When talking about history, we sometimes put
too much emphasis on the role of battles and wars over the underlying political and social
structures, but some battles are truly decisive for the course that our history takes. One of these is the Battle of Bouvines, in
which three great powers of feudal Europe fought in the year 1214. The outcome of this battle had rippling effects
on the development of both England and France, shaping their political and social structure
for the following centuries, but also had less visible effects on the rest of Europe. The sponsor of this video Field of Glory II:
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and one of the best strategy game developers by purchasing it via the link in the description! Following the conquest of England by the Duke
of Normandy William, which culminated at the Battle of Hasting 1066, the crowns of England
and France were deeply intertwined. As Dukes of Normandy, the English Kings had
to pay homage to the French kings for their fiefs as the feudal laws of the time dictated. In the year 1135, following the death of Henry
the First, the English realm entered into a two-decade-long civil war known as “The
Anarchy”, which ended with Henry the Second ascending to the English throne in 1154. Henry was a member of the French Plantagenet
family and he had inherited the Counties of Anjou and Maine from his father Geoffrey and
the Duchy of Normandy from his mother Empress Matilda, daughter and sister of the previous
English kings. In 1152 Henry had also married Eleanor, heiress
of the Duchy of Aquitaine which covered most of western France. So, when Henry sailed to England to be crowned
as King of England, he was already the greatest feudal lord of the French realm. The French monarchs had long lost the power
and prestige that the Carolingian Kings enjoyed, with the royal power diminishing in the tenth
century. The Capetian dynasty had been on the throne
since 987 but they controlled only a small part of the Kingdom directly, a region centered
around the capital Paris and a few exclaves. The rest of the realm was governed by powerful
counts and dukes, with whom the kings often quarreled for power and influence. Now that half of the Kingdom was under the
rule of the Plantagenet dynasty, frictions between the two families soon commenced. In 1159 Henry began to extend his influence
further on the continent by attacking the Count of Toulouse, who was rescued by the
French King Louis the Seventh. What followed was a century of low-intensity
conflicts between the House of Capet and the House of Plantagenet who ruled the so-called
Angevine Empire. Henry was successful in putting one of his
sons on the throne of the Duchy of Brittany, and nearly managed to have his son become
the heir to the French throne, but he had to often confront his rebellious sons who
would forge alliances with the French Kings Louis the Seventh and his son Philip the Second. In the year 1199, Henry’s youngest son John
ascended to the throne following the death of his older brother Richard the Lionheart. To consolidate his throne, he first had to
defeat his nephew Arthur, supported by the French King Philip. Philip was a shrewd politician and diplomat
and wanted to use Arthur as a pawn to weaken the Plantagenet position in France, splitting
up their territory. In the subsequent peace of 1200, Philip dropped
the support for Arthur and confirmed John’s titles and possessions, but he obtained the
reaffirmation of his position as suzerain of John. In 1202 a new war sparked between the two
monarchs, following an internal marriage dispute in the Duchy of Aquitaine between John and
one of his vassals, of the Lusignan family. The outcome of this war was the mysterious
death of Arthur and the seizure of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Brittany by Philip, confining
John’s possession in France to just Aquitaine. Philip would also expand his influence in
Auvergne in 1209. The English king did not accept the outcome
of the previous war and already in 1206, he made an unsuccessful attempt to retake his
French territories: he soon started to look for allies to curb the power of the expanding
French King. It is now that we acknowledge the existence
of the Holy Roman Empire. Following the death of Henry the Fourth of
the Hohenstaufen family in 1197, the Imperial throne had been given to Otto the Fourth of
the Welf family, thanks to the support of Pope Innocent the Third. This sparked a feud between the two families,
which would give the name to the two political factions of Guelphs and Ghibellines. In 1208 the head of the Hohenstaufen faction
Philip Duke of Swabia was assassinated, leaving Otto without much opposition in Germany. Emboldened by his position, the Emperor went
against the Pope and the Kingdom of Sicily, intending to weaken the Holy Sea and take
the south Italian throne for himself, but his actions backfired hard. He was met by Papal excommunication and a
rebellion of German princes who in 1211 elected the young Frederick the Second, King of Sicily
and son of the previous emperor Henry the Fourth, as the new emperor. Both the Plantagenet and the Capetian had
their stake in this struggle for power: Otto was also supported by the English monarchy,
as he was related to them and had lived at their court, while Philip supported the young
Frederick to contrast his rival. Someone else who had been excommunicated was
King John of England after a dispute with the Pope on the nomination of the Archbishop
of Canterbury. Although it had little effect in the internal
politics of the state and it was soon resolved in 1213, it gave Philip of France an excuse
to invade his rival. In 1213 he assembled a fleet in Normandy,
which was destroyed in the port of Demme by the Earl of Salisbury, and raided the lands
of the Count of Flanders, who had refused to join the prepared invasion. John thus formed a league against the French
King: he was joined by Otto of Welf, who came to his help not only on the grounds of friendship
with the Plantagenets and to undermine the French support of his rival but also because
he hoped that a grand victory against the King of France would rally the rebellious
princes to his banner. The Count of Boulogne, Renaud, and the Count
of Flanders, Ferdinand, also joined the league as they had historical ties to the English
monarchy and economy and the latter had an active dispute with the king regarding the
ownership of some towns. Their strategy was to attack the Kingdom of
France in a two-pronged assault from the east and the south, which would have converged
on Paris. In February of 1214, John of England sailed
to La Rochelle accompanied by mercenaries, as the barons of England had refused to join
him, and he sent his half-brother William, Earl of Salisbury to Flanders, with money
to assemble a mercenary army there. John campaigned in Poitou and Anjou in the
spring, with the goal of drawing the French army from the eastern border. Philip decided to defend his territories by
leaving a third of his men under his son Louis to confront John in the Loire valley, while
he would head for Flanders to raid the region. In Anjou, John’s army was confronted by
Louis’ detachment while they besieged Roche-au-Moine: the English monarch retreated, either because
of cowardice or because he had reached his goal of splitting his enemy’s forces, but
lost some casualties in his retreat. At the start of June, the Emperor finally
arrived in Flanders with his small army, as only four German nobles had joined him, but
he was soon joined by the Dukes of Brabant, Limburg, and Lorraine, the Counts of Flanders
and Boulogne and the mercenaries of Salisbury. By the 26th of July, the French King had just
arrived at the Flemish town of Tournai with his army, while the allied army was encamped
12 kilometers south at the Castle of Mortagne. The French army numbered approximately 1300
knights, 300 light cavalry, and 4 to 5 thousand infantrymen. The allied army was composed of 1500 knights
mostly from Flanders and Hainault, and 7500 Flemish foot-soldiers and mercenaries. As Philip’s scouts had reported the position
of the enemy army, he decided the following day to turn back to not remain encircled and
to defend his heartland. On the morning of Sunday, the 27th, his army
departed in good order along the old Roman road between Tournai and Lille, with the carts
in front followed by the infantry and the cavalry in the back. He also sent a contingent of knights from
Burgundy and Champagne to cover his retreat. The Imperial camp received the news of the
French retreat, and a council of war convened and decided to attack at once, taking advantage
of their superior numbers and hoping to cut part of the army off at the village of Bouvines,
where the river La Marque flowed. They marched at once along a single road through
a forest, which greatly prolonged the marching column. Philip knew that the enemies were on the move
but he was unsure if they were heading to Tournai or towards him, as it was forbidden
by the Church to fight on a Sunday: while he was having a meal in the village of Bouvines,
he received the news from his rearguard. The Count of Flanders with 1200 knights and
squires had led the vanguard and engaged in small skirmishes with the Burgundian knights. The French king and his commander, the Bishop
Guérin, recalled his infantry who had crossed the river and positioned his troops with himself
at the center, with a right wing composed of only heavy and light cavalry and a mixed
left wing. The allied army had failed to surprise the
French and their long marching column meant it took a considerable amount of time to draw
up for battle. The Flemish and Hainautian knights under the
Count of Flanders composed the left wing; in the center the Emperor was positioned with
his few knights and half of the infantry, where a cart with the imperial insignia was
located; while to the right Salisbury mercenaries were positioned in a circle to cover the Count
of Boulogne’s cavalry. The battle started soon after noon on the
south side: a contingent of light cavalry was sent out by the French to probe the Flemish
lines: some of the knights took the bait, starting to skirmish with the light cavalry
and finding success. Then, the knights from Champagne charged against
the disordered lines, killing many of the unarmoured horses and taking a number of knight’s
captive. The Count of Flanders attempted to save his
men charging into battle with his retinue, but he was met by the full force of the French
right wing who broke the enemy line and encircled the enemy knights in a fierce melee. The heavier-armoured French knights managed
to best their Flemish counterparts in the duels that ensued after a cavalry charge,
and after a few hours of battle, the Flemish ranks were thinned until their commander was
forced to surrender. Meanwhile, the center of the two armies had
drawn up for battle: as the French infantrymen took up position in front of the King and
his retinue, they were charged by Otto’s mass of mercenaries and knights. The French levies were not of the same quality
as their mounted counterparts, so they were thrown back: the infantry line had been kept
thin to spread it out and not be encircled, so the German knights easily punctured it,
but they were met by the king’s knights. During the fight, some of the German infantry
managed to push through and nearly captured the French king, but the French knights on
the left wing counter attacked and routed the Emperor’s knights, mopping up the infantry
that had penetrated the line. Soon the center collapsed and the German knights
sacrificed themselves to allow their emperor to escape from the battlefield. Just the allied right wing was remaining:
they came too late to join the other two battlegroups, so here the pikemen had positioned themselves
in a circle to cover the knights who launched sorties out of this small strongpoint: after
a few attacks the knights of the Count of Boulogne were defeated and captured. The Dukes of Limburg and Brabant and the Flemish
militia, seeing how the battle was going, turned around even before setting up for battle. The French knight attacked a few times the
fortress of pikes, suffering considerable damage, but by the end of the day, the mercenaries
were surrounded and beaten. Each side suffered around a thousand casualties,
but the French army had taken a considerable number of soldiers prisoner, including 131
knights and 5 counts, with the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders and the Earl of Salisbury among
them. The consequences of the Battle of Bouvines
would be immense on the course of European history. The great monetary and territorial losses
of John angered the population of England, with many barons rebelling against the English
king. They forced him on the 15th of June 1215 to
sign the Magna Charta, a document that granted a series of freedoms and rights to the freemen
of England: this document is important for the legal system, being the basis for the
common law and granting some important rights such as the “habeas corpus”, the right
to not be arbitrarily arrested and establishing the concept that no man is above the law. It also created a council of barons to judge
the actions of the king, and it was the bedrock on which the parliamentary monarchy that would
later develop was based. The French monarchy took another road: having
defeated his main rivals, Philip had limited the English possession on the mainland to
just the Duchy of Aquitaine. It had also greatly expanded the territory
directly controlled by the crown, strengthening its authority. It also led to the later incorporation of
the County of Toulouse, weakened by the Albigensian crusades, and the curbing of the influence
of Flanders, the richest and most populous region of Europe at the time. The great success that Philip had in consolidating
the royal power garnered him the nickname Augustus and he has been called the Father
of France, as he set the course of his kingdom on that of centralization. The defeat of Otto would be detrimental for
him, as he would no longer hold any power and he would soon die. He would be the only emperor of the Welf dynasty
and his death would pave the way to the ascension to the Imperial throne of Frederick the Second,
King of Sicily, who belonged to the Hohenstaufen dynasty. More videos on the medieval battles are on
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