ing the papal
authority and the moral order of the Church in every country in
Europe. No consideration of the immediate interests of the Roman see
ever prevented him from maintaining his principles even against
powerful sovereigns who could do much to help forward his general
plans. The most conspicuous instance of this was Innocent's famous
quarrel with Philip Augustus of France, when to vindicate a simple
principle of Christian morals he did not hesitate to abandon the
alliance of the "eldest son of the Church" at a time when the fortunes
of the papacy were everywhere doubtful. Philip's first wife, Isabella
of Hainault, the mother of the future Louis VIII, had died in 1190,
just before her husband had started on his crusade. In 1193 Philip
negotiated a second marriage with Ingeborg, the sister of Canute VI,
the powerful King of Denmark, hoping to obtain from his Danish
brother-in-law substantial help against England and the Empire. Philip
did not get the expected political advantages from the new connection,
and at once took a strong dislike to the lady. On the day after the
marriage Philip refused to have anything more to do with his bride.
Within three months, he persuaded a synod of complaisant French
bishops of Compiegne to pronounce the marriage void by reason of a
remote kinship that existed between the two parties.

Ingeborg was young, timid, friendless, helpless, and utterly ignorant
of the French tongue, but King Canute took up her cause, and, from her
retreat in a French convent, she appealed to Rome against the
wickedness of the French King and clergy. Celestine III proved her
friend, and finding protestations of no avail, he finally quashed the
sentence of the French bishops and declared her the lawful wife of the
French King. But Philip persisted in his repudiation of Ingeborg, and
Celestine contented himself with remonstrances and warnings that were
utterly disregarded. In 1196 Philip found a fresh wife in Agnes, a
lady of the powerful house of Andechs-Meran, whose authority was great
in Thuringia, and whose Alpine lordships soon developed into the
country of Tyrol.

Innocent at once proved a stronger champion of Ingeborg than the weak
and aged Celestine. He forthwith warned Philip and the French bishops
that they had no right to put asunder those whom God had joined
together. "Recall your lawful wife," he wrote to Philip, "and then we
will hear all that you can righteously urge. If you do not do this,