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John of England

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain); Monarchs of Great Britain

   John
   King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and
   Count of Anjou (more...)
   John from the Historia Anglorum
   John from the Historia Anglorum
   Reign 6 April 1199 – 18/ 19 October 1216
   Predecessor Richard I the Lionheart
   Successor Henry III
   Spouse Isabella of Angoulême
   Issue
   Henry III
   Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall
   Joan, Queen of Scots
   Isabella, Holy Roman Empress
   Eleanor, Countess of Leicester
   Full name
   John Plantagenet
   Royal house House of Plantagenet
   Father Henry II
   Mother Eleanor of Aquitaine
   Born 24 December 1166
   Beaumont Palace, Oxford
   Died 18/ 19 October 1216
   Newark-on-Trent, [nottinghamshire]
   Burial Worcester Cathedral, Worcester
   John deer hunting, from a manuscript in the British Library.
   John deer hunting, from a manuscript in the British Library.

   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. He was a Plantagenet or Angevin king.

Birth

   Born at Beaumont Palace, Oxford, John was the fifth son of King Henry
   II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was almost certainly born in
   1166 instead of 1167, as is sometimes claimed. King Henry and Queen
   Eleanor were not together nine months prior to December 1167, but they
   were together in March 1166. Also, John was born at Oxford on or near
   Christmas, but Eleanor and Henry spent Christmas 1167 in Normandy. The
   canon of Laon, writing a century later, states John was named after
   Saint John the Apostle, on whose feast day ( 27 December) he was born.
   Ralph of Diceto also states that John was born in 1166, and that Queen
   Eleanor named him.

   He was a younger maternal half-brother of Marie de Champagne and Alix
   of France. 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.

   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 Hereward the Wake into Robin Hood, originally set a
   century before John's time.

   While returning from the Crusade, Richard was captured 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. It is most likely that the
   image of subversion was given to John by later monk chroniclers, who
   resented his refusal to go on the ill-fated Fourth Crusade.

Reign

   The Great Seal of the Realm of John
   The Great Seal of the Realm of John

Dispute with Arthur I

   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.

   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. 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 Mary.

   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
          and possessed by the devil 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.

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.
   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 monks of
   Christ Church chapter in Canterbury claimed the sole right to elect
   Hubert's successor, but both the English bishops and the King had an
   interest in the choice of successor to this powerful office. When their
   dispute could not be settled, the monks 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. Innocent thus disregarded the King's
   rights in selection of his own vassals. John was supported in his
   position by the English barons and many of the English bishops and
   refused to accept Langton.

   John expelled the Canterbury monks in July 1207 and the Pope ordered an
   interdict against the kingdom. John immediately retaliated by seizure
   of church property for failure to provide feudal service, and the fight
   was on. The pious of England were theoretically left without the
   comforts of the church, but over a period they became used to this
   deprivation. The pope, meanwhile, realized that too long a period
   without church services could lead to loss of faith, and 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); 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. 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

   John of England signs Magna Carta – illustration from Cassell's History
   of England (1902)
   John of England signs Magna Carta – illustration from Cassell's History
   of England (1902)

   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, 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

   John's tomb effigy
   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 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.

Depictions in fiction

   King John as shown in Cassell's History of England (1902)
   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 the 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 "mommy"
            whenever Robin Hood (a fox) steals his gold. In one scene, he
            laments, "Mommy always did like Richard best".
          + Phil Davis in the 1980s television series Robin of Sherwood.
          + Richard Lewis in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (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.
     * 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 story about Robin Hood's daughter, Prince
       John tries to seize the throne away from the rightful heir, Prince
       Phillip, an illegitemate 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. Isabelle eventually produced five children, including two
   sons (Henry and Richard), and three daughters ( Joan, Isabella and
   Eleanor).

   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, the wife of Llywelyn Fawr, (by a woman named Clemence)
     * Richard Fitz Roy, (by his cousin, Adela, daughter of his uncle
       Hamelin de Warenne)
     * Oliver FitzRoy, (by 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.)

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.

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 "fact" was that, if
   Robin Hood had not stepped in, Prince John would have embezzled the
   money raised to ransom King Richard. The fact is that John did embezzle
   the ransom money, by creating forged seals. Robin Hood, on the other
   hand, may or may not have actually existed.)

   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 (Image) 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.
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