Philip, Count of Flanders
Philip of Alsace (
1143-
August 1,
1191) was
count of Flanders from
1168 to
1191. He succeeded his father
Thierry of Alsace.
His reign began in
1157, while he acted as regent and co-count for his father Thierry, who was frequently away on
crusade. He defeated
Floris III, Count of Holland and stopped the
piracy; Floris was captured in
Bruges and remained in prison until being ransomed in
1167, in exchange for recognition of Flemish suzerainty over
Zeeland. By inheritance, Philip also recovered for Flanders the territories of
Waes and
Quatre-Métiers. In
1159 Philip married
Elisabeth of Vermandois, also known as Isabelle, elder daughter of count
Raoul I of Vermandois and
Petronilla of Aquitaine. The same year as his father died (
1168), his wife inherited a major portion of Vermandois. This pushed Flemish authority further south, at its greatest extent thus far, and threated to completely alter the balance of power in northern
France.
Philip governed wisely with the aid of
Robert d'Aire, whose role was almost that of a prime minister. They established an effective administrative system, and Philip's foreign relations were excellent: he mediated in disputes between
Louis VII of France and
Henry II of England, between Henry II and
Thomas Becket, and arranged the marriage of his sister
Margaret with
Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut.
Philip and Elisabeth were childless. In
1175, Philip discovered Elisabeth was committing adultery, and had her lover, Walter de Fontaines, beaten to death. Philip then obtained complete control of her lands in Vermandois from King
Louis VII of France. Philip's brothers
Matthew and
Peter also died without surviving children, so in
1177 he designated Margaret and Baldwin as his heirs, before going on crusade.
In the
Holy Land, Philip hoped to take part in a planned invasion of
Egypt, for which purpose the crusaders had allied with the
Byzantine Empire. A Byzantine fleet was waiting at
Acre when Philip arrived on
August 2. Philip had other plans, however: he and King
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem were first cousins, sharing a grandfather,
King Fulk, whose daughter from his first marriage,
Sibylla of Anjou, was Philip's mother. Baldwin IV was a
leper and childless, and offered Philip the regency of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem as his closest male relative currently present there. Philip refused both this and the command of the army of the kingdom, saying he was there only as a pilgrim. Instead Baldwin appointed
Raynald of Chatillon, to whom Philip would act as an assistant. As
William of Tyre says, "this being the situation, the count at last revealed the secret thought of his mind and did not try to conceal to what end all his plans were." He had come to have his own vassals married to his cousins, Baldwin's sister
Princess Sibylla and half-sister
Princess Isabella. Sibylla's husband
William of Montferrat had just died, leaving her pregnant with the future
Baldwin V; William of Tyre, who was the chief negotiator in this dispute, told the count it would be improper to marry her off again so soon. According to the chronicle of
Ernoul, Philip was also rebuffed by
Raymond III of Tripoli, who also claimed the regency, as well as Raymond's supporters from the
Ibelins, who hoped to marry the princesses into their own family.
Baldwin of Ibelin insulted the count in public, and Philip left Jerusalem in October to campaign in the north for the
Principality of Antioch, participating in an unsuccessful siege of
Harim before returning home. Meanwhile, the Byzantine alliance against Egypt was abanonded, but in November, Baldwin IV and Raynald defeated
Saladin at the
Battle of Montgisard.
Philip returned from Palestine in
1179, and Louis VII, now sick, named him guardian of his young son
Philip II. The count had the king married to his niece,
Isabelle of Hainaut, with an imprudently disproportionate
dowry: the
County of Artois. When Louis VII died, Philip II began to assert his independence. War broke out in
1180 and Picardy and the
Ile-de-France were devastated; King Philip refused to give open battle and gained the upper hand, and Baldwin of Hainaut, at first allied with his brother-in-law Count Philip, soon intervened on behalf of his son-in-law the King, in support of his daughter's interests. The dispute between Count Philip and Baldwin was encouraged by King Philip, who went so far as to name Baldwin his representation in negotiations with the Count.
Count Philip's wife Elisabeth died childless in
1183, and King Philip seized Vermandois on behalf of Elisabeth's sister, Eleonore. Philip then married
Teresa of Portugal, daughter of
Afonso I of Portugal, first king of that country, and
Maud of Savoy. Teresa arrived with a large dowry, but this marriage was also childless. Fearing that he would be surrounded by the royal domain of France and the
County of Hainaut, Philip signed a peace treaty with his enemies on
March 10,
1186, recognizing the cession of Vermandois to the king, although he was allowed to retain the title
Count of Vermandois for the remainder of his life.
In
1190 Philip took the cross for a second time and joined the Flemish contingents which had already gone to Palestine. After arriving at the
Siege of Acre, he was stricken by the epidemic passing through the crusader camp, and died on August 1, 1191. His body was brought back to Flanders by his wife, who acted as regent during his absence, and Philip was buried in
Clairvaux Abbey. He was succeeded by his sister Margaret and his brother-in-law Baldwin of Hainaut.
Philip seems to represent the end of one kind of feudal world, and the beginning of a new type of sovereignty, put into practise by King Philip: for the first time, a king of France ruled over a count of Flanders. However, despite a costly war, the economic expansion of Flanders did not stop, as witnessed by the number of communal charters signed by Count Philip, and by the end of his reign the county had entered into a period of unprecedented prosperity.
Philip also acted as patron for
Chrétien de Troyes while he was writing his last romance,
Perceval, the Story of the Grail. In the opening lines, Chrétien praises Philip for providing him with the book he adapted into the "best tale ever told in a royal court". The work is unfinished, and was obviously begun sometime before Philip's death.
*Jim Bradbury,
Philip Augustus, 1998.
*Robert Payne,
The Dream and the Tomb, 1984.
*Bernard Hamilton, "Women in the Crusader States: The Queens of Jerusalem", in
Medieval Women, edited by Derek Baker. Ecclesiatical History Society, 1978.
*
Steven Runciman,
A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Cambridge University Press, 1952.
*
William of Tyre,
A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea. E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey, trans.
Columbia University Press, 1943.
