William abridged Rigord for the years before 1207 and then continued him, so for 1200 the Gesta is a shortened Rigord with a few added touches: the Le Goulet settlement, Blanche's marriage, and the interdict. The Philippide, a verse epic finished in the 1220s, retells the same years with speeches and praise of the king and is useful for how the court later remembered 1200, not for new facts. Both are written after Bouvines by a man who had been with the king for years.
About this source
- Title
- Gesta Philippi Augusti (continuation); Philippidos libri XII
- Author
- William the Breton (Guillaume le Breton)
- Author's dates
- about 1165 to about 1225; royal chaplain
- Written
- Gesta about 1214 to 1220; Philippide 1214 to 1224
- Language
- Latin prose and Latin hexameters
- Covers
- 1179 to 1220 (Gesta); 1179 to 1214 (Philippide)
- Kind
- History
No English translation of either work.
Where to read it
Editions
- H.-F. Delaborde (ed.), Oeuvres de Rigord et de Guillaume le Breton, vol. 1 (1882), the Gesta
- Delaborde vol. 2 (1885), the Philippide
Translations
- F. Guizot, Vie de Philippe-Auguste par Guillaume le Breton, and La Philippide, Collection des memoires, vols 11 and 12 (1825), French; not located online in this pass (not freely online)