Medieval Paris Under Philip II Augustus, 1180–1223 | Calm Bedtime History

In the autumn of 1180, a young man of fifteen years rode through the muddy streets of Paris to be crowned king of France. His name was Philip, son of Louis VII, and the modest royal town he inherited would become, within his lifetime, the largest and most powerful city in Europe. The Seine ran brown with autumn rain past wooden houses clustered on the Île de la Cité, while beyond the old Roman walls, fields stretched northward toward the hill of Saint-Denis.