The Battle of Bouvines, 27 July 1214, was a conclusive medieval battle ending the twelve year old War of Bouvines>> that was important to the early development of both the French state by confirming the French crown's sovereignty over the Norman lands of Brittany and Normandy and also in forcing the English king, John of England to sign the Great Charter or Magna Carta giving rights to men and thereby establishing English common law.

In the alliances, orchestrated by Pope Innocent III, Philip Augustus of France defeated Otto IV of Germany and count Ferrand of Flanders so decisively that Otto was deposed and replaced by Frederick II Hohenstaufen. Ferrand was captured and imprisoned.

Additionally, the defeat led to their ally King John of England being forced to sign Magna Carta by his discontented barons.

Philip was himself able to take undisputed control of the territories of Anjou, Brittany, Maine, Normandy, and the Touraine, which he had recently seized from Otto's kinsman and ally John of England.
Bouvines is in the modern area France between Lille (Rijsel) and Tournai (Doornik), and in the 13th century was in the county of Flanders.

Prelude

The campaign plan seems to have been designed by John, who was the fulcrum of the alliances; his general idea was to draw the French king away from Paris southward against himself and keep him occupied, while the main army, under emperor Otto IV, with the counts of the low countries, should march on Paris from the north. John's part in the general strategy was carried out at first, but the allies in the north moved slowly. John, after two encounters with his mortal enemy the king of France, turned back to his possessions in Aquitaine on 3 July, however, perhaps in one of his fits of despondency. When, three weeks later, the emperor finally concentrated his forces at Valenciennes, John was out of the picture, and in the interval Philip Augustus had countermarched northward and regrouped. Philip now took the offensive himself, and in maneuvering to get a good cavalry ground upon which to fight he offered battle (27 July), on the plain east of Bouvines and the river Marque. The imperial army drew up facing south-westward towards Bouvines, the heavy cavalry on the wings, the infantry in one great mass in the center, supported by the cavalry corps under the emperor himself. The total force is estimated at 25,000 men; a much larger proportion of foot soldiers and slightly less cavalry than the French. The French army of 15,000 men (about 11,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry)See took ground exactly opposite in a similar formation, cavalry on the wings, infantry, including the townsmen (milice des communes) in the center, Philip with the cavalry reserve and the royal standard, the Oriflamme, in rear of the men on foot.

Battle

thumb|The Arabian horse and [[Moorish attendant (right) of Philippe Auguste at the Battle of Bouvines. Detail of La Bataille de Bouvines by Horace Vernet. Château de Versailles.]]
The battle opened with a confused cavalry fight on the French right, in which individual feats of knightly gallantry were more noticeable (and better recorded in the chronicles) than any attempt at combined action. The serious fighting was between the two centers; the infantry of the Low Countries, who were at this time almost the best in existence, drove back the French. Philip led the cavalry reserve of nobles and knights to retrieve the day, and after a long and doubtful fight, in which he himself was unhorsed and narrowly escaped death, began to drive back the Flemings.

In the meanwhile the French feudatories on the left wing had thoroughly defeated the imperial forces opposed to them, and William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, the leader of this corps, was unhorsed and taken prisoner by Philip of Dreux, the fighting bishop of Beauvais. On the other wing the French at last routed the Flemish cavalry and captured Ferdinand Count of Flanders, one of the leaders of the coalition.

In the center the battle was now a mêlée between the two mounted reserves led by the king and the emperor in person. Here too the imperial forces suffered defeat, Otto himself being saved only by the devotion of a handful of Saxon knights. The Imperial Eagle Standard was captured by the French.

The day was already decided in favor of the French when their wings began to close inwards to cut off the retreat of the imperial center. The battle closed with the celebrated stand of Reginald of Boulogne, a former vassal of King Philip, who formed a ring of seven hundred Brabançon pikemen, and not only defied every attack of the French cavalry, but himself made repeated charges or sorties with his small force of knights. Eventually, and long after the imperial army had begun its retreat, the gallant Schiltron was ridden down and annihilated by a charge of three thousand men-at-arms. Reginald was taken prisoner in the mêlée; and the prisoners also included two other counts, Ferdinand and William Longsword, twenty-five barons and over a hundred knights. The killed amounted to about 170 knights of the defeated party, and many thousands of foot on either side.

John returned to England to face the barons whose possessions in Normandy he had lost.

Citations