Philip Augustus and the Ideological Development of Sacral Kingship in Medieval France By Darren Abayan Henry-Noel A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in History in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada July, 2017 Copyright © Darren Abayan Henry-Noel, 2017 Abstract This paper aims to re-evaluate the place of Philip II “Augustus” in the canon of medieval French historiography, and seeks to examine his reign within the context of the development of an ideology of sacral Capetian kingship, as opposed to the more traditional interpretation of the rise of the political power of the Capetian dynasty. While acknowledging Philip’s crucial contribution to the emergence of medieval France as one of the pre-eminent political powers of Latin Christendom in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, this paper argues that the wider historiographical field has diminished Philip’s equally important role in the construction of sacral Capetian ideology, presenting him as a proto-realpolitik monarch, rather than one overly concerned with spiritual or symbolic authority. In challenging the predominant historiographical portrayal of Philip II, this paper returns to an older tradition of scholarship embodied in historians such as Marc Bloch and Ernst Kantorowicz that emphasized both the sacerdotal understanding and representation of medieval monarchical power to contemporary theorists, and further argues that there existed a theoretical framework of uniquely Capetian sacral kingship that informed Philip’s most significant political and administrative reforms, and which he was intimately aware of and responding to. Moreover, Philip presided over the maturation of Capetian monarchical ideology through his own contributions in the patronage of the abbey of Saint-Denis, and a reinforcement of ties between the emergent Dionysian center of historical writing, the veneration of Saint Denis, and the Capetian monarchy. Alongside this development, Philip’s reign saw the revival and incorporation of Carolingian symbolism and nomenclature into the canon of Capetian monarchical conventions, which enhanced the sacral reputation of the Capetian dynasty and legitimized the dramatic expansion of political and territorial authority that characterized Philip’s rule. Ultimately, Philip’s contribution to an ideology of sacral Capetian Henry-Noel ii kingship was highly significant in that it saw the emergence of a nascent understanding of a communal identity of Franci in Francia, united under the figure of the sacral Capetian king and through shared ethnic, linguistic, and religious historical heritage, which would come to full fruition during the reigns of Louis IX and Philip IV. Henry-Noel iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract pg. ii- iii Chapter 1: Introduction – From Dieudonné to Augustus: The Evolution of Philip II in Historical Literature and Modern Scholarship pg. 1 Chapter 2: “I am only a man, but a man who is King of France” – Philip Augustus and the Ideological Foundations of Sacral Capetian Kingship pg. 60 Chapter 3: The King of Saint-Denis: Philip Augustus and the Abbey of Saint-Denis pg. 89 Chapter 4: The Carolingian Connection – The Court of Philip II and The “Cult of Charlemagne” and Concluding Thoughts pg. 127 Works Cited pg. 160 Henry-Noel iv Chapter 1: From Dieudonné to Augustus: The Evolution of Philip II in Historical Literature and Modern Scholarship The reign of Philip II of France (r. 1180-1223) has long been regarded as a turning point in the fortunes of the Capetian monarchy, both by contemporary writers and modern historians. More commonly known as Philip “Augustus”, the French king is hailed as the progenitor of the French state, and held responsible for the ascendancy of the Capetians as the dominant Christian monarchy in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. Philip’s reign coincided with a dramatic territorial expansion of the kingdom of France, hitherto restricted essentially to the Ile- de-France region, and with a concomitant increase in the political power wielded by the monarchy; it is therefore unsurprising that, particularly in the French historiographical tradition, Philip II is viewed as the founder of the French state.1 Yet what is often overlooked in the many studies of Philip’s reign is his contribution to, and indeed confirmation of, the sacral kingship so closely associated with the medieval French monarchy, to the point where the Capetian monarchs of later centuries were frequently referred to as rex christianissimus or ‘most Christian king’. This close relationship of secular and sacral power in the figure of the monarch arguably found its epitome in the person of Louis IX (r. 1226-1270), who was canonized by the Church in 1297, and whose substantial contributions to the sacral reputation of the Capetian monarchy were equally matched by the judicial and governmental reforms enacted during his reign.2 This is not 1 John W. Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986); Jean Flori, Philippe Auguste: La Naissance de l’Etat Monarchique (Paris: Tallandier, 2002); Georges Bordonove, Les Rois qui ont fait la France: Philippe Auguste, Le Conquérant (Paris: Pygmalion, Gérard Watelet, 1983), 274; Robert Fawtier, The Capetian Kings of France: Monarchy and Nation (987-1328), trans. Lionel Butler and R. J. Adam (New York: Saint Martin’s Press, 1960), 25-26 2 M. Cecilia Gaposchkin, The Making of Saint Louis: Kingship, Sanctity, and the Crusade in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 10, 46-50; William C. Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 217; Jim Bradbury, Philip Augustus: King of France, 1180-1223 (New York: Henry-Noel 1 to suggest that Louis IX was solely responsible for the construction of an ideology of sacral French kingship in the thirteenth century, but when elaborating upon the venerable tradition of sacral monarchy in medieval France, historians often either excise Philip II entirely – drawing a line of succession from the pious Louis VII (r. 1137-1180), leader of the Second Crusade, to Louis VIII (r. 1223-1226) who died while returning from a campaign against the Albigeois, and ending with Louis IX – or suggest that Philip’s contribution to this ideology were minimal at best.3 By contrast, Philip II is remembered for his territorial conquests and the expansion of royal political power, but his devotion and piety, or lack thereof, are viewed either as irrelevant or as a brief aside that detracts from the truly vital contributions of his reign to the political aggrandizement of the Capetian monarchy. I would argue that Philip’s role in the maturation of a tradition of sacral Capetian monarchy cannot be overlooked, and indeed that they played a central role in providing the foundation for the edifice of sacral kingship that was aggressively advanced during the time of Louis IX. Indeed, many historians of the reign of Louis IX indicate, albeit briefly, that Philip II was cited frequently by the king and his court as an exemplar of sacred kingship, and that many of the actions undertaken by the pious monarch were a deliberate echo of similar, if not identical, measures carried out during the reign of Philip II.4 While not to downplay the significance of Longman, 1998), 334-38; Jacques Le Goff, Saint Louis, trans. Gareth Evan Gollrad (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009), 128, 575; John W. Baldwin, Paris: 1200 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010), 76 3 James Naus, Constructing Kingship: The Capetian Monarchs of France and the Early Crusades (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016), 124-26; John W. Baldwin, “The Case of Philip Augustus,” Viator 19 (1988): 199-201; Elizabeth M. Hallam and Judith Everard, Capetian France 987-1328 (Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 2001), 174 4 William C. Jordan, The French Monarchy and the Jews: From Philip Augustus to the Last Capetians (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1989), 120, 128; Gabrielle M. Spiegel, “The Cult of Saint-Denis and Capetian Kingship,” Journal of Medieval History 1 (1975): 61; Anne Lombard-Jourdan, “Montjoie et Saint-Denis!”: Le Centre de la Gaule aux Henry-Noel 2 French territorial expansion and the growth of the political power of the Capetian monarchy which occurred during Philip’s reign in the development of monarchical power in Capetian France, this paper suggests that Philip’s reign must be re-examined within the broader context of ideas of sacral kingship that circulated in medieval Europe during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Furthermore, that Philip was both actively engaged with said theories and actively involved in the advancement of an ideology of specifically French sacred monarchy, which historians have particularly associated with the writings of Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis (c. 1081-1151).5 Despite Philip’s noted lack of enthusiasm for the patronage of literature – whether historical works or the emergent genre of troubadour poems whose popularity was developing in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries – and the much-maligned portrait of the French king which emerges from many of the contemporary sources of the period, Philip was far from a passive participant in the development of Capetian tradition of sacral monarchy.6 This paper will argue that Philip engaged in several deliberate attempts to consolidate the Capetian mythos of sacral monarchy during his reign, particularly in regards to the connection between the Capetians and Charlemagne, as well as strengthening the association between the monarchy and the monastery Origines de Paris et de Saint-Denis (Paris: Presses du CNRS, 1989), 218-20; Sean L. Fields and M. Cecilia Gaposchkin, “Questioning the Capetians, 1180-1328,” History Compass 12 (2014): 568, 573 5 Lindy Grant, Abbot Suger of St-Denis: Church and State in Early Twelfth-Century France (New York: Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1998), 3, 10-11; Gabrielle M.