'John' (
24 December 1166 –
18/
19 October 1216) reigned as
King of England from
6 April,
1199, until his death. He succeeded to the throne as the younger brother of King
Richard I (known in later times as "Richard the Lionheart"). John acquired the nicknames of "Lackland" (''Sans Terre'' in French) for his lack of an inheritance as the youngest son and for his loss of territory to France, and of "Soft-sword" for his alleged military ineptitude.
[1] He was a
Plantagenet or
Angevin king.
Birth
Born at
Beaumont Palace,
Oxford, John was the fifth son and last of eight children born to
Henry II of England and
Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was almost certainly born in 1166 instead of 1167, as is sometimes claimed.
[2]
He was a younger maternal half-brother of
Marie de Champagne and
Alix of France, his mother's children by her first marriage to
Louis VII of France, which was later annulled. He was a younger brother of
William, Count of Poitiers,
Henry the Young King,
Matilda of England,
Richard I of England,
Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany,
Leonora of Aquitaine and
Joan of England
Early life
While John was always his father's favourite son, as the youngest he could expect no
inheritance. His family life was tumultuous, as his older brothers all became involved in
rebellions against Henry. Eleanor was imprisoned by Henry in 1173, when John was a small boy.
As a child, John was betrothed to Alice, daughter and heiress of
Humbert III of Savoy. It was hoped that by this marriage the Angevin dynasty would extend its influence beyond the Alps, as John was promised the inheritance of Savoy, the Piemonte, Maurienne, and the other possessions of Count Humbert. King Henry promised his young son castles in Normandy which had been previously promised to his brother Geoffrey, which was for some time a bone of contention between King Henry and his son Geoffrey. Alice made the trip over the Alps and joined Henry's court; but died before ever being married.
Gerald of Wales relates that King Henry had a curious painting in a chamber of Winchester Castle, depicting an eagle being attacked by three of its chicks, while a fourth chick crouched, waiting for its chance to strike. When asked the meaning of this picture, King Henry said:
:The four young ones of the eagle are my four sons, who will not cease persecuting me even unto death. And the youngest, whom I now embrace with such tender affection, will someday afflict me more grievously and perilously than all the others.
Before his accession, John had already acquired a reputation for treachery, having conspired sometimes with and sometimes against his elder brothers, Henry, Richard and Geoffrey. In 1184, John and Richard both claimed that they were the rightful heir to Aquitaine, one of many unfriendly encounters between the two. In 1185, John became the ruler of
Ireland, whose people grew to despise him, causing John to leave after only eight months (''see:
John's first expedition to Ireland'').
Richard's absence
During Richard's absence on the
Third Crusade from 1190 to 1194, John attempted to overthrow
William Longchamp, the Bishop of Ely and Richard's designated
justiciar. This was one of the events that inspired later writers to cast John as the villain in their reworking of the legend of
Robin Hood.
John was more popular than Longchamp in London and in October 1191 the leading citizens of the city opened the gates to him while Longchamp was confined in the Tower. John promised the city the right to govern itself as a commune in return for recognition as Richard's heir presumptive.
[3] While returning from the Crusade, Richard was captured by
Leopold V, Duke of Austria, and imprisoned by
Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. John is said to have sent a letter to Henry asking him to keep Richard away from England for as long as possible, but Richard's supporters paid a ransom for his release because they thought that John would make a terrible king. On his return to England in 1194, Richard forgave John and named him as his heir.
Other historians argue that John did not attempt to overthrow Richard, but rather did his best to improve a country ruined by Richard's excessive taxes used to fund the Crusade.
Reign
Dispute with Arthur
When Richard died, John did not gain immediate universal recognition as king. Some regarded his young
nephew,
Arthur of Brittany, the son of John's late brother Geoffrey, as the rightful heir. Arthur fought his uncle for the throne, with the support of King
Philip II of France. The conflict between Arthur and King John had fatal consequences. By the May 1200
Treaty of Le Goulet, Philip recognised John over Arthur and the two came to terms regarding John's vassalage for Normandy and the Angevin territories. However, the peace was ephemeral.
The war upset the barons of
Poitou enough for them to seek redress from the King of France, who was King John's
feudal overlord with respect to certain territories on the Continent. In 1202, John was summoned to the French court to answer the charges one of which was his marriage to Isobel of Angouleme who was already engaged to Guy de Lusignan. John was called to Phillip's court after the Lusignans pleaded for his help. John refused and, under feudal law, because of his failure of service to his lord, the French King claimed the lands and territories ruled by King John as Count of Poitou, declaring all John's French territories except
Gascony in the southwest forfeit. The French promptly invaded Normandy; King Philip II invested Arthur with all those fiefs King John once held (except for Normandy), and betrothed him to his daughter Marie.
Needing to supply a war across the Channel, in 1203 John ordered all shipyards (including inland places such as
Gloucester) in England to provide at least one ship, with places such as the newly-built
Portsmouth being responsible for several. He made Portsmouth the new home of the navy (the
Anglo-Saxon kings, such as
Edward the Confessor, had royal harbours at
Sandwich, Kent). By the end of 1204, he had 45 large galleys available to him, and from then on an average of four new ones every year. He also created an
Admiralty of four admirals, responsible for various parts of the new navy. During John's reign, major improvements were made in ship design, including the addition of sails and removable forecastles. He also created the first big transport ships, called buisses. John is sometimes credited with the founding of the modern
Royal Navy. What is known about this navy comes from the
Pipe Rolls, as these achievements are completely ignored by the chroniclers and early historians.
In the hope of avoiding trouble in England and Wales while he was away fighting to recover his
French lands, in 1205, John formed an alliance by marrying off his illegitimate daughter,
Joan, to the
Welsh prince
Llywelyn the Great.
As part of the war, Arthur attempted to
kidnap his own grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, at Mirebeau, but was defeated and captured by John's forces. Arthur was imprisoned first at Falaise and then at Rouen. No one is certain what happened to Arthur after that. According to the
Margam Annals, on
3 April 1203:
:After King John had captured Arthur and kept him alive in prison for some time in the castle of Rouen... when [John] was drunk he slew [Arthur] with his own hand and tying a heavy stone to the body cast it into the Seine.
However,
Hubert de Burgh, the officer commanding the Rouen fortress, claimed to have delivered Arthur around
Easter 1203 to agents of the King sent to
castrate him and that Arthur had died of
shock. Hubert later retracted his statement and claimed Arthur still lived, but no one ever saw Arthur alive again and the supposition that he was murdered caused Brittany, and later Normandy, to rebel against King John.
Besides Arthur, John also captured his niece,
Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany. Eleanor remained a prisoner the rest of her life (which ended in 1241); through deeds such as these, John acquired a reputation for ruthlessness.
Dealings with Bordeaux
In 1203, John exempted the citizens and merchants of
Bordeaux from the
Grande Coutume which was the principal tax on their exports. In exchange, the regions of Bordeaux,
Bayonne and
Dax pledged support against the French Crown. The unblocked ports gave Gascon merchants open access to the English wine market for the first time. The following year, John granted the same exemptions to
La Rochelle and
Poitou.
[4]
Dispute with the Pope
Pope Innocent III and King John had a disagreement about who would become Archbishop of Canterbury which lasted from 1205 until 1213.
When
Hubert Walter, the
Archbishop of Canterbury died on
13 July 1205, John became involved in a dispute with
Pope Innocent III. The
Canterbury Cathedral chapter claimed the sole right to elect Hubert's successor and favoured Reginald, a candidate out of their midst. However, both the English bishops and the King had an interest in the choice of successor to this powerful office. The king wanted
John de Gray, one of his own men, so he could influence the church more.
[5] When their dispute could not be settled, the Chapter secretly elected one of their members as Archbishop. A second election imposed by John resulted in another nominee. When they both appeared in
Rome, Innocent disavowed both elections and his candidate,
Stephen Langton, was elected over the objections of John's observers. John was supported in his position by the English barons and many of the English bishops and refused to accept Langton.
John expelled the Chapter in July 1207, to which the
Pope reacted by imposing the
interdict on the kingdom. John immediately retaliated by seizure of church property for failure to provide feudal service. The pope, realizing that too long a period without church services could lead to loss of faith, gave permission for some churches to hold
Mass behind closed doors in 1209. In 1212, they allowed
last rites to the dying. While the interdict was a burden to many, it did not result in rebellion against John.
In November 1209 John himself was
excommunicated, and, in February 1213, Innocent threatened stronger measures unless John submitted. The papal terms for submission were accepted in the presence of the
papal legate Pandulph in May 1213 (according to
Matthew Paris, at the
Templar Church at
Dover);
[6] in addition, John offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to
God and the Saints
Peter and
Paul for a feudal service of 1000 marks annually, 700 for England and 300 for Ireland.
[7] With this submission, formalised in the Bulla Aurea (Golden
Bull), John gained the valuable support of his papal overlord in his new dispute with the English barons.
Dispute with the barons
Having successfully put down the
Welsh Uprising of 1211 and settling his dispute with the papacy, John turned his attentions back to his overseas interests. The European wars culminated in defeat at the
Battle of Bouvines (1214), which forced the king to accept an unfavourable peace with France.
This finally turned the barons against him (some had already rebelled against him after he was excommunicated), and he met their leaders at
Runnymede, near
London, on
15 June 1215, to seal the
Great Charter, called in
Latin ''Magna Carta''. Because he had signed under duress, however, John received approval from his overlord the Pope to break his word as soon as hostilities had ceased, provoking the
First Barons' War and an invited French invasion by
Prince Louis of France (whom the majority of the English barons had invited to replace John on the throne). John travelled around the country to oppose the rebel forces, including a personal two month siege of the rebel-held
Rochester Castle.
Death
.jpg)
John's tomb effigy
Retreating from the French invasion, John took a safe route around the marshy area of
the Wash to avoid the rebel held area of
East Anglia. His slow baggage train (including the
Crown Jewels), however, took a direct route across it and were lost on it to the unexpected incoming tide. This dealt John a terrible blow, which affected his health and state of mind. Succumbing to
dysentery and moving from place to place, he stayed one night at
Sleaford Castle before dying on 18–
19 October 1216, at
Newark Castle (then in
Lincolnshire, now on
Nottinghamshire's border with that county). Numerous, if fictitious, accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale, poisoned plums or a "surfeit of peaches".
He was buried in
Worcester Cathedral in the city of
Worcester.
Succession
His nine-year-old son succeeded him and became King
Henry III of England (1216–72), and although Louis continued to claim the English throne, the barons switched their allegiance to the new king, forcing Louis to give up his claim and sign the
Treaty of Lambeth in 1217.
Reputation and overview
King John's tomb
King John's reign has been traditionally characterised as one of the most disastrous in English history: it began with defeats—he lost
Normandy to
Philip Augustus of
France in his first five years on the throne—and ended with England torn by
civil war and himself on the verge of being forced out of power. In 1213, he made England a
papal fief to resolve a conflict with the
Roman Catholic Church, and his rebellious barons forced him to sign
Magna Carta in 1215, the act for which he is best remembered.
Some have argued, however, that John's rule was no better or worse than those of kings
Richard I or
Henry III, adding that (unlike Richard) he spent the majority of his reign in England. Be that as it may, his reputation is a reason many English monarchs have refrained from giving the name John to their expected heirs.
As far as the administration of his kingdom went, John functioned as an efficient ruler, but he won the disapproval of the English barons by
taxing them in ways that were outside those traditionally allowed by feudal overlords. The tax known as
scutage, payment made instead of providing knights (as required by feudal law), became particularly unpopular. John was a very fair-minded and well informed king, however, often acting as a
Judge in the Royal Courts, and his justice was much sought after. Also, John's employment of an extremely able Chancellor and certain clerks resulted in the first proper set of records - the
Pipe Rolls.
Medieval historian C. Warren Hollister called John an "enigmatic figure":
...talented in some respects, good at administrative detail, but suspicious, unscrupulous, and mistrusted. He was compared in a recent scholarly article, perhaps unfairly, with Richard Nixon. His crisis-prone career was sabotaged repeatedly by the halfheartedness with which his vassals supported him—and the energy with which some of them opposed him.
Winston Churchill summarised the legacy of John's reign: "When the long tally is added, it will be seen that the British nation and the English-speaking world owe far more to the vices of John than to the labours of virtuous sovereigns".
[8]
Depictions in fiction
King John as shown in Cassell's History of England (1902)
These reflect the overwhelming view of his reputation:
★ King John was the subject of a
Shakespearean play, ''
King John''.
★ King John is a central figure in the 1819 historical romance ''
Ivanhoe'', by
Sir Walter Scott.
★
Philip José Farmer, a
science fiction author, featured King John as one of several historical figures in his ''
Riverworld Saga''.
★ John and one of his
Justices in Eyre, the
Sheriff of Nottingham, are portrayed as
villain and henchman in the
Robin Hood legends. These usually place the Robin Hood stories in the latter part of Richard I's reign, when Richard was in captivity and John was acting as unofficial
regent. Among the screen incarnations of John in versions of the Robin Hood story are:
★
★
Sam De Grasse in ''
Robin Hood'' (1922).
★
★
Claude Rains in ''
The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938).
★
★
Donald Pleasence in the 1950s
ITV television series ''
The Adventures of Robin Hood''.
★
★ the animated
Prince John in the 1973
Disney movie ''
Robin Hood'', in which he is depicted as an
anthropomorphic lion voiced by
Peter Ustinov, who sucks his thumb and cries for his "mummy" whenever Robin Hood (a
fox) steals his gold. In one scene, he laments, "Mother always did like Richard best".
★
★
Phil Davis in the 1980s television series ''
Robin of Sherwood''.
★
★
Richard Lewis in '' (1993).
★ John was impersonated by
Kamelion in a plot by
the Master in ''
The King's Demons'', a 1983 serial of the
British science fiction series, ''
Doctor Who''.
★ John is a character in
James Goldman's 1966 play ''
The Lion in Winter'', which dramatises Henry II's struggles with his wife and sons over the rule of his empire. John is portrayed as a spoiled, simpleminded pawn in the machinations of his brothers and Philip II. In the 1968 film he is portrayed by
Nigel Terry. In the 2003 film he is portrayed by
Rafe Spall.
★
Sharon Penman's ''Here Be Dragons'' deals with the reign of John, the development of Wales under
Llewelyn's rule, and Llewelyn's marriage to John's illegitimate daughter, Joan, who is depicted in the novel as "Joanna." Other novels of hers which feature John as a prominent character are ''The Queen's Man'', ''Cruel as the Grave'', ''The Dragon's Lair'', and ''Prince of Darkness'', a series of fictional mysteries set during the time of Richard's imprisonment. John also features in some books by Elizabeth Chadwick including "Lords of the White Castle", "The Champion" and "The Scarlet Lion".
★ ''The Devil and King John'' by
Philip Lindsay is a highly speculative but relatively sympathetic account.
★ King John appeared in ''
The Time Tunnel'' episode entitled "The Revenge of Robin Hood". Once again, John is depicted as a villain. At the end of the episode, John puts his seal on the
Magna Carta but clearly he is not happy about it. He is portrayed by character actor
John Crawford.
★ King John is the subject of
A. A. Milne's poem for children which begins "King John was not a good man".
★ ''
Princess of Thieves'', a 2001 telemovie concerning Robin Hood's supposed daughter, depicts Prince John trying to seize the throne from the rightful heir, Prince Phillip, an illegitimate son of King Richard.
Marriage and issue
In 1189, John was married to
Isabel of Gloucester, daughter and heiress of
William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester (she is given several alternative names by history, including Avisa, Hawise, Joan, and Eleanor). They had no children, and John had their marriage
annulled on the grounds of
consanguinity, some time before or shortly after his accession to the throne, which took place on
6 April 1199, and she was never acknowledged as queen. (She then married Geoffrey de Mandeville as her second husband and
Hubert de Burgh as her third).
John remarried, on
24 August 1200,
Isabella of Angoulême, who was twenty years his junior. She was the daughter of
Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angouleme. John had kidnapped her from her fiancé,
Hugh X of Lusignan.
Isabella eventually produced five children, two sons and three daughters:
★
Henry III (
1207-
1272), King of England.
★
Richard (
1209-
1272), 1st Earl of Cornwall.
★
Joan (
1210-
1238), Queen Consort of Scotland.
★
Isabella (
1214-
1241), Empress of Germany.
★
Eleanor (
1215-
1275).
John is given a great taste for lechery by the chroniclers of his age, and even allowing some embellishment, he did have many illegitimate children.
Matthew Paris accuses him of being envious of many of his barons and kinsfolk, and seducing their more attractive daughters and sisters.
Roger of Wendover describes an incident that occurred when John became enamoured of Margaret, the wife of
Eustace de Vesci and an illegitimate daughter of King
William I of Scotland. Eustace substituted a
prostitute in her place when the king came to Margaret's bed in the dark of night; the next morning, when John boasted to Vesci of how good his wife was in bed, Vesci confessed and fled.
John had the following illegitimate children:
★
Joan, Princess of Wales, the wife of Prince
Llywelyn Fawr of
Wales, (by a woman named Clemence)
★
Richard Fitz Roy, (by his cousin, Adela, daughter of his uncle
Hamelin de Warenne)
★ Oliver FitzRoy, (by a mistress named Hawise) who accompanied the papal legate
Pelayo to
Damietta in 1218, and never returned.
By an unknown mistress (or mistresses) John fathered:
★ Geoffrey FitzRoy, who went on expedition to Poitou in 1205 and died there.
★ John FitzRoy, a clerk in 1201.
★ Henry FitzRoy, who died in 1245.
★ Osbert Gifford, who was given lands in Oxfordshire, Norfolk,
Suffolk, and
Sussex, and is last seen alive in 1216.
★ Eudes FitzRoy, who accompanied his half-brother
Richard on Crusade and died in the Holy Land in 1241.
★ Bartholomew FitzRoy, a member of the order of
Friars Preachers.
★ Maud FitzRoy, Abbess of
Barking, who died in 1252.
★ Isabel FitzRoy, wife of
Richard Fitz Ives.
★ Philip FitzRoy, found living in 1263.
(The surname of
FitzRoy is Norman-French for ''son of the king''.)
Ancestors
Trivia
★ According to records of payment made to King John's bath attendant, William Aquarius, the king bathed on average about once every three weeks, which cost a considerable sum of 5d to 6d each, suggesting an elaborate and ceremonial affair. Although this may seem barbaric by modern standards, it was civilised compared to monks who were expected to bathe three times a year, with the right not to bathe at all if they so chose.
★ John is recorded to have dressed very well in coats made of fur from
sable and
ermine and other exotic furs such as
polar bear.
★ In 2006, he was selected by the
BBC History Magazine as the
13th century's
worst Briton.
[9]
Alleged illiteracy
For a long time, schoolchildren have been told that King John had to approve ''Magna Carta'' by attaching his seal to it because he could not sign it, lacking the ability to read or write. This textbook inaccuracy ignored the fact that King John had a large library he treasured until the end of his life. Whether the original authors of these errors knew better and oversimplified because they wrote for children, or whether they had been misinformed themselves, is unknown. As a result of these writings, generations of adults remembered mainly two things about "wicked King John," both of them wrong (the other being his supposed association with
Robin Hood).
King John did actually sign the draft of the Charter that the negotiating parties hammered out in the tent on
Charter Island at Runnymede on 15–
18 June 1215, but it took the clerks and scribes working in the royal offices some time after everyone went home to prepare the final copies, which they then sealed and delivered to the appropriate officials. In those days, legal documents were made official by seals, not by signatures. (Even today, many legal documents are not considered effective without the seal of a
notary public or corporate official, and printed legal forms such as deeds say "L.S." next to the signature lines. That stands for the Latin ''locus sigilli'' ("place of the seal"), signifying that the signer has used a signature as a substitute for a seal.) When
William the Conqueror (and his wife) signed the ''Accord of Winchester'' in 1072, for example, they and all the bishops signed with crosses, as illiterate people would later do, but they did so in accordance with current legal practice, not because the bishops could not write their own names.
Henry II had at first intended that John would receive an education to go into the Church, which would have meant Henry did not have to give him any land. In 1171, however, Henry began negotiations to betroth John to the daughter of Count
Humbert III of Savoy (who had no son yet and so wanted a son-in-law.) After that, talk of making John a cleric ceased. John's parents had both received a good education — Henry spoke some half dozen languages, and Eleanor had attended lectures at what would soon become the
University of Paris — in addition to what they had learned of
law and government, religion, and literature. John himself had received one of the best educations of any king of England. Some of the books the records show he read included: ''De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei'' by
Hugh of St. Victor, ''Sentences'' by
Peter Lombard, ''The Treatise of
Origen'', and a history of England—potentially
Wace's ''Roman de Brut'', based on
Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''
Historia Regum Britanniae''.
References
1. King John was not a Good Man
2. Meade, Marion, ''Eleanor of Aquitaine'', pp.283-285
3. Stephen Inwood, ''A History of London'', London: Macmillan, 1998, p.58.
4. Hugh Johnson, ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'' p.142. Simon and Schuster 1989
5. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: John de Gray, , Roy Martin, Haines, Oxford University Press, ,
6. Knights Templar Church at English Heritage website
7. See Christopher Harper-Bull's essay "John and the Church of Rome" in S. D. Church's ''King John, New Interpretations'', p. 307.
8. Humes, James C. (1994). ''The Wit & Wisdom of Winston Churchill'': p.155
9. BBC
★ ''King John'', by W.L. Warren ISBN 0-520-03643-3
★ ''The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042–1216'', by Frank Barlow ISBN 0-582-49504-0
★ ''Medieval Europe: A Short History'' (Seventh Edition), by C. Warren Hollister ISBN 0-07-029637-5
External links
★
Graphic of family tree of the children of John
★
King John at Find-A-Grave
.jpg)
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