Philip II of France (1165-1223). 1856 illustration of the French monarch Philip Augustus at the Battle of Bouvines, France, on 27th July 1214. Philip II reigned from 1180 to 1223. Philip was the first French monarch to style himself as 'King of France', until then his predecessors had been the kings of the Franks. The Battle of Bouvines was a battle that ended the 1202-1214 Anglo-French War and was fundamental in the early development of France during the Middle Ages as it confirmed the French crown's sovereignty over the Anevin lands of Brittany and Normandy.