strategy was perfectly executed; the allies in the north moved slowly.
While John, after two inroads, turned back to his Guienne possessions on
the 3rd of July, it was not until three weeks later that the emperor
concentrated his forces at Valenciennes, and in the interval Philip
Augustus had countermarched northward and concentrated an army at
Peronne. Philip now took the offensive himself, and in manoeuvring to
get a good cavalry ground upon which to fight he offered battle (July
27), on the plain east of Bouvines and the river Marque--the same plain
on which in 1794 the brilliant cavalry action of Willems was fought. The
imperial army accepted the challenge and drew up facing south-westward
towards Bouvines, the heavy cavalry on the wings, the infantry in one
great mass in the centre, supported by the cavalry corps under the
emperor himself. The total force is estimated at 6500 heavy cavalry and
40,000 foot. The French army (about 7000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry)
took ground exactly opposite to the enemy and in a similar formation,
cavalry on the wings, infantry, including the _milice des communes_, in
the centre, Philip with the cavalry reserve and the Oriflamme in rear of
the foot. The battle opened with a confused cavalry fight on the French
right, in which individual feats of knightly gallantry were more
noticeable than any attempt at combined action. The fighting was more
serious between the two centres; the infantry of the Low Countries, who
were at this time almost the best in existence, drove in the French;
Philip led the cavalry reserve of nobles and knights to retrieve the
day, and after a long and doubtful fight, in which he himself was
unhorsed and narrowly escaped death, began to drive back the Flemings.
In the meanwhile the French feudatories on the left wing had thoroughly
defeated the imperialists opposed to them, and William Longsword, earl
of Salisbury, the leader of this corps, was unhorsed and taken prisoner
by the warlike bishop of Beauvais. Victory declared itself also on the
other wing, where the French at last routed the Flemish cavalry and
captured Count Ferdinand of Flanders, one of the leaders of the
coalition. In the centre the battle was now between the two mounted
reserves led respectively by the king and the emperor in person. Here
too the imperial forces suffered defeat, Otto himself being saved only
by the devotion of a handful of Saxon knights. The day was already
decided in favour of