added, in
succession, other provinces to his dominions; in such wise that the
kingdom of France, which was limited, as we have seen, under Louis the
Fat, to the Ile-de-France and certain portions of Picardy and Orleanness,
comprised besides, at the end of the reign of Philip Augustus,
Vermandois, Artois, the two Vexins, French and Norman, Berri, Normandy,
Maine, Anjou, Poitou, Touraine, and Auvergne.

In 1206 the territorial work of Philip Augustus was well nigh completed;
but his wars were not over. John Lackland, when worsted, kicked against
the pricks, and was incessantly hankering, in his antagonism to the King
of France, after hostile alliances and local conspiracies easy to hatch
amongst certain feudal lords discontented with their suzerain. John was
on intimate terms with his nephew, Otho IV., Emperor of Germany and the
foe of Philip Augustus, who had supported against him Frederick II., his
rival for the empire. They prepared in concert for a grand attack upon
the King of France, and they had won over to their coalition some of his
most important vassals, amongst others, Renaud de Dampierre, Count of
Boulogne. Philip determined to divert their attack, whilst anticipating
it, by an unexpected enterprise--the invasion of England itself.
Circumstances seemed favorable. King John, by his oppression and his
perfidy, had drawn upon him the hatred and contempt of his people; and
the barons of England, supported and guided by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Stephen Langton, had commenced against him the struggle which
was to be ended some years afterwards by the forced concession of Magna
Charta, that foundation-stone of English liberties. John, having been
embroiled for five years past with the court of Rome, affected to defy
the excommunication which the pope had hurled at him, and of which the
King of France had been asked by several prelates of the English Church
to insure the efficient working. On the 8th of April, 1213, Philip
convoked, at Soissons, his principal vassals or allies, explained to them
the grounds of his design against the King of England, and, by a sort of
special confederation, they bound themselves, all of them, to support
him. One of the most considerable vassals, however, the sometime regent
of France during the minority of Philip, Ferrand, Count of Flanders, did
not attend the meeting to which he had been summoned, and declared his
intention of taking no part in the war against England.