Philip (29 August 1116 – 13 October 1131) was

King of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I, king of the Fra ...

from 1129 to 1131, co-ruling with his father, Louis VI. As he predeceased his father and never reigned as sole king, he is not known by an ordinal or included in the traditional lists of French monarchs.

Coronation

Philip was the eldest son of King

Louis VI of France Louis VI (1 December 1081 – 1 August 1137), called the Fat () or the Fighter (), was List of French monarchs, King of the Franks from 1108 to 1137. Like his father Philip I of France, Philip I, Louis made a lasting contribution to centralizing ...

and

Adelaide of Maurienne Adelaide of Maurienne, also called Alix or Adele (1092 – 18 November 1154) was Queen of France as the second wife of King Louis VI (1115–1137). Family Adelaide was the daughter of Count Humbert II of Savoy and Gisela of Burgundy. Adelaide' ...

. Following the custom of naming eldest sons after their paternal grandfathers, Philip was named after Louis VI's father, Philip I. He appears to have been the favourite son of his father as a child and, once again following established practice of his family, the Capetians, was enthroned alongside his father as co-king in 1129. The young king gave his father little joy after that, refusing to pay attention to the old king or to follow the high standards that Louis himself followed. He became disobedient, refusing to heed scoldings or warnings;

Walter Map Walter Map (; 1130 – 1209/1210) was a medieval writer. He wrote '' De nugis curialium'', which takes the form of a series of anecdotes of people and places, offering insights into the history of his time. Map was a courtier of King He ...

said that he "strayed from the paths of conduct traveled by his father and, by his overweening pride and tyrannical arrogance, made himself a burden to all."

Death

Philip's brief period as co-king was ended two years after his coronation. Riding with a group of companions near the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

- according to Map, along the strand named the Greve -, his running horse was tripped by a black pig which darted out of a dung heap on the quay. The horse fell forwards, and the young king was catapulted over its head. The fall "so dreadfully fractured his limbs that he died on the day following" without regaining consciousness. The royal family was completely devastated by Philip's tragic death, as the historian Suger wrote that "Even Homer himself would not have been able adequately to express the extent and depth of grief and sadness that swept over his father and mother and the magnates of the kingdom." Philip was buried at the

Basilica of Saint-Denis The Basilica of Saint-Denis (, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance historically and archite ...

. Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "Authority, the Family, and the Dead in Late Medieval France", ''French Historical Studies'', Vol. 16, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), p. 808. Abbot Suger, who was a close friend of Louis VI, advised the grief-stricken king to "crown his son Louis (the future Louis VII), a very fine child, have him anointed with the sacred oil, and make him king with him, in order to prevent any disturbance from his rivals."

Legacy

If Philip had been little other than a problem to his family and kingdom whilst he had lived, his legacy proved greater trouble still. Whilst he had lived, he had nurtured a dream of visiting Jerusalem and the tomb of Jesus; when Philip died, his bereaved brother Louis vowed to go in his place. This vow would provide Louis VII with a reason to join the disastrous

Second Crusade The Second Crusade (1147–1149) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crus ...

in 1147 and an excuse to abandon Antioch in favour of Jerusalem. The Crusade led to many deaths on both sides, and the abandonment of Antioch proved to be a strategic failure and a partial cause for the dissolution of Louis VII's marriage to his first wife,

Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor of Aquitaine ( or ; ; , or ; – 1 April 1204) was Duchess of Aquitaine from 1137 to 1204, Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, and Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II. As ...

. Because Philip was a co-king rather than a king in his own right, he is not generally given a number in the succession of kings of France.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Philip Of France House of Capet 12th-century kings of France 1116 births 1131 deaths Deaths by horse-riding accident in France Burials at the Basilica of Saint-Denis