King John

King John_of_England_-_Illustration_from_Cassell%27s_History_of_England_-_Century_Edition_-_published_circa_1902

• General Notes
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    John (French: Jean) (December 24, 1166 - October 18/19, 1216) reigned as King of England from April 6, 1199, until his death. He succeeded to the throne as the younger brother of King Richard I (known as "Richard the Lionheart"). John acquired the nicknames of "Lackland" (in French, sans terre) and "Soft-sword".
    
    John's reign has been traditionally characterized as one of the most disastrous in English history: it began with defeats—he lost Normandy to Philippe Auguste 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 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 ruled no better or worse than his immediate predecessor or his successor.
    
    Early years
    Born at Oxford, John was the fifth son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
    
    John 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 Plantagenet.
    
    John was always his father's favourite son, though as the youngest, he could expect no inheritance (hence his nickname, "Lackland"). 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 Baptist, on whose feast day (December 27) he was born. Ralph of Diceto also states that John was born in 1166, and that Queen Eleanor named him.
    
    His family life was tumultuous, with his older brothers all involved in rebellions against King Henry. His mother, Queen Eleanor was imprisoned 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 it's chicks, while a fourth chick crouched, waiting for it's 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."
    In 1189 John was married to Avisa, daughter and heiress of the Earl of Gloucester. (She is given several alternative names by history, including Isabella, 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 April 6, 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).
    
    Before his accession, John had already acquired a reputation for treachery, having conspired sometimes with and sometimes against his elder brothers, Henry, Geoffrey and Richard. In 1184, John and Richard both claimed that they were the rightful heir to the Aquitaine, one of many unfriendly encounters between the two. In 1185 though, 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).
    
    During Richard's absence on the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1194, John attempted to overthrow his designated regent, despite having been forbidden by his brother to leave France. This was one reason the older legend of Hereward the Wake was updated to King Richard's reign, with "Prince John" as the ultimate villain and with the hero now called "Robin Hood". However, on his return to England in 1194, Richard forgave John and named him as his heir.
    
    Reign
    On Richard's death, John did not gain immediate universal recognition as king. Some regarded his young nephew, Arthur of Brittany, the posthumous son of John's brother Geoffrey, as the rightful heir. Arthur vied with his uncle John for the throne, and enjoyed the support of King Philip II of France. Arthur attempted to kidnap his own grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, at Mirebeau, but was defeated and captured by John's forces. According to the Margram 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."
    
    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.
    
    In the meantime, John had remarried, on August 24, 1200, Isabelle of Angoulême, who was twenty years his junior. She was the daughter of Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angouleme. John had kidnapped her from her fiancée, Hugh IX of Lusignan. Isabelle eventually produced five children, including two sons (Henry and Richard), and three daughters (Joan, Isabella and Eleanor).
    
    In 1205 John married off his illegitimate daughter, Joan, to the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great, building an alliance in the hope of keeping peace within England and Wales so that he could recover his French lands. The French king had declared most of these forfeit in 1204, leaving John only Gascony in the southwest.
    
    John is given a great talent 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 with Margaret, the wife of Eustace de Vesci and an illegitimate daughter of King William I of Scotland. Her husband 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.
    
    Besides Joan, the wife of Llywelyn Fawr, his bastard daughter by a woman named Clemence, John had a son named Richard Fitz Roy by his first cousin, a daughter of his uncle Hamelin de Warenne. By another mistress, Hawise, John had Oliver FitzRoy, 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 found 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; and Maud FitzRoy, Abbess of Barking, who died in 1252.
    
    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, a penalty for those who failed to supply military resources, became particularly unpopular.
    
    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 and later a second election imposed by John resulted in another candidate. When they both appeared at Rome, Innocent disavowed both elections and his candidate, Stephen Langton was elected over the objections of John's observers. This action by Innocent 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 Stephen 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 it and the pope realising 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 and in 1212 allowed last rites to the dying. It seems that the church in England quietly continued some services and while the interdict was a burden to many, it did not result in rebellion against John.
    
    In November of 1209 John himself was excommunicated and in February 1213 Innocent threatened stronger measures unless John submitted. The papal terms for submission were accepted and 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, John gained the valuable support of his papal overlord in his dispute with the English barons, some of whom rebelled against him after he was excommunicated.
    
    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, and he met their leaders at Runnymede, near London, on June 15, 1215, to sign 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.
    
    Death
    In 1216, John, retreating from an invasion by Prince Louis of France (whom the majority of the English barons had invited to replace John on the throne), crossed the marshy area known as The Wash in East Anglia and lost his most valuable treasures, including the Crown Jewels as a result of the unexpected incoming tide. This dealt him a terrible blow, which affected his health and state of mind, and he succumbed to dysentery, dying on October 18 or October 19, 1216, at Newark in Lincolnshire*. Numerous, if fictitious, accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale or poisoned plums. He lies buried in Worcester Cathedral in the city of Worcester. His nine-year-old son succeeded him and became King Henry III of England, 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.
    
    *Footnote: Newark now lies within the County of Nottinghamshire, close to its long boundary with Lincolnshire.
    
    Alleged illiteracy
    For a long time, school children have learned 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 resembled that of textbooks which claimed that Christopher Columbus wanted to prove the earth was round. Whether the original authors of these errors knew better and oversimplified because they wrote for children, or whether they had been misinformed themselves, as a result 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 Prince John did embezzle the ransom money, by creating forged seals, and Robin Hood may or may not have had any historical reality.)
    
    In fact, King John did 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 sealed to make them official, not signed. (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 signilli ("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 his son Prince John receive an education to go into the Church, which would have meant Henry did not have to give him any land, but in 1171 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), and after that, talk of making John a churchman ceased. John's parents had both received a good education—Henry II spoke some half dozen languages, and Eleanor of Aquitaine 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.
    
    Notes
    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. By contrast, King John dressed very well in coats made of fur from sable and ermine and other exotic furs such as polar bear.
    
    John's first expedition to Ireland
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
    The 1185 expedition of the future King John of England to Ireland is one that has attracted quite a deal of historical interest and debate. Much of the debate has arisen due to the lack of government records available on this period, and the subsequent reliance on more opinion laden sources such as the Irish Annals and the writings of Gerald of Wales.
    
    The subject of John going to Ireland first came into question under the reign of his father, Henry II specifically with the Council of Oxford in the year 1177. This council agreed to have John made King of Ireland. This would appear to have been a strategy of his father's to divide his Angevin possesions between his four sons. The pope approval was sought to have John crowned King of Ireland but disagreements with the Pope caused this to be delayed and instead John went as only Lord of Ireland.
    
    In 1184 arrangements were made for John's departure with the sending of John Cumin and Philip of Worcester to prepare the ground for John's arrival. John arrived in Ireland in April 1185, landing at Waterford with around 300 Knights and numerous foot soldiers and archers.
    
    Upon his arrival in Ireland, John and his retinue were greeted by numerous unnamed Gaelic Irish leaders. It is said that upon seeing these strange long bearded Kings, John and his retinue laughed and pulled them about by their beards! We are told by Gerald that the Irish then complained to their overlords - men such as Rory O'Connor - of how John was, "an ill-mannered child...from whom no good could be hoped". Aside from upsetting these rulers, John also at this time engaged in a vigorous program of extending land grants to trusted royal administrators such as Theobald Walter, William De Burgh, Gilbert Pipard and Bertram De Verdon as well as other minor land grants to lesser figures. These leading noblemen would go on to become the next generation of English colonials in Ireland and men like Walter would breed a new family generation - the Butler's - who would in time come to be an influential part of Ireland's history.
    
    During his stay in Ireland, John largely followed the route of his father Henry II, landing in Waterford and ending up in Dublin. Along the way John's expedition has been attributed to setting up several castles, especially in Western Waterford and Southern Tipperary but also the setting up of basic administrative structures and basic law beginnings to which he was to expand upon later in his second expedition in 1210.
    
    John left Ireland in December and returned to England. Scholarship has largely been agreed that this was most likely to do with the presence of Hugh De Lacy but it is also likely that John ran out of money. It has been suggested that his departure was a setback in much broader 'plan' to set up administrative structures in Ireland in order to control the unruly Barons via loyal, royalist forces such as Walter, De Burgh and De Verdon and that when De Lacy began to threaten his position, he escaped back to the safety of England. What is generally perceived, both contempoarily and in modern scholarship as a feckless attitude has given him a bad reputation and caused his first expedition to be viewed unfairly.
    
    Upon his departure, his father Henry granted the office of justiciar to the Baron John de Courcy, who had massive influence in Ulster. In 1186 Hugh De Lacy was assassinated by an Irishman and plans were made to send John back to Ireland. However, the death of his brother, Geoffrey, in France cancelled these plans and John did not return to Ireland until his second expedition in 1210.