A Kingly Fight: The Battle of Bouvines, July 27, 1214

“The knights and the auxiliaries, armed and arranged into ordered echelons, prepared in all haste for the battle. The horses’ bridles were tightened by the auxiliaries. The armour shone in the splendor of the sun and it seemed that the light of day was doubled. The banners unfolded in the winds and offered themselves to the currents; they presented a delightful spectacle to the eyes.” –comment by the author of the Relation Marchianensis de Pugna Bovinis on the French army’s preparation for battle.

Following the Third Crusade tensions among the monarchs of Western Europe was at a new high. Otto IV, King of Portugal and newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor was facing revolt in the German provinces, many of whom were actively supported by the French King, Philip II, The Emperor had also garnered the enmity of Pope Innocent III soon after he was crowned when Otto claimed the Kingdom of Sicily, which he then attacked in 1209, which caused the Pope to excommunicate him. English King, John, was also involved with a growing conflict with the French, who were steadily taking lands along the border with Normandy. Indeed, John had only recently assumed the thrown following the death of his older brother, Richard (the Lionhearted) during a siege to retake one of the castles the French had captured earlier while the English king was on crusade. Tensions boiled over to outright war when the Pope authorized King Philip to launch a crusade against the upstart Holy Roman Emperor and his allies. The Battle of Bouvines, fought near the city of Tournai, was one of the largest ever fought in the Medieval period, and its outcome would affect the course of history for centuries.

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