On the day after his marriage to Ingeborg, King Philip changed his mind, wished to obtain a separation[4] and attempted to send her back to Denmark.

They convinced him that the spurious family tree was false but the pope merely declared the annulment invalid and prohibited Philip from marrying again.

Political reasons for this royal marriage are disputed, but Philip probably wanted to gain better relations with Denmark because the countries had been on different sides in the schism of the future succession to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.

As a dowry, he had asked for the support of the Danish fleet for a year and the right to any remaining claims Denmark had to the throne of England.

Marriage had been negotiated through Philip's adviser Bernard of Vincennes and Guillaume, the abbot of the Danish monastery of Æbelholt.

Indeed, Philip asked Pope Celestine III for an annulment on the grounds of non-consummation "per maleficium", impotence caused by sorcery.

[3] (Historians have presented many theories for the alleged lack of consummation from temporary impotence to bouts of sweating sickness).

The Franco-Danish churchman William of Æbelholt (c. 1127 – 1203) intervened in the case of Philip Augustus who was attempting to repudiate Ingeborg.

The genealogy of the Danish kings which William drew up on this occasion to disprove the alleged impediment of consanguinity and two books of his letters, some of which deal with this affair, have come down to us.

However, later that year Philip again asked for an annulment, claiming that Ingeborg had tried to bewitch him in the wedding night and thus made him unable to consummate the marriage.

Philip reconciled with Ingeborg in 1213, not out of altruism but because he wished to press his claims to the throne of the Kingdom of England through his ties to the Danish crown.