A Most Crusading King? Patronage, Participation, and Politics: An Examination of the Role of the Crusades in the Rise of Royal Power Under Philip Augustus of France

Abstract

This dissertation will demonstrate the importance of crusading to the political and military successes of the reign of Philip II and argues that the contribution of the Crusades to the emergence of Capetian power was not merely a question of political and territorial ambitions but of royal mythologies and the emergence of an ideal polity which blended sacral and secular theories of kingship and governance. In challenging traditional interpretations of Philip as an unenthusiastic crusader, this dissertation argues that the Crusades provided the catalyst for Philip’s territorial and political ambitions to be realised. Furthermore, the Crusades facilitated the success of Philip’s governmental expansion through his deliberate association of Capetian kingship with the transference of sacral authority that had become attached to the idea of crusading. The study will situate the political development of Capetian France within a transregional perspective that studies the intersection of the new cultural dynamic of crusading with the institution of French kingship and the ideology of Capetian rulership. I will present a new interpretation of Philip’s involvement in the wider crusading movement that asserts that Philip’s successful leadership and involvement transformed crusading from an aspiration to an obligation on the part of the “most Christian kings” of France. I argue that Philip saw himself as a successful crusader-king in word and deed and that the public ceremonial aspects of his engagement with crusading helped construct a durable image of Capetian sacrality that persisted throughout his reign. Philip’s support of the crusades ensured the continued association of crusading with the image of the Capetian monarchy and incorporated the prestige and cultural currency of crusading into a publicly expressed ideology of sacral Capetian kingship. The latter part of Philip’s reign saw the integration of crusading rhetoric, symbolism and public ceremony into an ideology of sacral Capetian kingship which legitimised the expansion of French royal power in the 13th century. Philip’s crusading activity presented the act as a royal prerogative and a duty inherent to the position of a sacral Capetian king. This influenced not only the public understanding of the Capetians but also their own self-representation, as evidenced by the claims to overt sacrality and sanctity witnessed in the reigns of successors like Louis IX and Philip IV.