main, and made France the leading international power in western Europe.
As we have already seen, Philip had made substantial headway even during the lifetime of Henry II. Crowned in 1179 at the age of fourteen, a year before the death of his paralytic father Louis VII, Philip was naturally treated as a boy by Henry, who seems, however, to have acted throughout with due regard to Philip's position as king and his feudal suzerain. In the complications of those early years we find Henry constantly arranging disputes with the king's vassals and more than once saving him from a tight place. But as time went on this relation became impossible. Philip openly abetted the revolts of the Young King and of Richard, and in the war which broke out at the end Richard fought openly on his side. As soon, however, as Richard succeeded to the throne, Philip began hostilities with him, and he soon used John against Richard as he had used Richard against his father. "Divide and rule," was clearly Philip's policy, and he always had on his side the fact that he was king in France and the Plantagenets on the Continent were his vassals.
The first phase of the contest between Richard and Philip comes as a welcome interlude in the tale of border disputes and family rivalries which make up the greater part of the tangled story of Philip's dealings with the Norman empire. It takes us over the sea to the fair land of Sicily and on to the very gates of the Holy City. In
