The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-19
"ENGI.AND.S
 WORST KINH''

Many British monarchs have been xnen utterly united to wield the scepter of authority and have brought down upon their heads the wrath of their subjects, but the Ndu- bious distinction of being "the west sovereign that ever reigned over Eng land" has been conferred by his- l tory upon King John. To-day marks the seventh centenary of the death 1 of that ruler of evil fame. as he died i of a fever in Lincolnshire, while marching against his rebellious peo- 1 pie, on Oct. 19, 1216.
 ! It Is perhaps fortunate that Eng land had incompetent and tyrannical rulers, as it was their criminal folly which drove the people, to revolt and to establish those principles of liber- 1 ty which have so profoundly in- fiuenced the world. It was 0e Mag Aa Charta-the Great Charter of English liberty-wrupg from King NJohn by his barons at Runnymede, which struck the first great blow against absolutism and feudalism. If John had been a wise and benefcent monarch. the whole history of the world might have been changed and for the worse.. A tryant and rascal. he unwittingly set men to thinking along lines which spelled the doom of all his kind.
 King John was the fourth son of Henry II. Early in life he began to 4get in bad" with the English peo- pie. At the age of IS, his father made him lord of Ireland. but Johns behavior was so vile and imprudent that he soon became the object of almost universal abhorrence, and he was recalled to England. Henry II, died in 11S9, and Johns elder brother. Richard Occur de Lion. suc- ceeded to the crown. Richard be- slowed large possessions upon John. but the ungratefu1 wretch. who had been a traitor to his father, behaved as upfraternally as he had behaved unfliA1ly. When Richard, after his famous crusade, was made a prison .<r in Germany. lean tried to render his Imprisonment perpetual, and 70
 deze the crown. He besIeged places 2 held by Richards friends asserted that Richard was dead, and demand ed his own recognition as monarch When Richard returned to England he ordered Je1ln tried for treason but the intercession of their mother caused the King to forgive and par don John.
 When Richard died in 1193, John ascended the throne. He was inn mediately involved fin a quarrel with ],is nephew Arthur, Duke O.: Brit tany, the rightful monarch. Arthur, a youth of sixteen, was made cap tive by John, and is supposed to have been put to death by his uncle. A French court summoned John to de- lfend himself. but he refused. and the tribunal then adjudged him guilty of murder, felony and treason. In Eng Hand he was even more detested than in France.
 His famous contest with the barons began in 1201 and continued through many years. The King was guilty of many acts of cruelty which shocked the sentiment of even that lferocious ago. In his wars 1t was his custom to starve his prisoners ito death. and 1t was said that he was fond of watching the agonies of his victims In 1918 the French launch ed an army against John, but he escaped destruction by throwing him. self on the mercy of the Pope and becoming the latter's vassal In 1915 "a confederacy of the English nobility was formed against him, and John Mas forced to make the grant known as the Magma Charta, which estab- f