Philippe II August, King of
France 1180-1223, (1165-1223)
Born 22 August 1165 Gonesse
Died 14 July 1223 Mantes
Married (1) 28 April 1180 Bapaume
Isabelle of Flanders, Countess of Artois,
daughter of Baudouin V-VIII, Count of Flanders & Hainault
and Margarethe of Flanders
Born April 1170 Valenciennes
Died 15 March 1190 Paris
Married (2) 15 August 1193 Amiens (Div.5-11-1193)
Ingeborg (Isambour) of Denmark,
daughter of Valdemar I den Store, King of Denmark 1157-1182
and Sofie of Polock
Born 1175
Died 29 July 1236 Corbeil
Buried Corbeil
Married (3) June 1196 (forced to divorce in 1200)
Agnes de Meran,
daughter of Berthold VI von Andechs, Duke of Meran and Dalmatia
and Agnes von Nieder-Lausitz
Born 1180
Died 29 July 1201 Chateau Poissy
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After having lost his child-wife, Isabelle of Flanders, he went on
crusade, then hurried back to marry again for the sake of his dynasty as
his son, Louis, was a sickly child. What he needed was the daughter of
a king and, on 14 August 1193, he married Ingeborg (Isambour), daughter
of King Valdemar of Denmark. Arrangements had been made for
her to be crowned queen the day after the nuptials but, during the
wedding night, Philippe's feelings changed to repulsion.
In Compiegne, before an assembly, fifteen duly sworn witnesses, twelve
of them from the king's family, solemnly calculated the degrees of consanguinity
and showed that Philippe and Ingeborg were fourth cousins, a prohibiting
degree for marriage. However, this solution was not accepted by Ingeborg's
brother, the Danish king, who appealed to Pope Celestine III, claiming
the genealogies to be wrong, but the pope gave Philippe no more than a
warning.
In June 1196, Philippe III married the beautiful Agnes de Meran. With
Ingeborg still alive, this was bigamy. The new pope, Innocent III, ordered
Philippe to part from Agnes and, laying France under an interdict, wanted
to suspend all religious services. Negotiations were
to last fifteen years and, because of the Cathar upsurge, the interdict
was not applied.
In 1201 in Soissons, the church confronted Philippe but, after a fortnight's
arguing, he departed, taking Ingeborg with him. On 29 July 1201 Agnes de
Meran died and Philippe could no longer be regarded as a bigamist; and
so, in November of that year, the pope legitimised the two children of
Philippe and Agnes.
In 1205 a 'damsel from Arras' bore him a bastard son and, as Philippe
would have nothing to do with Ingeborg, she was spared the perils of childbearing.
As it had not been consummated, the pope was willing to declare the marriage
with Ingeborg void. However, they had not counted on Ingeborg who maintained
that she and Philippe had slept together. To satisfy pope, king and queen,
the only solution seemed to be that the queen should take the veil and
enter a convent; but then, in April 1213, Philippe announced he was taking
back his wife.
Source: Leo van de Pas |
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