Treaty of Le Goulet

The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed by the kings John of England and Philip II of France in May 1200 and meant to settle once and for all the claims the Norman kings of England had as Norman dukes on French lands. Hence it concerned bringing an end to the war over the Duchy of Normandy and finalising the new borders of what was left of the duchy, as well as the future relationship of the king of France and the dukes of Normandy. The treaty was a victory for Philip in asserting his legal claims to overlordship over John's French lands.

The terms of the treaty signed at Le Goulet included clarifications of the feudal relationships binding the monarchs. Philip recognised John as King of England as heir of his brother Richard I and thus formally abandoned any support for Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, the son of John's other older brother, Geoffrey II of Brittany. John, meanwhile, formally recognised the new status of the lost Normandy territories by acknowledging the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders as vassal of France, not England, and recognised Philip as the suzerain of continental possessions of the Angevin Empire. John bound himself not to support any rebellions on the part of the counts of Boulogne and Flanders.

Philip had previously recognised John as suzerain of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany, but with the treaty of Le Goulet he extorted 20,000 marks sterling in payment for recognition of John's sovereignty of Brittany. The king of England bound himself in all ways as a vassal to his lord. He was required to obey summons, support his lord in war with troops or money, and to make payments of special feudal dues never before exacted from his lands.

One territory of John's was not included in the treaty. The Duchy of Aquitaine was still held by John only as heir to his still-living mother Eleanor. The treaty was sealed with a marriage alliance between the Plantagenet and Capetian dynasties. John's niece Blanche, daughter of his sister Leonora and Alfonso VIII of Castile, married Philip's eldest son, Louis VIII of France (to be eventually known as "Louis the Lion"). The marriage alliance did nothing, however, except assure a strong regent for the minority of Louis IX of France. Philip declared John deposed from his fiefs for failure to obey a summons in 1202 and war broke out again. Phillip moved quickly to seize John of England's Normandy lands, much strengthening the French throne in the process, both effectively ending England's influence on the continent (though the claim would linger) and strengthening the French central monarchy forming one of the base underpinnings of modern Europe.

ources

*Labarge, Margaret Wade. "Gascony, England's First Colony 1204–1453". London: Hamish Hamilton, 1980.