Description: In the thirteenth century the French kings won ascendancy over France, while France achieved political and cultural supremacy over western Europe. Based on French sources, this meticulously documented study provides an account of how Philip Augustus (1179-1223) brought about this transformation of royal power.
Review Quotes: "The strength of "The Government of Philip Augustus lies in its empirical and scholarly character. It makes few concessions to the current fashion for conceptualizing the study of medieval government by introducing doctrines derived from scholastic philosophy or legal abstraction. By concentrating on the concrete evidence of records, Baldwin seeks to discover how theoretical claims were translated into effective suzerainty."--Malcolm Vale, "Times Literary Supplement