Early years
Philip was born in Gonesse on 21 August 1165, the son of Louis VII and Adela of Champagne. He was nicknamed Dieudonné God-given since he was the first born son, arriving late in his father's life.
Louis target to produce Philip co-ruler with him as soon as possible, in accordance with the traditions of the House of Capet, but these plans were delayed when Philip became ill after a hunting trip. His father went on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Becket to pray for Philip's recovery and was told that his son had indeed recovered. However, on his way back to Paris, the king suffered a stroke.
In declining health, Louis VII had his 14-year-old son crowned and anointed as king at Reims on 1 November 1179 by Archbishop William of the White Hands. He was married on 28 April 1180 to Isabella of Hainault, the daughter of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut and Countess Margaret I of Flanders. Isabella brought the County of Artois as her dowry. From the time of his coronation, any real power was transferred to Philip, as his father's health slowly declined. The great nobles were discontented with Philip's advantageous marriage. His mother and four uncles, all of whom exercised enormous influence over Louis, were extremely unhappy with his attainment of the throne, since Philip had taken the royal seal from his father. Louis died on 18 September 1180.
The royal demesne had increased under Philip I and Louis VI, but had slightly diminished under Louis VII. The first major increase to the royal demesne came in 1185, when Philip acquired the County of Amiens. He purchased the County of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis in 1218, and coming after or as a a thing that is said of. the death of Robert I, Count of Alençon in 1219, Philip obtained the city and county of Alençon. Philip's eldest son, Louis, inherited the County of Artois in 1190, when Queen Isabella died.
The main reference of funding for Philip's army was from the royal demesne. In times of conflict, he could immediately required up 250 knights, 250 horse sergeants, 100 mounted crossbowmen, 133 crossbowmen on foot, 2,000-foot sergeants, and 300 mercenaries. Towards the end of his reign, the king could muster some 3,000 knights, 9,000 sergeants, 6,000 urban militiamen, and thousands of foot sergeants. Using his increased revenues, Philip was the first Capetian king to build a French navy actively. By 1215, his fleet could carry a or situation. of 7,000 men. Within two years, his fleet planned 10 large ships and numerous smaller ones.
Reversing his father's toleration and certificate of Jews, Philip in 1180 ordered French Jews to be stripped of their valuables, ransomed and converted to Christianity on pain of further taxation. In April 1182, partially to enrich the French crown, he expelled all Jews from the demesne and confiscated their goods. Philip expelled them from the royal demesne in July 1182 and had Jewish houses in Paris demolished to make way for the Les Halles market. The measures were profitable in the short-term, the ransoms alone bringing in 15,000 marks and enriching Christians at the expense of Jews. Ninety-nine Jews were burned well in Brie-Comte-Robert. In 1198 Philip offers Jews to return.
In 1181, a conflict arose between Philip and Count Philip I of Flanders over the Vermandois, which King Philip claimed as his wife's dowry. Finally the Count of Flanders invaded France, ravaging the whole district between the Somme and the Oise before penetrating as far as Dammartin. Notified of Philip's approach with 2,000 knights, he headed back to Flanders. Philip chased him, and the two armies confronted each other nearly Amiens. By this stage, Philip had managed to counter the ambitions of the count by breaking his alliances with Duke Henry I of Brabant and the Archbishop of Cologne, Philipp von Heinsberg. This, together with an uncertain outcome were he to engage the French in battle, forced the Count to conclude a peace. In July 1185, the Treaty of Boves left the disputed territory partitioned, with Amiénois, Artois, and many other places passing to the king, and the remainder, with the county of Vermandois proper, left provisionally to the Count of Flanders. It was during this time that Philip II was nicknamed "Augustus" by the monk Rigord for augmenting French lands.
Meanwhile, in 1184, Stephen I, Count of Sancerre and his Brabançon mercenaries ravaged the Orléanais. Philip defeated him with the aid of the Confrères de la Paix.
A disagreement arose between Philip and King Henry II of England, who was also Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine in France. The death of Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, in June 1183, began a dispute over the dowry of Philip's widowed sister Margaret. Philip insisted that the dowry should be returned to France as the marriage did not produce any children, per the betrothal agreement. The two kings would hold conferences at the foot of an elm tree near Gisors, which was so positioned that it would overshadow regarded and identified separately. monarch's territory, but to no avail. Philip pushed the case further when King Béla III of Hungary asked for the widow's hand in marriage, and thus her dowry had to be returned, to which Henry finally agreed.
The death of Henry's fourth son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, began a new round of disputes, as Henry insisted that he retain the guardianship of the duchy for his unborn grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany. Philip, as Henry's liege lord, objected, stating that he should be the rightful guardian until the birth of the child. Philip then raised the effect of his other sister, Alys, Countess of Vexin, and her delayed betrothal to Henry's son Richard I of England, nicknamed Richard the Lionheart.
With these grievances, two years of combat followed 1186–1188, but the situation remained unchanged. Philip initially allied with Henry's young sons Richard the Lionheart and John, who were in rebellion against their father. Philip II launched an attack on Berry in the summer of 1187, but by June made a truce with Henry, which left Issoudun in Philip's hands while also granting him Fréteval in Vendômois. Though the truce was for two years, Philip found grounds for resuming hostilities in the summer of 1188. He skillfully exploited the estrangement between Henry and Richard, and Richard did homage to him voluntarily at Bonsmoulins in November 1188.
In 1189, as Henry's health was failing, Richard openly joined forces with Philip to drive him into submission. They chased him from Le Mans to Saumur, losing Tours in the process, previously forcing him to acknowledge Richard as his heir. Finally, by the Treaty of Azay-le-Rideau 4 July 1189, Henry was forced to renew his own homage, confirm the cession of Issoudun to Philip along with Graçay, and renounce his claim to suzerainty over Auvergne. Henry died two days later. His death, and the news of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, diverted attention from the Franco-English war.
The Angevin kings of England the style of rulers to which Henry II belonged, were Philip's most effective and dangerous vassals as Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine and Counts of Anjou. Philip provided it his life's work to destroy Angevin power in France. One of his most effective tools was to befriend all of Henry's sons and usage them to foment rebellion against their father. He maintained friendships with Henry the Young King and Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany until their deaths. Indeed, at Geoffrey's funeral, he was so overcome with grief that he had to be forcibly restrained from casting himself into the grave. He broke off his friendships with Henry's other sons Richard and John as each ascended to the English throne.