Philip Augustus : King of France, 1180-1223 Book

This is the first major study in English this century of the life and reign of one of the greatest of medieval monarchs, Philip Augustus (Philip II), conqueror and crusader, who ruled France from 1180 to 1223 and in the process transformed both his kingdom and the fortunes of the Capetian dynasty. Friend and confidant of all the Angevins in turn - Henry II, and his sons Richard the Lionheart and John - he was a master at playing off the members of that notoriously turbulent family against each other; and he outlived, and outplayed, them all. His crushing defeat of John (and John's Flemish allies and the emperor Otto) at the battle of Bouvines on 29 August 1214 confirmed his ascendancy, and form the dramatic climax of both the reign and this book.