When talking about history, we sometimes put too much emphasis on the role of battles and
wars over the underlying political and social structures, but some battles are truly decisive
for the course that our history takes.
One of these is the Battle of Bouvines, in which three great powers of feudal Europe
fought in the year 1214.
The outcome of this battle had rippling effects on the development of both England and France,
shaping their political and social structure for the following centuries, but also had
less visible effects on the rest of Europe.
The sponsor of this video Field of Glory II: Medieval is a deep, historically accurate,
and expertly researched turn-based tactical game set in the High Middle Ages from 1040
AD to 1270 AD.
This was the time when the entire European continent was in turmoil and thus heyday of
the mounted knight, armoured from head to toe, rode heavy horses in tight formations
and delivered devastating charges.
Take control of the battle and lead your chosen army and its named generals to victory.
Draw your forces from historically accurate orders of battle that allow all of the options
and variations that would be available to a real general of that nation at any date
during the era.
Relive historical scenarios covering key engagements of the period on an epic scale.
This includes legendary battles of the period such as: Hastings, Bouvines, Lake Peipus,
and many more.
Choose from set-piece historical battles or “what-if” custom battle situations or
create your battle thanks to the random map generator.
It can produce an infinite variety of historically realistic battlefield maps for custom battles
that can be played against the AI or human opponents using Slitherine’s easy to use
PBEM3 server.
In this video, we use Field of Glory II: Medieval’s awesome battle engine and beautiful music.
This game is a must-play, so support our channel and one of the best strategy game developers
by purchasing it via the link in the description!
Following the conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy William, which culminated at the
Battle of Hasting 1066, the crowns of England and France were deeply intertwined.
As Dukes of Normandy, the English Kings had to pay homage to the French kings for their
fiefs as the feudal laws of the time dictated.
In the year 1135, following the death of Henry the First, the English realm entered into
a two-decade-long civil war known as “The Anarchy”, which ended with Henry the Second
ascending to the English throne in 1154.
Henry was a member of the French Plantagenet family and he had inherited the Counties of
Anjou and Maine from his father Geoffrey and the Duchy of Normandy from his mother Empress
Matilda, daughter and sister of the previous English kings.
In 1152 Henry had also married Eleanor, heiress of the Duchy of Aquitaine which covered most
of western France.
So, when Henry sailed to England to be crowned as King of England, he was already the greatest
feudal lord of the French realm.
The French monarchs had long lost the power and prestige that the Carolingian Kings enjoyed,
with the royal power diminishing in the tenth century.
The Capetian dynasty had been on the throne since 987 but they controlled only a small
part of the Kingdom directly, a region centered around the capital Paris and a few exclaves.
The rest of the realm was governed by powerful counts and dukes, with whom the kings often
quarreled for power and influence.
Now that half of the Kingdom was under the rule of the Plantagenet dynasty, frictions
between the two families soon commenced.
In 1159 Henry began to extend his influence further on the continent by attacking the
Count of Toulouse, who was rescued by the French King Louis the Seventh.
What followed was a century of low-intensity conflicts between the House of Capet and the
House of Plantagenet who ruled the so-called Angevine Empire.
Henry was successful in putting one of his sons on the throne of the Duchy of Brittany,
and nearly managed to have his son become the heir to the French throne, but he had
to often confront his rebellious sons who would forge alliances with the French Kings
Louis the Seventh and his son Philip the Second.
In the year 1199, Henry’s youngest son John ascended to the throne following the death
of his older brother Richard the Lionheart.
To consolidate his throne, he first had to defeat his nephew Arthur, supported by the
French King Philip.
Philip was a shrewd politician and diplomat and wanted to use Arthur as a pawn to weaken
the Plantagenet position in France, splitting up their territory.
In the subsequent peace of 1200, Philip dropped the support for Arthur and confirmed John’s
titles and possessions, but he obtained the reaffirmation of his position as suzerain
of John.
In 1202 a new war sparked between the two monarchs, following an internal marriage dispute
in the Duchy of Aquitaine between John and one of his vassals, of the Lusignan family.
The outcome of this war was the mysterious death of Arthur and the seizure of Normandy,
Anjou, Maine, and Brittany by Philip, confining John’s possession in France to just Aquitaine.
Philip would also expand his influence in Auvergne in 1209.
The English king did not accept the outcome of the previous war and already in 1206, he
made an unsuccessful attempt to retake his French territories: he soon started to look
for allies to curb the power of the expanding French King.
It is now that we acknowledge the existence of the Holy Roman Empire.
Following the death of Henry the Fourth of the Hohenstaufen family in 1197, the Imperial
throne had been given to Otto the Fourth of the Welf family, thanks to the support of
Pope Innocent the Third.
This sparked a feud between the two families, which would give the name to the two political
factions of Guelphs and Ghibellines.
In 1208 the head of the Hohenstaufen faction Philip Duke of Swabia was assassinated, leaving
Otto without much opposition in Germany.
Emboldened by his position, the Emperor went against the Pope and the Kingdom of Sicily,
intending to weaken the Holy Sea and take the south Italian throne for himself, but
his actions backfired hard.
He was met by Papal excommunication and a rebellion of German princes who in 1211 elected
the young Frederick the Second, King of Sicily and son of the previous emperor Henry the
Fourth, as the new emperor.
Both the Plantagenet and the Capetian had their stake in this struggle for power: Otto
was also supported by the English monarchy, as he was related to them and had lived at
their court, while Philip supported the young Frederick to contrast his rival.
Someone else who had been excommunicated was King John of England after a dispute with
the Pope on the nomination of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Although it had little effect in the internal politics of the state and it was soon resolved
in 1213, it gave Philip of France an excuse to invade his rival.
In 1213 he assembled a fleet in Normandy, which was destroyed in the port of Demme by
the Earl of Salisbury, and raided the lands of the Count of Flanders, who had refused
to join the prepared invasion.
John thus formed a league against the French King: he was joined by Otto of Welf, who came
to his help not only on the grounds of friendship with the Plantagenets and to undermine the
French support of his rival but also because he hoped that a grand victory against the
King of France would rally the rebellious princes to his banner.
The Count of Boulogne, Renaud, and the Count of Flanders, Ferdinand, also joined the league
as they had historical ties to the English monarchy and economy and the latter had an
active dispute with the king regarding the ownership of some towns.
Their strategy was to attack the Kingdom of France in a two-pronged assault from the east
and the south, which would have converged on Paris.
In February of 1214, John of England sailed to La Rochelle accompanied by mercenaries,
as the barons of England had refused to join him, and he sent his half-brother William,
Earl of Salisbury to Flanders, with money to assemble a mercenary army there.
John campaigned in Poitou and Anjou in the spring, with the goal of drawing the French
army from the eastern border.
Philip decided to defend his territories by leaving a third of his men under his son Louis
to confront John in the Loire valley, while he would head for Flanders to raid the region.
In Anjou, John’s army was confronted by Louis’ detachment while they besieged Roche-au-Moine:
the English monarch retreated, either because of cowardice or because he had reached his
goal of splitting his enemy’s forces, but lost some casualties in his retreat.
At the start of June, the Emperor finally arrived in Flanders with his small army, as
only four German nobles had joined him, but he was soon joined by the Dukes of Brabant,
Limburg, and Lorraine, the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne and the mercenaries of Salisbury.
By the 26th of July, the French King had just arrived at the Flemish town of Tournai with
his army, while the allied army was encamped 12 kilometers south at the Castle of Mortagne.
The French army numbered approximately 1300 knights, 300 light cavalry, and 4 to 5 thousand
infantrymen.
The allied army was composed of 1500 knights mostly from Flanders and Hainault, and 7500
Flemish foot-soldiers and mercenaries.
As Philip’s scouts had reported the position of the enemy army, he decided the following
day to turn back to not remain encircled and to defend his heartland.
On the morning of Sunday, the 27th, his army departed in good order along the old Roman
road between Tournai and Lille, with the carts in front followed by the infantry and the
cavalry in the back.
He also sent a contingent of knights from Burgundy and Champagne to cover his retreat.
The Imperial camp received the news of the French retreat, and a council of war convened
and decided to attack at once, taking advantage of their superior numbers and hoping to cut
part of the army off at the village of Bouvines, where the river La Marque flowed.
They marched at once along a single road through a forest, which greatly prolonged the marching
column.
Philip knew that the enemies were on the move but he was unsure if they were heading to
Tournai or towards him, as it was forbidden by the Church to fight on a Sunday: while
he was having a meal in the village of Bouvines, he received the news from his rearguard.
The Count of Flanders with 1200 knights and squires had led the vanguard and engaged in
small skirmishes with the Burgundian knights.
The French king and his commander, the Bishop Guérin, recalled his infantry who had crossed
the river and positioned his troops with himself at the center, with a right wing composed
of only heavy and light cavalry and a mixed left wing.
The allied army had failed to surprise the French and their long marching column meant
it took a considerable amount of time to draw up for battle.
The Flemish and Hainautian knights under the Count of Flanders composed the left wing;
in the center the Emperor was positioned with his few knights and half of the infantry,
where a cart with the imperial insignia was located; while to the right Salisbury mercenaries
were positioned in a circle to cover the Count of Boulogne’s cavalry.
The battle started soon after noon on the south side: a contingent of light cavalry
was sent out by the French to probe the Flemish lines: some of the knights took the bait,
starting to skirmish with the light cavalry and finding success.
Then, the knights from Champagne charged against the disordered lines, killing many of the
unarmoured horses and taking a number of knight’s captive.
The Count of Flanders attempted to save his men charging into battle with his retinue,
but he was met by the full force of the French right wing who broke the enemy line and encircled
the enemy knights in a fierce melee.
The heavier-armoured French knights managed to best their Flemish counterparts in the
duels that ensued after a cavalry charge, and after a few hours of battle, the Flemish
ranks were thinned until their commander was forced to surrender.
Meanwhile, the center of the two armies had drawn up for battle: as the French infantrymen
took up position in front of the King and his retinue, they were charged by Otto’s
mass of mercenaries and knights.
The French levies were not of the same quality as their mounted counterparts, so they were
thrown back: the infantry line had been kept thin to spread it out and not be encircled,
so the German knights easily punctured it, but they were met by the king’s knights.
During the fight, some of the German infantry managed to push through and nearly captured
the French king, but the French knights on the left wing counter attacked and routed
the Emperor’s knights, mopping up the infantry that had penetrated the line.
Soon the center collapsed and the German knights sacrificed themselves to allow their emperor
to escape from the battlefield.
Just the allied right wing was remaining: they came too late to join the other two battlegroups,
so here the pikemen had positioned themselves in a circle to cover the knights who launched
sorties out of this small strongpoint: after a few attacks the knights of the Count of
Boulogne were defeated and captured.
The Dukes of Limburg and Brabant and the Flemish militia, seeing how the battle was going,
turned around even before setting up for battle.
The French knight attacked a few times the fortress of pikes, suffering considerable
damage, but by the end of the day, the mercenaries were surrounded and beaten.
Each side suffered around a thousand casualties, but the French army had taken a considerable
number of soldiers prisoner, including 131 knights and 5 counts, with the Counts of Boulogne
and Flanders and the Earl of Salisbury among them.
The consequences of the Battle of Bouvines would be immense on the course of European
history.
The great monetary and territorial losses of John angered the population of England,
with many barons rebelling against the English king.
They forced him on the 15th of June 1215 to sign the Magna Charta, a document that granted
a series of freedoms and rights to the freemen of England: this document is important for
the legal system, being the basis for the common law and granting some important rights
such as the “habeas corpus”, the right to not be arbitrarily arrested and establishing
the concept that no man is above the law.
It also created a council of barons to judge the actions of the king, and it was the bedrock
on which the parliamentary monarchy that would later develop was based.
The French monarchy took another road: having defeated his main rivals, Philip had limited
the English possession on the mainland to just the Duchy of Aquitaine.
It had also greatly expanded the territory directly controlled by the crown, strengthening
its authority.
It also led to the later incorporation of the County of Toulouse, weakened by the Albigensian
crusades, and the curbing of the influence of Flanders, the richest and most populous
region of Europe at the time.
The great success that Philip had in consolidating the royal power garnered him the nickname
Augustus and he has been called the Father of France, as he set the course of his kingdom
on that of centralization.
The defeat of Otto would be detrimental for him, as he would no longer hold any power
and he would soon die.
He would be the only emperor of the Welf dynasty and his death would pave the way to the ascension
to the Imperial throne of Frederick the Second, King of Sicily, who belonged to the Hohenstaufen
dynasty.
More videos on the medieval battles are on the way, so make sure you are subscribed and
have pressed the bell button.
Please, consider liking, commenting, and sharing - it helps immensely.
Our videos would be impossible to make without our kind patrons and youtube channel members,
whose ranks you can join via the links in the description to know our schedule, get
early access to our videos, access our discord, and much more.
This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.