King John
The Worst English King?
When I was a little I loved watching Disney films and one of my favourite was Robin Hood (1973). I absolutely loved that version, seeing all the characters played by animals that reflected their personalities. In the tale of Robin Hood John highlights the virtues of King Richard, or contrasts with the evil Sheriff of Nottingham but Disney portrays John as a "cowardly, thumb sucking lion".
John was born in Beaumont Palace in Oxford on Christmas Eve in 1166 to Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor never took to John but Henry adored him and made him Lord of Ireland in 1177.
John was never meant to inherit anything. He had three older brothers, Henry, Richard and Geoffrey. Instead when he was older him and his sister Joan were sent to to Fontevrault Abbey where he would be steered into a career in the church.
Neither parent took a major part in John's upbringing as they were fighting each other so maybe Fontevrault Abbey was the best place for him. A teacher was given the charge of the young Prince's early education and managing the servants of his immediate household. John spent some time as a member of the household of his elder brother Henry, where he learnt how to hunt and military skills. John enjoyed reading and, built up a travelling library of books but he also enjoyed gambling, in particular at backgammon, and was an enthusiastic hunter. John was a "connoisseur of jewels", owning a large collection, and became famous for his opulent clothes and for his fondness for bad wine. As he grew up, he became known for sometimes being "genial, witty, generous and hospitable"; at other moments, he could be jealous, over-sensitive and prone to fits of rage, "biting and gnawing his fingers" in anger.
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| Princess Isabelle of Gloucester in Robin Hood (2010) |
John had spent the conflict with his father, and was given widespread possessions across the Angevin empire as part of the Montlouis settlement. In 1175 he appropriated the estates of the late Earl of Cornwall and gave them to John and the next year, Henry disinherited Mabel and
Amice FitzWilliam, and betrothed John to their now extremely wealthy sister Isabelle.
Young Henry died in 1183 from the bloody flux and soon Geoffrey followed in 1186 after being trampled to death in tournament in Paris. John was two steps from being King. In 1189 Henry died leaving Richard as King of England but Richard hardly spent any time in England as he was always on a crusade.
On 29 August 1189 John and Isabelle were married at Marlborough Castle in Wiltshire and John assumed the title of Duke of Gloucester but the Archbishop of Canterbury declared the marriage null because they were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity as half-second cousins as great-grandchildren of King Henry I. The interdict was lifted by Pope Clement III who granted a dispensation to marry but forbade the couple from having sexual relations.
When John came to the throne in 1199 he had the marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity and was granted by the bishops of Lisieux, Bayeux and Avranches sitting in Normandy. John kept her Isabelle's lands, and Isabel did not contest the annulment.
Wait! Didn't Richard make his nephew Arthur his succession as the eldest son of his brother
Geoffrey? Let me answer that question for you. When Richard died on April 6, 1199, on his deathbed he proclaimed his brother John as his heir fearing Arthur was too young Arthur was only twelve years old at the time and under the influence of the French king so John immediately claimed the throne of England but much of the French nobility were resentful at recognizing him as their overlord. They preferred Arthur, who was a vassal of Philip II of France. Philip recognized Arthur's right to Anjou, Maine, and Poitou. Upon Richard's death Arthur led a force to Anjou and Maine.
In May 1200 The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed by the John and Philip which settled once and for all the claims of the Kingdom of England. Philip recognised John as King of England as heir of his brother Richard I and thus formally abandoned any support for Arthur I. John, meanwhile, recognised Philip as the suzerain of continental possessions of the Angevin Empire.
Arthur felt offended by Philip and fled to John where he was treated kindly, but he soon became suspicious of John and fled back to Angers and in April 1202, Arthur was again betrothed, this time to Marie of France, a daughter of Philip II and Agnes of Andechs-Merania.
After his return to France, and with the support of Philip II, Arthur embarked on a campaign in Normandy against John and Poitou revolted in support of Arthur. The Duke of Brittany besieged his grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in the Château de Mirebeau. John marched on Mirebeau, taking Arthur by surprise on 31 July 1202. Arthur was captured by John's barons on 1 August, and imprisoned in the Château de Falaise in Falaise, Normandy.
At the Château de Falaise, Arthur was guarded by Hubert de Burgh and apparently John ordered two of his servants to kill Arthur but Hugh de Burgh refused to do so. The following year Arthur was transferred to Rouen, under the charge of William de Braose where he vanished in April 1203.
Did John kill his nephew? That was thought at the time.
John had to remarry to have heirs and he choose Isabella of Angoulême as his next wife. Why? Rumours spread that John had fallen deeply in love with Isabella, and may have been motivated by desire for an apparently beautiful, if rather young, girl. On the other hand, the Angoumois lands that came with Isabella were strategically vital to John: by marrying Isabella, John was acquiring a key land route between Poitou and Gascony, which significantly strengthened his grip on Aquitaine.
Unfortunately, Isabella was already engaged to Hugh de Lusignan, an important member of a key Poitou noble family and brother of Raoul de Lusignan, the Count of Eu, who possessed lands along the sensitive eastern Normandy border. John married Isabella on 24 August 1200, at Bordeaux, a year after he annulled his first marriage to Isabel of Gloucester. She was crowned queen in an elaborate ceremony on 9 October at Westminster Abbey in London. John's relationship with Isabella of Angoulême, is unclear but John married Isabella whilst she was relatively young – her exact date of birth is uncertain, and estimates place her between at most 15 and more probably towards nine years old at the time of her marriage. Together Isabella and John had five children: Henry, Richard, Joan, Isabella and Eleanor.
John's personal life greatly affected his reign and like his forefathers and descendants he was sinfully lustful and lacking in piety and his mistresses were married noblewomen, which was considered unacceptable at the time. John had at least five illegitimate children during his marriage to Isabell of Gloucester. No illegitimate children were born during John's marriage to Isabelle, and there is no actual documentary proof of adultery during the union, although John certainly had female friends amongst the court throughout his reign.
In 1215 the Barons in the north and east of England were organising resistance and oppressing the people. John held a council in London in January 1215 to discuss potential reforms and sponsored discussions in Oxford between his agents and the rebels during the spring. John announced his
intent to become a crusader, a move which gave him additional political protection under church law from the Barons.
Letters of support from the pope arrived in April but by then the rebel barons had organised themselves and they had gathered at Northampton in May and renounced their feudal ties to John, appointing Robert FitzWalter as their military leader and they called themselves the "Army of God" and marched on London, taking the Winchester as well as Lincoln and Exeter but John's efforts to appear moderate and conciliatory had been largely successful, but once the rebels held London they attracted a fresh wave of defectors from John's royalist faction so John instructed for peace talks with the rebel barons.
John and the rebel leaders at Runnymede, near Windsor Castle, on 15 June 1215 to agree to a proposed peace agreement known as The Magna Carta, or "Great Charter". The charter went beyond simply addressing specific baronial complaints, and formed a wider proposal for political reform, albeit one focusing on the rights of free men, not serfs and unfree labour. It promised the protection of church rights, protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, new taxation only with baronial consent and limitations on scutage and other feudal payments.
Despite his promises to the contrary, John appealed to Innocent for help, observing that the charter compromised the pope's rights under the 1213 agreement that had appointed him John's feudal lord. Innocent obliged; he declared the charter "not only shameful and demeaning, but illegal and unjust" and excommunicated the rebel barons and this led to the First Barons' War.
In September 1216 John began a fresh, vigorous attack, he marched from the Cotswolds, feigned
an offensive to relieve the besieged Windsor Castle, and attacked eastwards around London to Cambridge to separate the rebel-held areas of Lincolnshire and East Anglia. From there he travelled north to relieve the rebel siege at Lincoln and back east to King's Lynn, probably to order further supplies from the continent. In King's Lynn, John contracted dysentery, which would ultimately prove fatal. With tensions growing, a wave of desertions begun, including William Marshal's son William and William Longespée who was the King's half brother and stepson of the Earl of East Anglia, who both returned to John's faction.
The king returned west but is said to have lost a significant part of his baggage train along the way which included the Crown Jewels, were lost as he crossed one of the tidal estuaries which empties into the Wash, being sucked in by quicksand and whirlpools.
John had become very ill by the time he reached Newark Castle as he was unable to travel any farther. John died on the night of 18 October. Numerous – probably fictitious – accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale, poisoned plums or a "surfeit of peaches". His body was escorted south by a company of mercenaries and he was buried in Worcester Cathedral in front of the altar of St Wulfstan. A new sarcophagus with an effigy was made for him in 1232, in which his remains now rest.
Isabella's first act was to arrange the speedy coronation of her nine-year-old son Henry at the city of Gloucester on 28 October and as the royal crown had recently been lost, she supplied her own golden circlet to be used in lieu of a crown. The following July, less than a year after his crowning as King Henry III of England, she left him in the care of his regent, William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and returned to France to assume control of her inheritance of Angoulême.
Richard became a noted European leader and ultimately the King of the Romans in the Holy Roman Empire.Joan married Alexander II of Scotland to become his queen consort. Isabella married the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. His youngest daughter, Eleanor, married William Marshal's son, also called William, and later the famous English rebel Simon de Montfort. John had a number of illegitimate children by various mistresses, including nine sons – Richard, Oliver, John, Geoffrey, Henry, Osbert Gifford, Eudes, Bartholomew and probably Philip – and three daughters – Joan, Maud and probably Isabel. Of these, Joan became the most famous, marrying Prince Llywelyn the Great of Wales who was the last true Prince of Wales before the English Invasion.
Was John really as bad as he is portrayed as he is in the legend of Robin Hood? Probably. But I think that that the media has made him into more of a villain than he was. One thing that we can agree on is he was the last of the Angevian Kings as during his reign he lost the lands that made up the Empire on the continent to the French King. What do you think?
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| Arthur in The Devil's Crown (1978) |
In May 1200 The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed by the John and Philip which settled once and for all the claims of the Kingdom of England. Philip recognised John as King of England as heir of his brother Richard I and thus formally abandoned any support for Arthur I. John, meanwhile, recognised Philip as the suzerain of continental possessions of the Angevin Empire.
Arthur felt offended by Philip and fled to John where he was treated kindly, but he soon became suspicious of John and fled back to Angers and in April 1202, Arthur was again betrothed, this time to Marie of France, a daughter of Philip II and Agnes of Andechs-Merania.
After his return to France, and with the support of Philip II, Arthur embarked on a campaign in Normandy against John and Poitou revolted in support of Arthur. The Duke of Brittany besieged his grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in the Château de Mirebeau. John marched on Mirebeau, taking Arthur by surprise on 31 July 1202. Arthur was captured by John's barons on 1 August, and imprisoned in the Château de Falaise in Falaise, Normandy.
At the Château de Falaise, Arthur was guarded by Hubert de Burgh and apparently John ordered two of his servants to kill Arthur but Hugh de Burgh refused to do so. The following year Arthur was transferred to Rouen, under the charge of William de Braose where he vanished in April 1203.
Did John kill his nephew? That was thought at the time.
“After King John had captured Arthur and kept him alive in prison for some time, at length, in the castle of Rouen, after dinner on the Thursday before Easter, when he was drunk and possessed by the devil ['ebrius et daemonio plenus'], he slew him with his own hand, and tying a heavy stone to the body cast it into the Seine. It was discovered by a fisherman in his net, and being dragged to the bank and recognized, was taken for secret burial, in fear of the tyrant, to the priory of Bec called Notre Dame de Pres.”
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| Isabelle of Angoulême in Robin Hood (2010) |
Unfortunately, Isabella was already engaged to Hugh de Lusignan, an important member of a key Poitou noble family and brother of Raoul de Lusignan, the Count of Eu, who possessed lands along the sensitive eastern Normandy border. John married Isabella on 24 August 1200, at Bordeaux, a year after he annulled his first marriage to Isabel of Gloucester. She was crowned queen in an elaborate ceremony on 9 October at Westminster Abbey in London. John's relationship with Isabella of Angoulême, is unclear but John married Isabella whilst she was relatively young – her exact date of birth is uncertain, and estimates place her between at most 15 and more probably towards nine years old at the time of her marriage. Together Isabella and John had five children: Henry, Richard, Joan, Isabella and Eleanor.
John's personal life greatly affected his reign and like his forefathers and descendants he was sinfully lustful and lacking in piety and his mistresses were married noblewomen, which was considered unacceptable at the time. John had at least five illegitimate children during his marriage to Isabell of Gloucester. No illegitimate children were born during John's marriage to Isabelle, and there is no actual documentary proof of adultery during the union, although John certainly had female friends amongst the court throughout his reign.
In 1215 the Barons in the north and east of England were organising resistance and oppressing the people. John held a council in London in January 1215 to discuss potential reforms and sponsored discussions in Oxford between his agents and the rebels during the spring. John announced his
 |
| Magna Carta |
Letters of support from the pope arrived in April but by then the rebel barons had organised themselves and they had gathered at Northampton in May and renounced their feudal ties to John, appointing Robert FitzWalter as their military leader and they called themselves the "Army of God" and marched on London, taking the Winchester as well as Lincoln and Exeter but John's efforts to appear moderate and conciliatory had been largely successful, but once the rebels held London they attracted a fresh wave of defectors from John's royalist faction so John instructed for peace talks with the rebel barons.
John and the rebel leaders at Runnymede, near Windsor Castle, on 15 June 1215 to agree to a proposed peace agreement known as The Magna Carta, or "Great Charter". The charter went beyond simply addressing specific baronial complaints, and formed a wider proposal for political reform, albeit one focusing on the rights of free men, not serfs and unfree labour. It promised the protection of church rights, protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, new taxation only with baronial consent and limitations on scutage and other feudal payments.
Despite his promises to the contrary, John appealed to Innocent for help, observing that the charter compromised the pope's rights under the 1213 agreement that had appointed him John's feudal lord. Innocent obliged; he declared the charter "not only shameful and demeaning, but illegal and unjust" and excommunicated the rebel barons and this led to the First Barons' War.
 |
| John in Robin Hood (2010) |
an offensive to relieve the besieged Windsor Castle, and attacked eastwards around London to Cambridge to separate the rebel-held areas of Lincolnshire and East Anglia. From there he travelled north to relieve the rebel siege at Lincoln and back east to King's Lynn, probably to order further supplies from the continent. In King's Lynn, John contracted dysentery, which would ultimately prove fatal. With tensions growing, a wave of desertions begun, including William Marshal's son William and William Longespée who was the King's half brother and stepson of the Earl of East Anglia, who both returned to John's faction.
The king returned west but is said to have lost a significant part of his baggage train along the way which included the Crown Jewels, were lost as he crossed one of the tidal estuaries which empties into the Wash, being sucked in by quicksand and whirlpools.
John had become very ill by the time he reached Newark Castle as he was unable to travel any farther. John died on the night of 18 October. Numerous – probably fictitious – accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale, poisoned plums or a "surfeit of peaches". His body was escorted south by a company of mercenaries and he was buried in Worcester Cathedral in front of the altar of St Wulfstan. A new sarcophagus with an effigy was made for him in 1232, in which his remains now rest.
Isabella's first act was to arrange the speedy coronation of her nine-year-old son Henry at the city of Gloucester on 28 October and as the royal crown had recently been lost, she supplied her own golden circlet to be used in lieu of a crown. The following July, less than a year after his crowning as King Henry III of England, she left him in the care of his regent, William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and returned to France to assume control of her inheritance of Angoulême.
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| Henry's first coronation in 1216, 13th century depiction |
Was John really as bad as he is portrayed as he is in the legend of Robin Hood? Probably. But I think that that the media has made him into more of a villain than he was. One thing that we can agree on is he was the last of the Angevian Kings as during his reign he lost the lands that made up the Empire on the continent to the French King. What do you think?
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