Philip II of France

Philip II Augustus, In French: Philippe II Auguste, king of France (1180-1223). The son of Louis VII of France and his third wife, Adele of Champagne.

A member of the Capetian Dynasty, he expanded the royal domain inside the kingdom. He seized the territories of Maine, Touraine, Anjou, Brittany, and Normandy from king John of England. His decisive victory at the battle of Bouvines over Otto IV of Germany ended the immediate threat of challenges to this expansion (1214).

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He went on the Third Crusade with Richard I of England and Frederick I Barbarossa (1189-1192).

He would be part of one of the greatest centuries of innovation in construction and in education. With Paris as his capital, Philip Augustus had the main thoroughfares paved, built a central market, Les Halles, continue construction begun in 1163 of the Gothic Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, constructed the Louvre as a fortress and gave a charter to the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) in 1200.