Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part I Common Themes
- Part II The Church in the Thirteenth Century
- Part III The Western Kingdoms
- 11 The Capetians from the death of Philip II to Philip IV
- 12 The Plantagenet kings
- 13 The kingdom of Burgundy, the lands of the house of Savoy and adjacent territories
- 14 Germany and Flanders
- Part IV Italy
- Part V The Mediterranean Frontiers
- Part VI The Northern and Eastern Frontiers
- Appendix Genealogical tables
- Primary sources and secondary works arranged by chapter
- Index
- Plate section
- Map 1 Europe in the thirteenth century
- Map 3 France, c. 1260
- Map 5 Germany and the western empire
- Map 6 Genoa, Venice and the Mediterranean
- Map 8 The Latin empire of Constantinople and its neighbours
- Map 10 Aragon and Anjouin the Mediterranean">
- References
11 - The Capetians from the death of Philip II to Philip IV
from Part III - The Western Kingdoms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part I Common Themes
- Part II The Church in the Thirteenth Century
- Part III The Western Kingdoms
- 11 The Capetians from the death of Philip II to Philip IV
- 12 The Plantagenet kings
- 13 The kingdom of Burgundy, the lands of the house of Savoy and adjacent territories
- 14 Germany and Flanders
- Part IV Italy
- Part V The Mediterranean Frontiers
- Part VI The Northern and Eastern Frontiers
- Appendix Genealogical tables
- Primary sources and secondary works arranged by chapter
- Index
- Plate section
- Map 1 Europe in the thirteenth century
- Map 3 France, c. 1260
- Map 5 Germany and the western empire
- Map 6 Genoa, Venice and the Mediterranean
- Map 8 The Latin empire of Constantinople and its neighbours
- Map 10 Aragon and Anjouin the Mediterranean">
- References
Summary
THE REIGN OF LOUIS VIII
WHEN he came to the throne in 1223 Louis VIII was confronted immediately with the need to secure the western territories which his father Philip Augustus had conquered from the English and to decide on a course of action with regard to the failing Albigensian Crusade. The first necessitated that he renew truces with barons who possessed fiefs on the March between French- and English-dominated territories in the south-west, including the count of La Marche, Hugues de Lusignan, and his wife Isabelle, the countess of Angoulême. Isabelle was also the widow of King John of England and the mother of the reigning king, Henry III. An alliance between Hugues, the most powerful baron in Poitou, and King Henry might have been expected except that the new French king tempted the count’s wife with the possibility of compensation for the valuable lands once promised to her as her marriage gift by John, but conquered by Philip Augustus. Although Louis VIII’s successful appeal to the self-interest of Hugues and Isabelle only briefly and tentatively secured their support, it deprived England of needed backing when the truce between the two kingdoms broke down and war resumed on 5 May 1224.
Louis pursued the war vigorously. By 15 July French troops under his command were besieging La Rochelle, although a quarrel with the count palatine of Champagne, Thibaut IV, over the wisdom of the siege threatened to undermine the French effort. The dispute between Louis and Thibaut was the latest of a series. Earlier differences about Jewish policy had already soured relations. On 1 November 1223 as his first major act of state Louis had issued an ordinance that prohibited his officials from recording debts owed to Jews and from allowing royal offices to be used for striking deals between potential debtors (Christians) and potential creditors (Jewish).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New Cambridge Medieval History , pp. 277 - 313Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999