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The French royal lands were surrounded by three feudal states, Champagne, Flanders and the vast possessions of Henry II of England, notably Anjou and Normandy. Philip's penetration of Flanders was aided when Count Baldwin IX went on the Fourth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1202, leaving a small girl as heiress to the county. Champagne, which was ruled by Philip's maternal relatives was usually friendly toward the French monarch. Against his main adversaries, the Plantagenet family of England, Philip followed his father's policy and supported the rebellious sons of Henry II.
On the Third Crusade, from 1189 to 1191, Philip quarreled with Richard I of England, but this dangerous enemy was killed in 1199. Richard's brother, John, agreed to hold the family lands in France as Philip's vassal, but was summoned before the royal court in 1202 on the complaint of one of his own vassals. When John ignored the summons, Philip declared John's French lands forfeit and Philip then proceeded to occupy the valuable fiefs of Normandy and Anjou in 1204-06. John attempted to regain these lands by joining with Emperor Otto IV but Philip defeated this coalition at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. Philip was free thereafter to intervene in southern France, where the crusade against the Albigenses gained the French crown important lands. This crusade was continued by Philip's son, Louis VIII and his successors, after the death of Philip on July 14, 1223.