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The story of the Battle of Bouvines, fought in 1214, is one of a “dead cert” plan that turned out to be far from cut and dried.
Otto IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, thought that a good way of keeping his barons loyal would be to invade France and reward his followers by giving them large pieces of captured territory. However, he was not sure that he could do this without some help, so he called on three other supposedly powerful warlords to join him in this quest.
These were Ferrand (Count of Flanders), Reginald (Count of Boulogne), and King John of England, who would presumably have had some sympathy with a fellow monarch who had problems with his barons.
The plan was for King John to land on the French coast and head for Paris, creating mayhem as he did so, while the other three invaded from the northeast. The problem with the plan was that it depended on John being able to get something right, but Otto should have known better.
The French King Philip Augustus met King John’s army at Angers on 2nd July 1214 and had an overwhelming victory. That left him free to concentrate on the other invaders and to gather reinforcements for his own army as he moved towards them.
<a href="http://christroi.over-blog.com/article-le-800e-anniversaire-de-la-bataille-de-bouvines-embarrasse-l-oligarchie-123677636.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>
The opposing forces met at Bouvines near Lille on 27th July. Philip’s army was still smaller than that ranged against him, and it looked at first as though Otto and his allies would prevail. However, Philip’s cavalry eventually got the better of the allies’ infantry and were able to achieve a decisive victory.
Philip’s personal bravery was an important factor in the battle, as he was able to encourage his men to redouble their efforts after he had been unhorsed and almost killed but was then able to remount and carry on.
Otto’s failure to conquer France led to his own removal as Emperor and his replacement by Frederick II. John’s defeat only served to reinforce his weakness in the eyes of his own barons, who were emboldened to push through their own “revolution” of forcing King John to sign Magna Carta the following year.
The actions of Philip Augustus in recruiting men from the merchant class of France to join his army showed that French nationalism was not the sole prerogative of the knightly class. This was itself an important development in the history of Europe.
Great story and interesting to learn, thanks so much.
Nice post! Nice story!
Now I honestly had never read of this or heard of this before. That is cool of course, but it was also interesting to learn that nationalism may, in fact, be more modern than we think.