historian Sisley Huddleston’s 1951 work Pétain:
Patriot or Traitor? is just one of the works published after
the end of the Second World War that sums up the his-
torical quandary over Pétain and his role in history.
References: Griffiths, Richard, Marshal Pétain (London:
Constable, 1970); Lottman, Herbert R., Pétain, Hero or
Traitor: The Untold Story (New York: William Morrow,
1985); Pertinax, The Gravediggers of France: Gamelin,
Daladier, Reynaud, Pétain, and Laval; Military Defeat,
Armistice, Counter-Revolution (Garden City, N.Y.: Dou-
bleday, Doran & Company, 1944); Aron, Richard, and
Georgette Elgey, The Vichy Regime, 1940–44 (Boston:
The Beacon Press, 1958); Huddleston, Sisley, Pétain: Pa-
triot or Traitor? (London: A. Dakers, 1951).Philip II (Philip-Augustus, Philippe Capet)
(1165–1223) French king
Also known as Philippe Capet, Philip-Augustus was
born at Gonesse, in Val-d’Oise, France, on 21 August
1165, the son of King Louis VII and his third wife Adèle
de Champagne, members of the Capetian dynasty of
French royalty. His father had him crowned as joint king
at Reims in 1179 when his health declined. The follow-
ing year, Philip II became the sole king on his father’s
death, and he married Isabella of Hainault.
Although Philip reorganized the medieval govern-
ment of France, bringing financial stability and strength
for the first time, he is better known for his military
campaigns. He participated in the Third Crusade with
richard i, the lion-hearted of England and Fred-
erick I Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, from 1189
to 1192. He went on to win back large areas of France
then held by other kings, including Anjou and Brittany
as well as Normandy, which were then controlled by En-
gland. Over the next 30 years, hindered by rivalry among
the French nobility and by the German emperor to the
east, Philip slowly recovered town after town, province
after province. In the course of these campaigns, perhaps
his greatest victory was at Bouvines (27 July 1214) when
his forces defeated King John of England and his allies,
including Otto (or Otho) IV of Germany. This victory
left Philip as the most powerful monarch in continental
Europe and challenged not only English military superi-
ority but that of the German emperor as well.
In addition to being a warrior, Philip brought an
era of growth in French teaching and culture. He helped
to build a stronger Paris as his capital and began the con-
struction of the great Notre Dame de Paris cathedral,
destined to become one of the world’s great places of
worship. He died at his private estate at Nantes on 14
July 1223 and was buried in the Saint Denis Basilica.
Philip was succeeded by his son, Louis VIII (1187–
1226). philip ii