Philip II, also called Philip Augustus, ruled France with an iron fist for over 40 years, expanding its borders and increasing its power.
For his entire reign his counterpart on the English throne was a member of the Plantagenet dynasty, and Philip took them all on: Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, John and Henry III. And yet we know so little about medieval England’s greatest enemy.
Delving into French medieval archives, Nemesis explores Philip’s motives for attacking England to discover not only him, but much more about England’s most colourful and controversial of rulers — the Plantagenets.
When Philip first succeeded to the throne in 1180, Henry II of England, thanks to his Angevin and Norman ancestry as well as his wife’s inheritance of Aquitaine, ruled more of France than Philip himself.
By the end of Philip’s reign in 1223, the pendulum of power had swung the other way. Nemesis reveals how Philip exploited the constant family squabbles of the Plantagenets to secure his grip on France, his wily political manoeuvring combined with a mastery of the medieval battlefield turning France into a powerhouse of Europe.
Nemesis: Medieval England’s Greatest Enemy by Catherine Hanley is published on 11 September, 2025.
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