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On the continent, however, Philip II of France had taken over part of Normandy that belonged to Richard, the Norman Vexin. The Vexin was a plateau in northern France, the western half of which was in Norman hands, while the eastern was called the French Vexin.
Philip had started while Richard was imprisoned by conquering the Château de Gisors, a key fortress of the Norman dukes on the border between the two Vexins. Richard searched for a new site on which to build a fortress from which he could launch his campaign against Philip. There was an ideal site above the Seine in Andeli. Richard tried to buy a manor there that could be expanded and fortified, but the Archbishop of Rouen did not want to sell the location. When Philip continued invading territories in Normandy, an impatient Richard seized the manor.
The archbishop, Walter de Coutances—although he had been vice-chancellor under Richard's father, and had invested Richard as Duke of Normandy—condemned the action, and placed that part of Normandy under Interdict, declaring no church services could be performed there. Richard wisely made gifts to Walter and his diocese, and Pope Celestine III repealed the interdict. Richard started to build (it took two years total) the magnificent (and exorbitantly expensive) Château Gaillard, referred to in charters by apud Bellum Castrum de Rupe ("at the Fair Castle of the Rock") It is now only a ruin (see illustration).
Richard did not just rely on physical and military means in his revenge on Philip. He created alliances with Baldwin IX of Flanders, with Count Renaud of Boulogne, and with his wife's father, King Sancho VI of Navarre, who attacked Philip from the south.
These moves all aided in driving Philip from the lands he had taken. In 1194 Philip abandoned his former conquests. The Treaty of Louviers, signed in January 1196, agreed that Philip would forsake the lands that he had formerly taken, but would get the Vexin from Richard. It also said that Alys, Philip's sister who had been betrothed to Richard long ago and was now 34 years old, would be allowed to return to France. It also agreed that Andeli would not be fortified, but Richard had already begun the construction of Gaillard and ignored that part of the treaty.
Hostilities, for the time being, were over.
Walter de Coutances had an interesting life, and was tied more closely to Richard than mentioned above, including going to prison for him. I'll explain tomorrow.
