‘Mala Francia! Roma! Roma!’ These words, recorded in the Gesta Innocentii III Papae, are perhaps the most famous of Ingeborg of Denmark, queen of France (1174–1237). They were exclaimed in a moment of anguish at the ecclesiastical council of Compiègne on 5 November 1193, when her marriage to Philip II Augustus, king of France (1165–1223), was deemed illegitimate. Ingeborg and Philip were married on 14 August 1193 at Amiens Cathedral. The next day, during Ingeborg's coronation ceremony, Philip had ‘at the instigation of the devil,’ according to his chronicler, Rigord of St Denis, ‘begun to hate the wife he had so longed for.’ He demanded an annulment, which Ingeborg refused, and she was quickly imprisoned in the abbey of Saint-Callixtus of Cysoing near Lille to await the council of Compiègne later that year. This council of French churchmen found in the king's favor and declared the marriage invalid on the (ultimately incorrect) grounds of consanguinity between Ingeborg and Philip's first wife, Isabelle of Hainaut. Ingeborg, with the help of Stephen, bishop of Tournai, appealed to the papal curia, and both Celestine III and Innocent III were persuaded to join her cause in the matter. Philip resisted papal efforts to dictate his marriage, and even took a third wife, Agnes of Merania, in 1196. Agnes died in 1200, but Innocent III legitimised their two children, Philip the future count of Boulogne, and Marie, later duchess of Brabant.

Philip was eventually forced to acknowledge Ingeborg as his legitimate wife and rightful queen in 1213. This acknowledgement was in many ways hollow – she did not often live with him at court, nor did they produce any children. She was, however, allowed to maintain a household in her dower lands (Orléans, Chécy, Châteauneuf, and Neuville), and ruled there until her death in 1237.

This study focuses on the four methods of rulership Ingeborg employed throughout the course of her adult life to demonstrate her legitimacy to the office of queen. These methods were: an insistence upon her elevated, queenly status; the creation and maintenance of affinal relationships, especially with religious institutions and the men who led them; a dedication to the spiritual security and continuity of the Capetian dynasty; and the governance of a portion of the royal demesne.