Dr. Richard Abels
EARLY
CAPETIAN KINGSHIP THROUGH PHILIP AUGUSTUS
Early Capietians:
Chronology
Hugh
the Great (Capet),
987-996
Robert
II (the Pious),
996-1031
Henry
I, 1031-60
Events--struggles with Odo II Count of Blois over Burgundy, vs
Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou (leads him to support Duke William of Normandy,
the later King William the Conqueror of England, in 1047 at Val es Dunes); later Henry I fought against Duke William in
association with Geoffrey Martel. Throughout his reign he fought against the
castellans of the Ile de France.
Philip
I, 1060-1108: 1060-7
under regency of Baldwin V count of
Power
and Authority of Capetian kings of
At
the beginning of the eleventh century, the powers of French counts, dukes, and
even kings was circumscribed by the political and military power of castellans.
These castellans controlled the countryside and dominated the peasantry through
their castles and retinues of horsemen. Comital and ducal power, however, grew
over the course of the century, as the duke of
BUT kings still retained sacral and juridical attributes, and their role as feudal lord was still recognized, and occasionally even observed.
The true turning point, however, came in the reign of LOUIS VI (THE FAT),
1108-1137, who with the help of ABBOT SUGER OF ST. DENIS, created a new and
more powerful image of royalty based on the sacral nature of kingship. Louis VI
also gave a measure of reality to the new ideology by successfully dealing with
the rebellious barons of the Ile de France (notably Thomas de Marle, lord of Coucy, taken
prisoner in 1030, and Hugh du Puisset, defeated in
1118, died on pilgrimage to Jerusalem; both Thomas and Hugh were forgiven once
before).
DISJUNCTION
OF THEORETICAL AUTHORITY AND ACTUAL POWER.
Theoretical: Feudal overlord to whom homage and
military service must be rendered; apex of feudal hierarchy of lordship
Actual:
Homage rarely rendered to the king by French counts and dukes; service
sometimes given when it was to the benefit of a count or duke
Theoretical: Sacral king; lawgiver and preserver
of peace
Actual: Little legal power, spotty control
over Church
Theocratic Kingship. King conceived of as theocratic ruler, governing the
kingdom by grace of God--head of both church and state; avenger of wrongs,
preserver of peace; fountain of all justice and law. (Language and ideology
borrowed from 9th century Carolingians.) Kings
were not only elected and crowned, but were anointed by the archbishop of
The Development of French Feudal Monarchy,
1108-1226
A. The Take-Off 1108-1226
(Louis VI-Louis VIII) (Based on Elizabeth Hallam, Capetian
Argument:
Louis VI (the Fat,
1108-1137) began his
reign as master only of a small and ill-disciplined principality centred on
By the death of his
great-grandson, Louis VIII (1223-6)
the royal lands included not only the Ile-de-France but also the duchy of
Normandy, the counties of Anjou, Maine, and Poitou, and domination of the great
county of Languedoc. The royal administration of these regions, moreover, was
impressively effective (at least for the 13th century), and the king's
authority over the Church and his suzerainty over the nobles was generally
recognized and effective. By the death of Louis VIII's
son, St. Louis IX, in 1270, the French king was capable of exercising an
authority over his vassals that would have amazed his forbears, promulgating
ordinances that forbade them from waging private war, forcing them to answer in
his court for breaches of the peace, standardized royal coinage, wh he decreed would not only be the only valid currency in
the royal lands but also valid currency in the lands of other lords. In other
words, we see in the 13th century the full development of the concept of
feudal suzerainty.
Why? Part of the answer is
that the period between 1108 and 1226 witnessed dramatic social and economic
changes: population growth, land cleareance, the
spread of markets, fairs and commerce, an economy increasingly dependent upon
coinage, increased urbanization.
(Growth of
The Reign of Philip II 'Augustus'
Philip II Augustus
(1180-1223). Called Dieudonne or God-given at birth in 1165. Title 'Augustus'
given to him by his chaplain William the Breton. Crowned king in 1179 when his
father was dying (Philip almost died from an illness contracted while hunting
shortly before this; his father had made a pilgrimage to Becket's shrine to
seek intervention of saint).
Physical
description and character according to chronicler of
"Agreeable appearance,
well formed body, cheerful face, a bald pate, ruddy complexion, given to drink
and food, prone to sexual desire, generous to friends, stingy to his foes,
skillful in stratagems, orthodox in belief, fortunate in victory, able to sow
discord, fearful of his life . . . "
(Philip's baldness, according
to Baldwin (356-7), was probably due to arnoldia, an
illness akin to 'sweating sickness' (fever, chills, peeling of skin, loss of
nails and hair, and extreme nervous disorders), which he may have contracted on
crusade at age of 25. If so, this explains his extreme nervous behavior and
possible sexual problems (e.g., his divorce of Ingeborg). )
Quirks: reluctant to swear, to spend on
jongleurs and troubadors. Unlike his rival Richard
the Lionheart, Philip was probably illiterate in Latin.
Sexuality. Were Philip and Richard the Lionheart
lovers in their youth as some writers and movie-makers have suggested? The
evidence suggesting it is very weak. This modern interpretation (first
suggested in 1951) of the relationship of the two princes is based on a reading
of a passage in Roger of Howden’s chronicle for
the year 1187:
“Richard, duke of Aquitaine, the son of the king of
England, remained with Philip, the King of France, who so honored him for so
long that they ate every day at the same table and from the same dish, and at
night their beds did not separate them. And the king of
As Richard
I’s biographer John Gillingham
observed, “This does no mean—as some modern writers have
assumed—that Richard and Philip were having a homosexual affair. It was
common for people of the same sex to share a bed. For example, Henry II and
William Marshal did so. The jongleur
who reported this had no fears that his audience would misunderstand him. He
meant to imply that the Old King trusted William, that they were close
politically, not sexually. If men exchanged a kiss it was a gesture of
friendship or of peace, not of erotic passion. It is an elementary mistake to
assume that an act which has one symbolic meaning for us today possessed that
same meaning 800 years ago. … Gestures of this sort were part of the
vocabulary of politics; an astute politician like Philip used them to great effect.”
Richard I p. 84.
Otherwise
there is no evidence that Philip or Richard were “gay.” Philip, it
is true, tried to annul his marriage to his second wife Ingeborg, but that was
based on personal distaste, not a general distaste for women. He had a son from
his first marriage to Isabella, who died in 1189, and “married” his
mistress Agnes of Meran in defiance of Pope Innocent
III’s refusal to grant him an annulment to Ingeborg in 1196, which
resulted in his excommunication and interdict. He had two sons and a daughter
by Agnes.
Accomplishments:
1. Increased royal domain: added through marriage Picardy, and by conquest
2. Increased royal
revenues:
A. Domainal, 'ordinary' revenues
1179:
20,178 livres (from royal farms of the prevots)
1203:
24,607 livres (addition of 10 new prevots
acquired by marriage). This represents an increase of 22%.
1221
73,657 livres (about 50,000 from
B.
Sum of all 'ordinary' revenues:
domainal revenues; produce outside of farms, forest
laws; gite—commutation of the right of
hospitality, commuted; rents from towns: tailles (taxes
on unfree peasants on royal lands);
minting, Jews; custom taxes; payments of bishops for church regalia,
commutation of owed military service for cash; fines of justice
1179: 30-60,000 livres
1203: 115,136 livres (approx. 45,000 pounds sterling). Eve of invasion of
1221:
194,898 livres. Increase of 79,362 livres or 69%.
C. “Extraordinary”
revenues: feudal reliefs
Richard (1189) 43,500 livres
Baldwin, ct of Boulogne 10,500 livres
John
(1200) 36,230
Thibaut, ct of Blis
5,000
Ferrand, ct of
By 1220, Philip Augustus’ total
revenues from all sources came to 438,000 livres (as calculated by the king’s chaplain William the Breton).
The revenues of the French Crown continued to grow phenomenally through the
thirteenth century. By the reign of Philip IV the Fair, royal revenues for 1286
are calculated as equalling 605,000 livres. In
comparison, King Henry II’s revenues in 1189 came to about £20,000-30,000
pounds sterling (=aprox 60,000 livres)
from
Although
much of the increase in royal revenues came directly from adding territories to
the royal domain, a lot also came from increases in commerce and the growth of
Events
Philip Augustus' increase in
revenues fueled partly by his first marriage to Isabella of Hainault, daughter
of Baldwin V Count of Hainault and niece of Philip of Alsace, count of
Flanders, mother of his heir Louis (VIII), in 1182. Isabella brought with her
the
Isabella died in 1189, and
Philip married Ingeborg of Denmark. He repudiated her on the morning after
marriage night (the reason he gave was physical antipathy), and found bishops
willing to annul marriage on basis of affinity. Despite direct orders by two
consecutive popes, Philip refused to take Ingeborg back and, in direct defiance
of Pope Innocent III,
'married' his
mistress Agnes of Meran in 1196. This union produced
a son, Philip Herepel. Innocent III legitimized
Philip Herepel, but excommunicated Philip Augustus
and laid an interdict on
Although the Platagenets were Philip’s greatest rivals throughout
most of his reign, Philip sought King Henry II’s friendship early in his
reign and made an early alliance with him 1182, which alienated the counts of
Flanders and
Duke Richard of
In 1187 Richard suddenly
became Philip's close ally in response to the favor that Henry II began to show
his youngest son John. Duke Richard paid homage to Philip for Henry II's continental
lands, Philip recognized him as his vassal for those lands, and the two joined
forces against the ailing English king. The armies of Philip and Richard
overran
Richard became king of
Before king Phillip left the kingdom of the Franks,
however, he summoned his friends and intimates to
o In the name of the holy and individual Trinity, amen. Phillip by the grace of God, king of the Franks. The royal office exists to provide for the needs of subjects by all means and to place the public before (the king's) private interest. Since, therefore, we have embraced with deep desire a vow for our pilgrimage to aid the Holy Land with all our strength, we have decided on the counsel of the Most High to set down how the necessary business of the kingdom should be managed in our absence and to make final dispositions for our life in case we should we end it on the way.
o In the first place, we order that our baillis through the prévôts (potestatibus) place four prudent men, lawful and of good reputation, without whose counsel (or as a minimum that of two of them) the business of each town is not to be carried on, except that we appoint six trustworthy and lawful men for Paris whose names are these, T[hibaud le Riche], A[thon de la Grève], E[brouin le Changeur], R[obert de Chartres], B[audoin Bruneau?] and N[icolas Boisseau].
o And we have placed in our lands which are specified by name baillis, who are to fix each month in their bailliage [bailiwick] one day to be called an assize, on which all those who put forward a complaint (clamorem) are to receive their right through them (the baillis) and to get justice without delay, and we too are to get our rights and our justice. The fines (forefacta) which are our own are to be registered (scribentur) there.
o In addition we will and command that our most dear mother, queen Adela, with our dearest uncle and faithful vassal William, archbishop of Rheims shall fix a day once every four months, on which they will hear the complaints of the men of our realm in Paris and determine them to the honor of God and in the interests of the realm.
o We command too that on that day there be before them from each of our vills the baillis who will hold the assizes, so that they may report in their presence on the business of our land.
o If, moreover, any of our baillis should err (deliquerit), otherwise than by murder or rape or homicide or treason, and this is established as fact by the archbishop and queen and by the others who are present to hear the misdeeds (forefacta) of our baillis, we command them to inform us by letters each year and three times a year which bailli has so erred, what he did, what he received and from whom, whether money or gift or service, on account of which our men lost their right or we lost ours.
o Our baillis shall similarly inform us concerning our prévôts.
o The queen and the archbishop may only remove our baillis from their bailliages for murder or rape or homicide or treason. Nor can the baillis remove the prévôts except for one of those offenses. But we shall by God's counsel take on them such retribution, after the aforesaid men have reported to us the truth of the matter, as should reasonably deter others.
o The queen and the archbishop shall similarly inform us on the state of our realm and its business three times a year.
o Should any royal episcopal see or abbey chance to fall vacant, we will that the canons of the vacant church or the monks of the vacant monastery come before the queen and the archbishop, as they might have come before us, and seek from them a free election, and we sill that they grant them this without argument (sine contradictione). But we warn the both canons and monks to choose the kind of shepherd who will please God and be helpful (utilis) to the realm. The queen and the archbishop are to hold the regalia in their hand in the meantime, until the elect is consecrated or receives benediction and the regalia are then to be rendered up to him without argument.
o We command in addition that should any prebends or ecclesiastical benefice fall vacant when the regalia come into our hand, the queen and archbishop should confer them on decent and literate men, as they best and most decently can on the advice of Brother Bernard, saving however any grants of ours which we have made to anyone by our letters patent.
o We also prohibit all prelates of churches and our men from giving any taille or other arbitrary exaction while we are on God's service. And if the Lord God should do his will on us and we happen to die, we most strictly prohibit all the men of our land, both clergy and laity, from giving any taille or other arbitrary exaction until our son (whom may God deign to keep safe and sound for His service!) reaches by the grace of the Holy Spirit an age when he is capable of ruling the realm.
o Moreover, if anyone wishes to make war on our son and the rents that he has are inadequate, then all our men are to aid him with their bodies and goods (averis), and the churches are to give such aid to him as they were accustomed to give to us.
o In addition we prohibit our prévôts and baillis from arresting any man or his movable goods, so long as he is willing to give good sureties (fidejussores) that he will pursue justice in our court, except for homicide or rape or treason.
o
We command besides that all our rents and
services and offerings (obventiones)
are to be carried to
o Adam our clerk is to be present at receptions of movable goods (averi) and to register them. And each [of the ministers named earlier?] is to have every key for each chest in which our treasure (averum) is placed in the Temple, and one (to the) Temple (itself).From this treasure as much is to be sent to us as we order in our letters.
o
If we happen to die on the road, we command that
the queen and the archbishop and the bishop of
o
But if both we and our son happen to die, we
then command that our treasure be distributed by the hand of aforesaid seven
men at their judgement for our soul and that of our
son. We wish that, as soon as there is certainty about our death, our treasure
be carried to the bishop of
o We also command the queen and archbishop to retain all vacant honors in our gift, such as our abbeys and deaneries and certain other dignities, which they can decently do, and hold them in their hand until we return from God's service. And they should grant and assign those they cannot retain according to God and by the counsel of Brother B. and do this to the honor of God and the utility of the realm. If, however, we die on the road, we wish that they give the honors and dignities to those who seem more worthy.
o
We have commanded that the present document be
confirmed with the authority of our seal and the monogram (karactere)
of the royal name appended below.n9 Done at
(Oeuvres
de Rigord et de Guillaume le Breton, ed. H.
Francoise Delaborde, I (Libr.
Renouard:
The friendship between the two
kings quickly broke down. Richard, concerned with the safety of
Richard and Philip quarreled
immediately after taking Acre (1191), and Philip, claiming ill health, returned
to
During Richard's captivity in
1194, Philip overran the Vexin, seized Gisors,
Richard died in 1199 while
fighting his own vassal, the viscount of
1200 John married Isabella,
heiress of
Philip invaded
1198 HVI died, leading to
struggle for imperial office betw Philip of Swabia (HVI's brother), and Otto of Brunswick (s. of Henry the Lion
and nephew of John). 1208 Philip was assassinated, and Otto became emperor.
Philip turned against Otto, who was supported by John. (Innocent III had suppted Otto, but turned against him when Otto invaded
1213--alliance betw John, Otto, Renaud de Dammartin, and Ferrand of
Flanders against Philip. Innocent III sat this one out; on one hand P had taken
back Ingeborg and had given refuge to Abp Stephen Langton; on other hand John
had done homage and fealty to Innocent III (after depriving Stephen Langton of
the archbishopric of
1214: Bouvines campaign.
Ambitious pincer strategy; coordinated attacks on south, to draw P down to
Poitou, followed by invasion through Flanders to take
1215--P allies self with
English rebels; 1216 Prince Louis invades
Louis then allowed to campaign
in
P died in 1223.
PHILIP AUGUSTUS'S ROYAL ADMINISTRATION
Basic transformation: from an itinerant court (at time of
PI) to one based in
The
king's bureaucracy was transformed from one based on a) the five traditional
court/domestic offices held by magnates and b) local prevots,
to a far more sophisticated one (permanent treasury/Norman exchequer, royal
justices, baillis and seneschals) modelled
on the Angevin institutions of gov't and staffed by
men drawn from castellan families.
1. Inherited administration:
a. Philip's 'court' (central
administration):
divided into the five traditional household
officers derived from Carolingian prototype: seneschal (provisions);
chamberlain (bedchamber); butler (drink); chancellor
(chapel); mashall/constable (stables). These
positions had important political duties, and in 1179 important magnates held
each by hereditary right (e.g., Thibaut, ct of
The king's court was also made
up of lesser officials:
lesser chamberlains, household knights (whose
functions were both administrative and military), and royal clerks.
b. Prévôts: local officials stationed in the
royal domain. In 1202/1203 there were forty-five prévôts with jurisdiction over sixty-two prévôtés.
First reference
to comes from reign of PI, PA's grandfather.These
too were generally recruited from the castellans of the Ile de France.
In 1180 there were about 35 of them.The functions of
the prevots included executing royal orders, doing
royal justice, farming royal properties and collecting royal revenues. Because
of the small size of the royal domain, the ambulatory royal court could
supervise the activities of the prevots.
2.
Philip's reforms:
REFORM
OF CENTRAL GOV'T
a. Permanent treasury in
Exchequer. The chief purpose of both the English and French
accounting offices was to supervise local officials. Both Philip's system was
tailored to his royal domain, and does not reflect a mere borrowing from
b. Castellans replaced
great barons in the royal household offices. Great barons now appear at
court only on important occasions; administration is placed firmly in the hands
of men of lesser station.
c. 1190 (temporary measure
while king was on Crusade): triannual
sessions of the curia regis was ordered to be
held in Paris for 3 purposes: 1) report to the absent king on affairs of
kingdom; 2) review conduct of local officials; 3) hear pleas by inhabitants of
royal domain appealing from baillis' monthly assizes. While the triannual sessions were not continued after return of P,
the curia regis continued to
supervise baillis.
d. REFORM OF LOCAL GOV'T:
baillis and prevots. The prévôts’ numbers were increased to forty-five by
1190. The main responsibilities of royal prévôts
were 1) to collect revenues from royal domain lands (various types of rents
and payments from cultivated lands, mills, woods, meadows, etc., and taxes/tailles) and 2)
to pay alms to churches and fief-rentes (money annuities) to knights. After
deducting payments and expenses, prévôts
would transmit the balance of the income to the king’s court. Prévôts became closely
associated with the localities in which they served. Given their number and
their local affinities, there was always a danger that a king could lose
control over them. Consequently, Philip Augustus set baillis over the prévôts.
This new class of royal officer, the bailli, served
as the link between the local and central administration. Baillis were drawn
from the knighthood of the Ile de France; their functions included supervision
of prevots (during the regency while Philip was gone
on crusade, the baillis were ordered to appoint four local men in each prévôté
with whose advice the prévôt
had to conduct business); reporting three times a year to the court any
wrongdoings or crimes committed by the prévôts; collecting royal revenues (regalian rights, forest income, tailles), and reporting the
profits of justice to the royal accounting officel
and holding monthly assizes in their regions in which they heard pleas and
recorded fines. They also were the recipients of royal commands to protect
churches and make payments of royal alms, and to hold inquests into the royal
rights and resources. After 1190, the baillis were required to hold monthly assizes in which they heard
pleas from inhabitants of the royal domain. In essence, the baillis were
modelled on the English itinerant justices of Henry I
and Henry II.
In 1202 there were 12 baillis
in royal domain.
Baillis were controlled by the
king, at least in part, by the payment of salaries (1 livre
a day for the bailli of
Baillis were created for
e. Administration of the
Jews and the Forests. PA ordered a number of inquests into the extent of
his forests, which he then preserved in registers. His forest policies were to
form the basis of his successors's, eventually
evolving into Louis IX's policy of licensing use of
the forest, with the king reserving a third of all forest revenues to himself.
The activities of Jewish
moneylenders were also monitored and supervised. The debts owed Jews were
recorded and an inventory of Jewish lending was mde.
Lending practices were regulated by an ordinance of 1206 (maximum rate of 43%
set). An ordinance of 1219 prohibited demanding interest from those whothout property whose sole
support was manual labbor and from monks and canons
w/o permission of their superiors.
Under Louis VIII the crown
began to w/draw from its regulation of Jewish usury, and under Louis IX the
Jews were to be expelled from
f. Judicial reform:
introduction of baillis and regular assizes; use of JURY inquests: 1) Norman
jury--jurors drawn from vicinity and arriving at collective verdict; 2) canon
law model--jurors named by contending parties but obliged to tell truth under
oath. In each case the jury represents witnesses rather than judges of guilt or
innocence.
PHILIP AUGUSTUS'S MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT
A.
Permanent royal forces (non-feudal/mercenary)
The
king had a permanent military establishment that was paid annually. In 1202/03
the troops that PA stationed on the Norman borders consisted of:
257
knights; 245 mounted sergeants; 71 mounted crossbowmen; 101 crossbowmen on
foot; 1608 foot-sergeants = 2,282. In addition Philip had in his employ about
300 or so miners, engineers, and artisans, plus an indeterminate number of routiers (paid 3290 livres for
their services). Approx 2600 'non-feudal' soldiers formed the core of PA's army.
(Payment
of soldiers: knights (72 d. a day); mounted sergeants (36 d.); mounted
crossbowmen (54 or 48 d.); crossbowmen on foot (12 or 18 d); foot sergeants (8
d.). In 1202/03 Philip paid his standing
forces 27,370 livres plus 3,290 to Cadoc's mercenaries. Together this amounted to half of the year's total expenditure for war on
the Norman marches: 65,931 livres (doesn't include
another 17,000 livres paid out by baillis and prevots).
B.
Feudal forces (knights)
The
feudal service due Philip Augustus can be gauged from the king's forces at
Bouvines, which seem to have amounted to 1,300 knights (plus 800 knights
entrusted to Louis in
From
C. Other
owed service:
At
Bouvines Philip had approximately 4000-6000 foot-sergeants, drawn largely from
towns of the king's domain and from royal abbeys (according to the Prisia servientum of
1194/95, an inventory list of owed services from towns and abbeys, Philip
could expect to receive in all the service of 7,695 sergeants and 138 wagons
from 83 towns and abbeys; this owed service, which was to be for a term of 3
months, was commuted for cash in the early 1200s; in the account of 1202 Philip
realized 26,453 livres from 64 towns and abbeys,
which comes close to the actual wages paid P's troops in 1203, 27,370 livres.)
D.
Contemporary comparisons:
1. Henry II's English
feudal forces in the cartae baronum of 1166:
318 tenants in chief reported 7,525 knights' fees representing owed
service to crown of 5,000 knights. In addition Henry II ordered an inquest in 1172 into the owed service from
2. Feoda Campanie of the counts of Champagne, 1172 (rev. 1192): names 1900 knights orglanized into 26
castellanies.
3. Catalogus baronum of Roger II of