KING JOHN OF ENGLAND
1167 - 1216

King John was the one who had to sign the Magna Carta after his barons revolted. He ruled England 1199 - 1216 and was an educated man who loved hunting and traveling. With the dark side of his personality he could also be a suspicious, unforgiving, and double-crossing little weasel.

John's nickname was John Lackland, or like the French said Jean Sans Terre. He could thank his father for this alias.

JOHN'S FAMOUS FAMILY
John's father was Henry II. His mother was the beautiful and smart Eleanor of Aquitaine, who by the way was brilliantly depicted by the great Katherine Hepburn in the movie The Lion in Winter. Back to John.

Henry and Eleanor had five sons and three daughters.

The oldest son was William who died at age three. Henry was number two. Son number three was John's very famous brother Richard the Lionheart. Number four was Geoffrey. John was his parents' youngest son and his pop's favorite.

John's sisters were Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan.

John's mother Eleanor was married once before to Louis VII. The marriage was annulled in the year 1152. Eleanor and Louis had two daughters.

1167 - 1188
It was 1173 - John was 16 years old. John's father had it all figured out. His favorite son would marry the daughter of Humbert III, count of Maurienne (Savoy), which would have meant lots of lands for John. Unfortunately for John, the marriage proposal didn't sit right with John's elder brothers, a greedy bunch. The brothers started a rebellion during the years 1173 - 1174.

So the marriage was off but father Henry found other ways to provide for John. He arranged another marriage for him by which means he would become Earl of Gloucester. In 1177 John was given the lordship of Ireland. John went and visited Ireland for a while during April until late 1185. While in Ireland, John partied the house down, which didn't exactly help his reputation.

Nevertheless, father Henry kept preferring son John. John's brother Richard was finally fed up with it and raised serious stink. John, son of a smart mother, figured that father Henry would bite the dust fairly soon. So he made friends with Richard and turned against his pop.

1189 - 1199
Richard became king after the death of his father in 1189. Richard was very generous towards his brother John. He made him Count of Mortain (here's a map of Mortain), Lord of Ireland, and gave him lands and revenues in England.

As arranged by his father, John married Isabella, heiress to the earldom of Gloucester.

However, Richard wasn't a fool. When he was fixing to go on crusade, he made his brother John promise not to enter England while he was away. John promised and kept his word. That is, until October 1190, when Richard announced that their nephew Arthur I, son of their late brother Geoffrey, would be successor to the throne.

This ticked John off and he returned to England in order to kick butt and take names. During Richard's absence (1190 - 1191), William Longchamp and Hugh de Puiset were entrusted with running the country.

Factor One: William soon managed get rid of ol' Hugh. Factor Two: William was loyal to Richard but, being a Frenchman, had a prejudice or two against Brits. John thought these two factors would do to convince the public that he, John, should become king. Now.

Thus, in 1191, John declared himself ruler. Many people, however, were loyal to Richard and disliked John's actions. Also, powerful and clever mother Eleanor wished to see her son Richard on the throne, rather than her son John.

It was January 1193. John received news that Richard, on his way back from the crusade, had been imprisoned in Germany by Holy German Emperor Henry VI. John thought that was excellent news and teamed up with French King Philip II to get some backup to take over the throne for good.

It was easier planned than done. Richard's loyal supporters forced John to accept a truce in April 1193. But John continued making little nasty plans with Philip. They divided Richard's belongings among each other, for now imaginary, but just in case something should happen to Richard, and they were also planning a good little rebellion in England.

So no wonder that when Richard came back in early 1194, John was exiled and all of his lands were confiscate. But John apologized to Richard and amazingly enough Richard forgave him and in May they were one heart and one soul again. Richard gave John back some of his estates including Mortain and Ireland.

But there was still the nephew Arthur issue that John wanted to be taken care of. And it got solved, indeed. In 1196, the Brits handed Arthur over to Philip II of France. Richard announced that John would be his successor. It is probably John who was behind that foul betrayal.

KING OF ENGLAND 1199 - 1216
Richard died in April 1199 and John became king of England. Finally. But not undisputed, however. The people weren't blind and some thought that Arthur would have been the rightful heir to the throne.

Greedy Philip II of France decided there was some money in this. All of a sudden he turned against John and voted for Arthur. In Anjou and Maine everybody was convinced Arthur was rightful king of England.

A year down the road, a Treaty of Le Goulet between the supporters of Arthur and the supporters of John established that John could be Richard's successor and rightful owner of all of Richard's lands in France IF John would pay money and give several estates to Philip. So John did and things were calm now.

No, they weren't.

WAR WITH THE FRENCH 1201 - 1206
John equally alienated the English and the French. How does one accomplish this? Let's learn from John. He got rid of his first wife (1199), a girl from England, in favor of his second wife (1200), a girl from France.

The English thought that was extremely unpatriotic and tasteless. But why would it alienate the French as well? Because the new girl, Isabella, was the heiress to Angoulême and already promised to Hugh IX de Lusignan.

Now, the Angoulemes and the Lusignans couldn't stand each other. And, another thing: The A's and L's were living in the county of Poitou, where John happened to meddle in local politics since quite a while, which made people not like John.

Therefore, the result of John's second marriage was that the Lusignans revolted in 1201. They complained to Philip II who ordered John to come by and explain. John did not pay the ordered visit.

War ensued between England and France. At Mirebeau in August 1202, John captured Arthur. Arthur was probably murdered by John in 1203. But in 1204, John lost Normandy and by 1206, John also had lost Anjoy, Maine, parts of Poitou to ol' Philip. Only Aquitaine and a piece of Poitou were still his.

Why did France win this war? Because they had all the resources and England and Normandy didn't.

John's prestige went down the tubes.

TROUBLE WITH THE CHURCH
During the war, in the year 1205, things started going downhill at home, as well. Hubert Walter, chancellor and archbishop of Canterbury, died. So far not a problem but what followed wasn't pretty: Hubert Walter needed a successor. John was ready to pick one but Pope Innocent III wanted to pick one himself. The Pope had Stephen Langton in mind and in December 1206 he got Stephen the job.

John took that personally and didn't accept Langton. In turn, the Pope took John's disobedience personally and in November 1209 John found himself excommunicated.

That did the trick. John caved in and in November 1212 he accepted Langton and the pope's terms. The terms in question were pretty hefty, by the way. John had to surrender his kingdom to the Pope, which he did on May 15, 1213 at Ewell, near Dover. The Pope, a smart businessman, let John continue to rule as a vassal for 1,000 marks per year.

John paid and his excommunication was undone by, of all people, Mr. Langton in July 1213. Keeps one nice and humble. Why would John go through all this? Because the papacy was an important ally. The situation of the day: John wanted his lands in France back, the French were toying with the idea of invading England, and John's barons were pretty ruthless lately. John couldn't afford to alienate the powerful Church. So he played along.

ANOTHER FRENCH CAMPAIGN
With the Church problems solved, John was ready to show the French. He allied with Otto IV, who was Holy Roman emperor and son of John's sister Matilda. John landed at La Rochelle in February 1214. But he couldn't pull it off. Nephew Otto was getting a pretty good beating from Philip at Bouvines in 1214.

John had to accept a truce and returned to England in October 1214, where a lot of his barons were unhappy and complaining about John's arbitrarily style of ruling. The barons demanded some concessions. They negotiated a lot and each side appealed to the Pope. It didn't help. No agreement could be reached.

MAGNA CARTA 1215
In May 1215 civil war broke out and in June an agreement, Magna Carta, was sealed by the king. Right after sealing the document, John appealed to the Pope against it. Pope Innocent took John's side and, once again, civil war ensued.

John captured Rochester castle and rocked the house down in the north of the country. Meanwhile, the barons asked Prince Louis of France to come over for a raid and offered him the English throne.

But all of a sudden John died and all the contempt for his rule with him. Now, the barons preferred for a fellow Brit to rule. Henry III, John's son, was good and ready to go. French Louis was paid some cash under the table as thanks for the support and goodwill.

CONTROVERSY
Historians comment that John didn't have quite as many enemies during his lifetime as some future historians, for example Roger of Wendover and Matthew of Paris, wanted people to believe. They say that many prominent barons actually fought on John's side.

TRIVIA
John could be one cruel puppy. There was a certain baron whose guts John hated with a vengeance. A la mafia, John arranged for the baron's wife, Matilda de Braose (also called Maud de Braose,) and the baron's son to be imprisoned and starved to death.

If you visit Worcester you will find John's tomb in Worcester Cathedral.

AND HERE IS THE KICKER
Historians say that John was a brilliant executive. Moreover, they say that fair treatment of his subjects was extremely important to him. He ruled with absolute powers over rich and poor, which wasn't much appreciated by the rich who were used to preferred handling. Remember that the barons made John sign the Magna Carta, not the peasants.

John was the good guy all along. Ohmygosh.

See also the chart Governments in History.