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Anglo-French War of 1193-1199
Part of The Capetian–Plantagenet rivalry
Richard Lionheart and Phillip Augustus, the two main leaders
Date February 1193 - April 6th, 1199 Location England, France, Brittany, Normandy, Poitou Result Initial Victory of Phillip , recovering of lost land by Richard I, death of Richard.
Belligerents
Richard I, King of England	Philip II, King of France Aymer, Count of Angoulême

The Anglo-French War of 1193-1199 was a series of campaigns, battles and sieges that was part of the Capetian–Plantagenet rivalry. This phase was carried out between King Richard I of England and his allies on one side, and King Phillip II of France and his allies on the other. While Richard was on crusade and subsequently being held captive by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, King Phillip, Richard's brother Count John of Mortain, and various other Angevin nobles all conspired to break apart the Angevin Empire. They received initial success, but after Richard's return he was able to reverse all those gains, and came close to defeating the French before Richard's death in 1199. His death was followed by John's loss of most of the empire to Phillip during the Normandy Campaigns.

The seeds for war were sown far before the war, during the Norman Conquest of England. King William the Conqueror was now both a vassal of the French King and an independent sovereign in his own right, causing many arguments over the fact that the English Kings had to pay homage and serve the French ones. These issues were exacerbated during The Anarchy, when the lands of Anjou and Maine were added to England, and under Henry II, who acquired Aquitaine and Brittany through a marriage of himself with Eleanor of Aquitaine and one between Constance of Brittany and one of his sons. His marriage to Eleanor only a few days after her divorce to the French King Louis VII started a long series of wars with Louis, his son Phillip, and included various revolts by his sons. Two of his four son's died before him, and his own death came after a defeat by Richard at Chinon (who was allied with Phillip at the time). Richard, having pledged himself to the crusade before his ascension, decided to continue, along with Phillip and various other nobles. Along the way, he repudiated a marriage with Phillip's sister, but managed to force Phillip into agreeing to allowing Richard to keep the dowry of the Vexin region. Phillip returned early due to disagreements between him and Richard and to solve a succession dispute in Artois. Richard was then captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria on his return, and turned over to Henry VI, before being ransomed for an exorbitant amount.

While Richard was gone, Phillip allied with John, who pledged fealty to him for the continental Angevin possessions. Together with Aymer, Count of Angoulême, an Aquitanien vassal, they launched a threefold strike on Richard's homeland. Phillip quickly took Vexin and most of Normandy East of the Seine. However, John and Aymer's revolts were defeated. With Richard's return imminent, Phillip signed a treaty at Mantes, consolidating his holdings and freeing John and Aymer. Richard was recrowned, formed an army, and returned to crush Phillip at the Battle of Fréteval.

The situation quickly soured for Phillip, as over the course of the next few years Richard slowly began reconquering castles. Richard also allied himself with a key supporter of Phillip, the Count of Flanders. Yet another blow fell when Henry VI died and was replaced by Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Richard's nephew. Phillip attempted to invade the Norman part of Vexin in 1198, but was forced to retreat when the Count of Flanders invaded Artois. Nearly all of the lands Phillip had taken at the begging of the war were reconquered by Richard by 1199.

However, Richard soon died fighting off rebellious vassals in Poitou, ending the conflict. It would reignite only a couple years later, this time between Phillip and John, who himself had to deal with a succession dispute with his nephew [[Arthur, Duke of Brittany], and ending in the total defeat of England and dissolution of the Angevin Empire.

Background

Angevin Empire

The Angevin Empire was a combination of multiple lands in England and France, compromising of the Kingdom of England, but also at various times the duchies of Normandy, Aquitaine, Gascony, and Brittany, the counties of Poitou, Maine, Anjou, and Tourraine, and various other smaller territories held as suzerain.

Prior to the Norman Conquest, the Duke's of Normandy had already been quazi-independent, and their new position as kings of a foreign realm strengthened their opposition to the French Kings. William the Conqueror spent much of his reign meddling in affairs with the weak French Ruler, and his sons Robert, William, and Henry spent much of their reigns fighting long civil wars. During this period, the French Kings continuously tried and failed to retake Normandy, or at the very least ensure the Duke was a much closer ally to them.

The House of Anjou originated in the County of Anjou, and would grow to rule over the Angevin Empire. With the marriage of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Matilda, Henry I's daughter, the Kingdom of England and Duchy of Normandy were brought into the fold, albeit after a long civil war, during which most of England was under the control of the rival claimant Stephen of Blois. Their son Henry II, King of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine, adding the Duchy of Aquitaine, Duchy of Gascony, and County of Poitou. Together, the couple had four sons who lived to adulthood, Henry the Young King, Richard, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany and John. King Henry engaged in many conflicts with King Louis VII of France. Eventually, Henry the Younger was set to inherit England, Normandy and Anjou, Richard Aquitaine, Gascony and Poitou, Geoffrey was married to the heiress of Brittany, and John was to be Lord of Ireland.

Henry, Richard and Geoffrey all rebelled at Eleanor's urging, Henry to force his father to give him control of England, and Richard and Geoffrey to increase their inheritance, but were all eventually defeated. Eleanor was locked away, Henry and Geoffrey later died, and Richard, worried about being disinherited in favor of John, rebelled again. Henry was defeated near Chinon and died. On the third of September 1189, Richard was crowned King of England, with over half of France under his control.

Third Crusade

King Richard was widely considered to be a very militant King. He was also held great love for Aquitaine, which was where he spent most of his life. He was 6'5 and certainly looked the part. He preferred to spend his time in his French domains, and can be better ascribed as a French King over England then an English king over French Lands. He loved tournaments, and war, and had taken the cross two years before he set out.

To go on Crusade he needed money. England to him, wasn't a kingdom, but rather a massive taxable population. He began selling offices, lordships, bishoprics, ministry positions, he even said he'd "Sell London itself if he found a buyer for it." He raised a Saladin tithe, spiked taxes, and exacted loans. This was, in fact, one of the later causes of the First Baron's War.

Richard proved himself an able warrior and commander, but he was eventually forced to return to England. Whilst in the holy land, two things of note happened. The first was that Richard broke his betrothal with Princess Alys of France. She had been sent over to the English court as just a young girl to be married to Richard, but rumors spread that Henry II had made her his mistress and possibly had a child with her. Whether or not this was true, it gave Richard an excuse to break the betrothal. He married Berengaria of Navarre in Cyprus while the crusade was already underway,to prevent him from abandoning the crusade in reaction and to force Phillip to compromise on the matter of Alys's dowry (Richard paid Phillip only 10,000 silver marks). However, Phillip was forced to return to France midway through the crusade after Philip I, Count of Flanders died, which caused a dispute over his succession. Secondly, following the seizure of Acre, Duke Leopold V of Austria, commander of the Holy Roman Imperial forces, flew his flag from the keep. Richard ordered it taken down, grievously offending Leopold, who left soon after.

In the meantime, in England, his original Justiciar, Hugh de Puiset was removed by his Chancellor, William de Longchamp, the Bishop of Ely. However, Longchamp failed to deal with a rebellion by John, and so Walter de Coutances, the Archbishop of Rouen, was sent back by Richard to deal with it. Longchamp's influence evaporated and Walter dealt with John.

King Richard was unable to return to England through Languedoc, as the route was blocked off by Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, who Richard had been in conflict with previously in an attempt to forcefully vassalize him, and was forced to return overland through Austria. In late 1192 he was arrested by men of Leopold, before being carted away to Henry VI's court. A ransom of 150,000 marks was demanded, worth over two years of revenue, and to pay for it a sum of a quarter of all income and movable property was taxed. The yearly wool tax was reappropriated, and churches were plundered. England, which had already been taxed to death to pay for the crusade, was being fleeced yet again.

Phillip's Planning

Phillip initially looked to invading Normandy once he returned in December 1191. However, his nobles refused to attack a lord on crusade, and so instead he worked to deal with the matter of the Flemish succession. He quickly acted to seize control of Artois, which he had a claim on as virtue as it was originally part of the dowry of his late wife, Isabella of Hainault. Count Baldwin of Hainaut was married to the former Count of Flanders sister, received the County proper, and Eleanor, Countess of Beaumont received Vermandois. Artois had suzerainty over a variety of fiefs, including Guines, Saint-Pol, and Bolougne. This altogether greatly strengthened his domain, and, with the bloodless victory under his belt, began looking back towards the undefended lands in Normandy.

On January 20th, 1192, Phillip met William FitzRalph, Seneschal of Normandy, outlining fake documents which he claimed showed Richard agreeing to hand over Vexin back to Phillip. Phillip now demanded the land back. William refused. Phillip strengthened his alliance with Baldwin, Count of Hainaut and now of Flanders, John, Count Raymond of Toulouse, and Aymer, Count of Angoulême. In early 1193, he invited John to Paris, where John paid homage to Phillip for the continental Angevin possessions. In exchange, Phillip supported John in his bid for the throne, who was claiming that Richard was dead. He also offered his sister Alys and Artois as a dowry to John in marriage, and gave him a loan of 6000 marks. With Richard captured, he was no longer provided with papal protection as a result of his crusading, and so could Phillip could begin his attack. Finally, the stage was set, and the war would start.

First Phase

Early Rebellion's

John began the war by sailing to London, attempting to seize the crown. He again claimed Richard was dead, although this was disputed by Richard's ministers and John and Richard's mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. The Archbishop Hubert Walter of Canterbury, who had replaced Archbishop Walter Coutenances of Rouen as Richard's Chief Justiciar, raised an army in response and confined John to his two keeps in Tickhill and Windsor. John was defeated, and a treaty was signed wherein John would keep Tickhill and Nottingham, but was forced to renounce the rest.

Ademar, Count of Angoulême, another ally of Phillip and a vassal of Richard, also rebelled. He claimed he owed fealty directly to King Phillip, However, he was captured while raiding in Poitou by local officals, and so his rebellion was put down.

Phillip's Success

Although the early rebellions may have been a failure, Phillip's invasion of Normandy was a resounding success. The war would primarily be made up of skirmishing, raiding and pillaging of local villages, and the slow conquering of castles, involving very few actual battles.

The first target was Château de Gisors, in Vexin. Commanded by Gilbert de Vascoeuil, an Anglo-French nobleman, it was widely regarded as the "key to the region" and would've been capable of holding up to the French for a few months, at the very least. Instead, it surrendered in a matter of days, likely due to treachery on either side. This allowed Phillip to begin pillaging Normandy. He then took the castles at Neaufles, in Évreux, Chateauneuf, another Vexin keep, followed quickly by Gournay, Aumale and Eu, three important lordships in eastern Normandy.

With Vexin and all of Normandy East of the Seine under his control, then regrouped with Baldwin of Flanders, coming down from Dieppe, and the two of them marched West to besiege Rouen. However, Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester arrived to take command of the cities defenses. He restrengthened the bulwarks, and brought fresh reinforcements, holding the city from the French, forcing Phillip to retreat. He had been repulsed, but succeeded in taking much of the Angevin lands.

Treaty of Mantes

On July 9th, following news that King Richard and Emperor Henry had made a deal for a ransom, and with the losses in England, Aquitane and failure to capture Rouen, Phillip decided to capitalize on his gains. At a treaty at Mantes, John was returned his estates, Count Adhemar was freed without charge, and additional land was given to Phillip, including four keeps paid for by the English. In exchange, Phillip promised to return most of what he'd conquered, to Richard, as long as Richard swore fealty to him and give him 20,000 marks.

In January 1194, the next season of the campaign began, when John, who had failed to comes to an agreement with Richard, finally signed a treaty surrendering all the land that Phillip had taken, in addition to Le Vaudreil, Verniul, and Evreux. Evreux, which was under Phillip's control, was granted to John as a fief. In exchange John also nominally surrendered Tourraine to King Phillip, Vendôme to Louis, Count of Blois, and Moulins and Bonsmoulins to Count Geoffrey of Perche. Finally, this treaty officially made the Counts of Angoulême vassals of the French King. However, all this treaty did was give Phillip claim's on the territories. He did not actually control most of them, as John didn't have the authority to sign such a treaty.

Richard's Counterattack

Returning to England

With Richard's return imminent, Phillip and John desperately tried to bribe Emperor Henry VI to keep him longer, but Richard had built up allies in the lower Rhineland, allies crucial to Henry's hold on power. On February 4th, 1194, he was released for 100,000 marks, with another 50,000 to be paid back later, and homage to Henry for England. By March 13th, Richard was back in England.

Upon arrival, he once again began selling English offices. He met up with William of Scotland, on April 4th to secure northern relations, and on the 17th was crowned a second time in Winchester, in an attempt to nullify the shame of his imprisonment. By May 12th, he had set sail for Normandy with around 300 ships. The Lion was back, and he was roaring.

Battle of Fréteval.

Phillip had used the past couple months to besiege Verneuil, in Evreux. The town had been captured, but the castle had withstood siege in the 1193 campaign, but Phillip was determined to take it this time. Richard landed at Barfleur, where he met John, who begged for his forgiveness. Richard said "Don’t be afraid, you are a child" and forgived him. John, pretending he was still a supporter of Phillip, then massacred the garrison at Evreux Castle.

Phillip, hearing of this, began moving his men back towards Evreux Castle. A large group had been left at Verneuil, but they retreated as Richard arrived. Richard took back the town.....

Sources

• Ackroyd, Peter (2011). Foundation - History of England from it's earliest beginnings to the Tudors. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-03755-8.
• Rees, Simon (September 2006). "King Richard I of England Versus King Philip II Augustus". Military History Magazine. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
• Baldwin, John W. (1991). The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages. University of California Press. ISBN 0520073916.
• Gillingham, John (1999). Richard I. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300094043.