Earliest possible French unification after Bouvines?

Titus_Pullo

Banned
When Philip Augustus defeated the English and their allies at Bouvines in 1214 he annexed the Anjevin Empire Normandy, Anjou, Brittany, the Tourraine.

The question is, how could Philip do what Louis XIV did in otl by keeping it that way and curtailing the power of the nobles, forming a strong State with a strong central government in the middle ages?
 
Unification in that sense is beyond the means of a medieval state. The Capets OTL did what they could with the tools available.
 
Surely you can't mean centralized states can't exist in this period - because they certainly did.

I meant that centralized states in the sense of Louis XIV's time - Byzantium as a possible exception (not so much after 1200-ish) - are beyond the resources, means, and understanding of medieval Europe.

France and England are centralized and united by medieval standards, but they're not states where the king has absolute power - even ignoring the Magna Carta/Parliament for the latter.
 

Titus_Pullo

Banned
Surely you can't mean centralized states can't exist in this period - because they certainly did.


This is another annoying misconception that many people seem to have. That medieval people didn't have a sense national unification as far a centralized states were concerned. While they were weak for the most part, you're correct that they did exist. The basis of the question was, an early political unification of the French state as a strong centralized authority with stronger coercive powers to defend itself from all enemies foreign and domestic.
 
This is another annoying misconception that many people seem to have. That medieval people didn't have a sense national unification as far a centralized states were concerned. While they were weak for the most part, you're correct that they did exist. The basis of the question was, an early political unification of the French state as a strong centralized authority with stronger coercive powers to defend itself from all enemies foreign and domestic.

If you want something like Louis XIV's state, you need something like the conditions that was created in - which require breaking the feudal order and attitudes.

The medieval method of dealing with "all enemies foreign and domestic' is tied up in the idea of nobles giving their feudal service, which the OTL French kings were able to enforce after (arguably before, but after him France is definitely moving towards a stronger royal position) Philip.
 
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