In November 1209 John 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 Knights 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 1,000 marks annually, 700 for England and 300 for Ireland. With this submission, written in a document, John gained the support of his papal overlord in his new dispute with the English barons.
After settling his dispute with the papacy, John turned his attentions back to France. The European wars ended in defeat at the Battle of Bouvines in July 1214, which forced the king to accept an unfavourable peace with France.
The heavy scutage levy for the failed campaign was the last straw, and when John attempted to raise more in September 1214, many barons refused to pay. The barons no longer believed that John was capable of regaining his lost lands.
In May 1215, Robert Fitz Walter led forty barons to renounce homage to the king at Northampton. The so-called 'Army of God' marched on London, taking the capital as well as taking Lincoln and Exeter.
John met their leaders and with their French and Scots allies at Runnymede, near London, on 15 June 1215. There they sealed the Great Charter, called in Latin "Magna Carta". It established a council of 25 barons to see John kept to the clauses like protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, parliamentary assent for taxation, and scutage limitations.
Because he was forced to seal the charter, John sought approval to break it, from his overlord the Pope. Denouncing it as "not only shameful and demeaning but also illegal and unjust", the Pope agreed. This provoked the First Barons' War. The barons invited a French invasion by Prince Louis VIII of France and Louis accepted the offer of the crown of England as a reward for his support.
John travelled around the country to oppose the rebel forces, and directed a two-month siege of the rebel-held Rochester Castle. While a small force arrived in rebel-held London in November, the Scots under their king, Alexander II, invaded northern England. By the end of December, John was leading a murderous expedition in the north, culminating with the sacking of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
The French retook Rochester and much of the south, although the royalists held on to Windsor and Dover.
With the momentum swinging from John, some of his generals, including his half-brother William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, went to the rebel side. By the end of the summer, Louis held a third of the country and had the support of two-third of the barons. In September, Alexander II travelled down to pay homage to Louis at Dover, where the French pretender had being laying siege to Dover Castle.
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), took a direct route across it and was lost to the 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 died at Newark Castle. He was buried at Worcester Cathedral, in the West Midlands.
When King John died on 18 October, 1216 his nine-year-old son, Henry was too young to rule the kingdom. William Marshal was appointed as Regent to Henry III to make decisions on Henry’s behalf until he came of age. The barons switched their allegiance to the new king, forcing Louis to give up his claim and sign the Treaty of Lambeth in 1217.
King John's reign began with military defeats – he lost Normandy to Philip II of France in his first five years on the throne. His reign 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 Catholic Church, and his rebellious barons forced him to seal Magna Carta in 1215, the act for which he is best remembered.
John is responsible for the creation of another English cultural icon, the historic, medieval London Bridge. To finance the construction of a large bridge across the Thames, King John allowed houses, shops, and a church to be built on top of the bridge.
John was an efficient ruler, but he lost approval of the barons by taxing them in ways outside those traditionally allowed by feudal overlords. The tax known as scutage became particularly unpopular. John was a fair-minded and well informed king, however. He often sat as a judge in the Royal Courts, and his justice was much sought after. Also, John's employment of an able Chancellor and clerks resulted in the first proper set of records.
Winston Churchill summarised the legacy of John's reign: "When the long tally is added, it will be seen that the British nation and the English-speaking world owe far more to the vices of John than to the labours of virtuous sovereigns". Medieval historian C. Warren Hollister called John an "enigmatic figure":
In 1189, John was married to Isabel of Gloucester. They had no children. John had their marriage annulled, and she was never acknowledged as queen. John remarried, on 24 August 1200, , who was twenty years his junior. John had kidnapped her from her fiancé, Hugh X of Lusignan.
Isabella bore five children:
John had many illegitimate children. Matthew Paris accuses him of seducing the more attractive daughters and sisters of his barons and relatives. John had these illegitimate children:
The surname "Fitzroy" is Norman-French for 'son of the king'.
John is also famous for his part in the Robin Hood stories where he plays one of Robin's enemies. Popular culture suggests that many people did not like him, but actually we do not know what ordinary people thought in the 13th century. William Shakespeare wrote a play about him. It was mostly about Arthur of Brittany and did not mention Robin Hood or Magna Carta.
13 (number)
Thirteen is a number. It comes after twelve and before fourteen. It is an odd number.
Many people think thirteen is an unlucky number, especially when Friday is the thirteenth day of the month. This is a superstition. There is no proof that thirteen is an unlucky number.
Floors in tall buildings often skip floor thirteen, or reserve it for a mechanical floor. The idea of thirteen as an unlucky number is from pagan Norse mythology. It was believed to be unlucky to have thirteen people sitting at a table at a meal, and death is number thirteen in the tarot deck.
In Roman numerals, 13 is written as XIII.
Weekend
The weekend is a time when fewer people go to work or school. Traditional Christians believe that Sunday is a day of rest or Sabbath, and Jews believe the day of rest is the seventh day, Saturday, and start the week with Sunday. Friday is also considered the beginning of the weekend, and it is a day of rest for Muslims.
Alexandria
Alexandria (Arabic: الإسكندرية) is the second largest city in Egypt. It was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια ("Alexandria"). It is on the Mediterranean Sea, only 225 km (140 miles) northwest of Cairo.
Alexandria has 3.8 million people. It is the main port of Egypt. It has two airports and three big stadia: Alexandria stadium, Harras el hadoud stadium and Borg el-Arab stadium in the Borg el-Arab industrial city.
The fourth Wikimania was hosted in this city in 2008.
Alexandria, named after Alexander the Great, was founded around 331 BC. For nearly 300 years, it was the capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. Some famous ancient Greek scientists, such as Euclid of Alexandria and Eratosthenes, lived there or studied there. It was home to the largest library in the ancient Western world, the Library of Alexandria.