CHAP.

V.

The resolve which Philip Augustus seemed to have taken towards the close of his reign, not to attempt new conquests or engage in new enterprises, wisely preferring to consolidate what he had acquired, was in a manner broken through by the offer of the English barons, in 1215, of the crown to his son Louis. The Pope, who had stopped the first French expedition to England, and turned it against Flanders, was still strenuous for making inviolate the right of the English crown. The question was discussed in the French parliament, and Philip Augustus, with his wisest counsellors, was evidently averse to Louis crossing the sea on such an expedition, which necessarily drew after it Papal excommunication. Louis himself would probably have abided by their decision. But his wife Blanche of Castille, who herself, as the niece of John, had some claim to England, and who was moreover a woman of spirit and of genius, urged her husband not to throw away such brilliant chances. And he accordingly persevered in his design, and accepted the offer of his English partisans.

Had Louis possessed the wisdom and moderation of his sire, and could he have pursued in England the policy of conciliating or trusting the nation, he might perhaps have succeeded. He became master of all the south, except the castle of Dover, which Hubert de Burgh stoutly defended. He was acknowledged sovereign of London, where John was hated, and where in consequence the French prince was popular. But it transpired that Louis regarded the turbulence of the English barons as criminal, and that did he ever acquire firm possession of the throne, he would punish and repress them. The Count de Melun, on his death-bed in London, is said to have revealed this to the English barons. The death of the odious John it was, however, that turned the tide of English popularity against Louis. His young son, Henry the Third, was not the accom

V.

plice of John's baseness and crime. The clergy, under CHAP. the influence of the papal legate, and indeed all the north, took part for Henry. The French and the English barons, their allies, were engaged, under the Count de Perche, in the siege of the Castle of Lincoln, when they were attacked by the force of the Plantagenet Prince. In the battle that ensued, known by the name of the Fair of Lincoln, the French and their partisans were completely worsted (1221), and few escaped with tidings of the defeat to Louis, who was in London. The prince hastened to demand succour of his sire; and this care being entrusted to Blanche, she set about it with her wonted activity. The succours which she sent were however intercepted, and the troops dispersed. Henry the Third marched to London with an army beyond the means of the French to resist, and Louis was obliged to conclude a treaty with the legate at Staines, by which he agreed to evacuate England, acknowledge young Henry as king, and even try to persuade his father, Philip, to restore the conquests which he had made. The latter condition was, of course, illusory. The citizens of London made Louis a loan of 5000 livres, and he forthwith departed from the English shores.

The last years of the reign of Philip Augustus, after the retreat of his son Louis from England, were occupied by the unfortunate expedition of this prince against Marmande and Toulouse, and by an equally unsuccessful expedition of the crusaders to take Damietta in Egypt. The King of France himself took little part in these or in any events. His health, undermined by age and slow fever, gave way, and confined him to his palace. Religious interests alone seemed to inspire him, and he was anxious to attend in person a council, which the Church endeavoured to assemble for the sake of resuscitating a crusade against the indomitable Tou

VOL. I.

CHAP, louse. Ere it met, Philip Augustus had expired in July, 1223, at Mantes.

V.

His will distributed the great wealth he had acquired, fifty thousand livres to make restitution to those whom he might have illegally despoiled, upwards of 300,000 to carry on the war in the Holy Land; 20,000 to the poor; and but 10,000 to his younger son, Philip, whom however he had invested with the county of Boulogne; 20,000 to De Montfort, the conqueror of Toulouse. When it is considered that a livre then was really a pound, somewhat more than a pound sterling, the wealth that Philip amassed was great for his age.

Philip Augustus was however no miser. None knew better the kingly use of money, not merely for purposes of war and conquest, but for the health, comfort, improvement, and education of his subjects. Looking from the windows of his palace, and struck by the fœtid odour from the mud of the streets, he forthwith ordered the pavement of the capital. When he departed for the Holy Land, he not only left those wise regulations for consulting the citizens in all affairs concerning them and the state, but he ordained that each town, including Paris, should be surrounded with walls. and towers. He built the cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris, at least the front and portal which exist, as well as the old Louvre, with its donjon, and the Hôtel Dieu. If he burned heretics, and allowed his barons to aid the Pope in crushing the people of Languedoc, he at the same time founded and patronised schools, and raised the university of Paris to rival that of Bologna. He freed students from purely ecclesiastical jurisdiction, by erecting them into a corporation, and allowing them to have a Syndic. In the schools were already taught, at the commencement of the thirteenth century, the Civil as well as the Canon Law: so that future kings readily found legists to guide them in the mitigation of the barbarism and injustice of feudalism. What Philip

Augustus did for the middle class has previously been described. And his laws were equally favourable to the emancipation and elevation of serfs, especially those of the royal domains. His genius was indeed that of an administrator and organiser, far more than of a commander or hero. Fortune, however, made him a conqueror of large countries, and victor in more than one battle, on which occasions he showed no lack of that courage and magnanimity which became the great monarch. Apt as one is to think meanly of Philip Augustus at the commencement of his reign, when placed in contrast with Cœur de Lion, or contemplated in the act of despoiling John, his faults disappear as the result of his policy becomes manifest in the greatness of his empire, and its progress not only in extent, but in the happiness, prosperity, and enlightenment of his subjects.

CHAP.

V.

CHAP. VI.

LOUIS THE EIGHTH AND NINTH.

VI.

1223-1270.

CHAP. THE death of Philip Augustus transferred the sceptre to the hands of Louis the Eighth, then six and thirty years of age, the son of Isabella of Hainault. As this princess was descended from Hermengarde, Countess of Namur, daughter of Charles of Lorraine, who, as the last Carlovingian, had disputed the crown with Hugh Capet, the new king might boast a descent from Charlemagne, the great hero of poesy and fable. and fable. Louis was accustomed to lead armies, not indeed with success, for his habit was to undertake enterprises too vast. To these, however, the ideas of the age and his father's success emboldened him. Whatever spirit too he might have wanted himself, was more than supplied by his queen, Blanche of Castille, of a temperament born for command, and of an intelligence which made her enter more fully than any of her French subjects and contemporaries into the policy and the aim of Philip Augustus, to make the ocean and the Mediterranean the boundaries of the monarchy. During the last years of the late king's reign Amaury de Montfort held his ground with great difficulty. A new crusade was impossible, as there were no new lands and countries to give, those who had won such in past campaigns being even unable to keep them. Barons and their retainers were not