Logic pointed to an expedition to Poitou, since Eleanor of Aquitaine’s death in 1204 removed the legal obstacle to Philip’s expansion in that direction. Sure enough, once he had mopped up in Normandy, Philip sent William des Roches on the invasion of Poitou with a strong army of mercenaries under Cadoc. Des Roches gained marked early success: the dithering barons like the viscount of Thouars threw in with Philip, and the entire territory was soon in French hands, except for the port of La Rochelle and the castle of Niort.1 Saumur, Poitiers, Loudun, Chinon, Loches, Tours and Amboise were all in Capetian hands, and Philip rubbed it in by making a triumphal tour of his conquests.2 Further French expansion was problematical, for Angoulême was held by Isabella in her own right and not simply as John’s wife (Count Aymer died in 1202), but that might not have stopped Philip Augustus. What gave him pause was the sudden stiffening of resistance in the far south, as Aquitaine made it plain that it preferred a distant English king as overlord, one who would not interfere too much, to a strong centralising French monarch.
What do You think about Richard & John: Kings At War?
