John

1199 - 1216

aka Bad King John

Crowned King of England in 1199, John was also Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and Count of Anjou. At the beginning of his reign he was a titled and powerful man. By the end of his reign,17 years later, control of most of northern and western France had been lost from Plantagenet control. His lack of success on the battlefield earned him the nickname John ‘Softsword’. Not only did John lack the prowess of his warrior elder brother Richard, he also lacked the stature at five foot five.

When John was a baby, he had another nickname. He was known as John ‘Lackland’ because his father, Henry II, left his entire empire to his three elder brothers. Henry changed his mind as John grew older, gifting him with Aquitaine. This incensed John’s brother Richard and sparked the Great Rebellion of 1173 against their father. To Henry’s bitter disappointment, John joined forces with Richard against him. In return, on his succession, Richard gave John land in both England and France. This was conditional on John staying away from England and not challenging him for the throne.

A few months into his reign, Richard named Arthur of Brittany, his nephew, as his heir. He was fighting the Third Crusade at the time, far away from his kingdom. On hearing the news, John broke his agreement and came to England. He spread the word that his brother had died fighting for the Holy Lands and joined forces with King Philip of France, in an attempt to take Richard’s crown. He was unsuccesful in this and later begged for Richard’s forgiveness. Richard blamed his actions on ‘evil counsellors’ and eventually made John his heir.

A year after his coronation, John’s marriage to Isabella, heiress of Angouleme, incensed several influential French barons. In order to marry John, Isabella broke her betrothal to Hugh de Lusignan sparking political conflict. In response to the barons outrage King Philip declared that John no longer ruled Anjou and Normandy, handing them instead to Arthur. Two years later, Arthur mysteriously disappeared whilst being held captive. John became the first English king to be accused of murder.

For the next decade John worked to retrieve the Angevin Empire. He heavily taxed his subjects to raise the money for his ongoing wars with France and the rest of the British Isles. His inclination to tyranny and cruelty ensured the obedience of a rebellious country. This cruelty extended to inflicting long and painful deaths on his enemies. He famously imprisoned twenty two knights whom he starved to death as punishment. He also hanged twenty eight sons of Welsh barons as a warning to other nobility to abide by his rule.

Unsurprisingly during his reign John made many enemies. He lost favour with Rome by rejecting Pope Innocent III’s choice of Archbishop of Canterbury. This gave him an opportunity to divert funds away from the church and to his own causes. It also gave the historians of the time, the monks, a reason to record his reign in the least favourable way. It took seven years for John and the Pope to be reconciled in 1213. At this time he received the combined might of the church and the Counts of Boulogne and Flanders which enabled him to engage Philip II in battle at Bouvines. John lost.

The following year, in 1215, John’s barons rebelled against his heavy taxes. While the power of the monarchy had declined, the nobility had grown stronger. Civil war broke out. John took refuge at the Tower of London while pressure to abdicate mounted against him. To preserve his position, John agreed to to set his seal to Magna Carta. This fateful event at Runnymede was intended to protect the people, in particular the nobility, from royals who taxed them heavily and denied them their rights. Magna Carta reminded King John of all the ways he had failed to honour past agreements between sovereigns and their subjects. However John failed to honour this commitment, and asked the Pope to annul the charter. A year later, mutinous barons invited Prince Louis of France to invade England.

King John was in retreat. Prince Louis had captured the Tower of London. John took his most valuable possessions, the crown jewels, and as he crossed the north sea he lost them to the tide at the Wash. Soon after, dispirited and poor in health, he died at Newark Castle.

John Factfile