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.

John W. Baldwin is the Charles Homer Haskins Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University.

"An outstanding piece of scholarship. . . . John Baldwin has produced the definitive work on the reign of Philip Augustus, one that will be required reading for all who study French medieval history. Rarely has a historian so effectively captured the workings of a government at a critical time of transition."—John Bell Henneman, Speculum

"A most welcome book. . . . At long last we have ready access. . . to a study worthy of this important and fascinating subject."—John Gillingham, Times Higher Education Supplement

"One of the most important books on medieval monarchy to appear in many years."—Franklin J. Pegues, American Historical Review

"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

Winner, 1990 Haskins Medal of The Medieval Academy of America