John , King of England John ( 24 December 1166 – 18 / 19 October 1216 ) , also known as John Lackland ( Norman French : " Johan sanz Terre " ) , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death in 1216 . Following the battle of Bouvines , John lost the duchy of Normandy to King Philip II of France , which resulted in the collapse of most of the Angevin Empire and contributed to the subsequent growth in power of the Capetian dynasty during the 13th century . The baronial revolt at the end of John ' s reign led to the sealing of the " Magna Carta " , a document sometimes considered to be an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom . John , the youngest of five sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine , was at first not expected to inherit significant lands . Following the failed rebellion of his elder brothers between 1173 and 1174 , however , John became Henry ' s favourite child . He was appointed the Lord of Ireland in 1177 and given lands in England and on the continent . John ' s elder brothers William , Henry and Geoffrey died young ; by the time Richard I became king in 1189 , John was a potential heir to the throne . John unsuccessfully attempted a rebellion against Richard ' s royal administrators whilst his brother was participating in the Third Crusade . Despite this , after Richard died in 1199 , John was proclaimed King of England , and came to an agreement with Philip II of France to recognise John ' s possession of the continental Angevin lands at the peace treaty of Le Goulet in 1200 . When war with France broke out again in 1202 , John achieved early victories , but shortages of military resources and his treatment of Norman , Breton and Anjou nobles resulted in the collapse of his empire in northern France in 1204 . John spent much of the next decade attempting to regain these lands , raising huge revenues , reforming his armed forces and rebuilding continental alliances . John ' s judicial reforms had a lasting impact on the English common law system , as well as providing an additional source of revenue . An argument with Pope Innocent III led to John ' s excommunication in 1209 , a dispute finally settled by the king in 1213 . John ' s attempt to defeat Philip in 1214 failed due to the French victory over John ' s allies at the battle of Bouvines . When he returned to England , John faced a rebellion by many of his barons , who were unhappy with his fiscal policies and his treatment of many of England ' s most powerful nobles . Although both John and the barons agreed to the " Magna Carta " peace treaty in 1215 , neither side complied with its conditions . Civil war broke out shortly afterwards , with the barons aided by Louis of France . It soon descended into a stalemate . John died of dysentery contracted whilst on campaign in eastern England during late 1216 ; supporters of his son Henry III went on to achieve victory over Louis and the rebel barons the following year . Contemporary chroniclers were mostly critical of John ' s performance as king , and his reign has since been the subject of significant debate and periodic revision by historians from the 16th century onwards . Historian Jim Bradbury has summarised the contemporary historical opinion of John ' s positive qualities , observing that John is today usually considered a " hard - working administrator , an able man , an able general " . Nonetheless , modern historians agree that he also had many faults as king , including what historian Ralph Turner describes as " distasteful , even dangerous personality traits " , such as pettiness , spitefulness and cruelty . These negative qualities provided extensive material for fiction writers in the Victorian era , and John remains a recurring character within Western popular culture , primarily as a villain in films and stories depicting the Robin Hood legends . Early life ( 1166 – 89 ) . Childhood and the Angevin inheritance . John was born to Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine on 24 December 1166 . Henry had inherited significant territories along the Atlantic seaboard — Anjou , Normandy and England — and expanded his empire by conquering Brittany . Henry married the powerful Eleanor of Aquitaine , who reigned over the Duchy of Aquitaine and had a tenuous claim to Toulouse and Auvergne in southern France , in addition to being the former wife of Louis VII of France . The result was the Angevin Empire , named after Henry ' s paternal title as Count of Anjou and , more specifically , its seat in Angers . The Empire , however , was inherently fragile : although all the lands owed allegiance to Henry , the disparate parts each had their own histories , traditions and governance structures . As one moved south through Anjou and Aquitaine , the extent of Henry ' s power in the provinces diminished considerably , scarcely resembling the modern concept of an empire at all . Some of the traditional ties between parts of the empire such as Normandy and England were slowly dissolving over time . It was unclear what would happen to the empire on Henry ' s death . Although the custom of primogeniture , under which an eldest son would inherit all his father ' s lands , was slowly becoming more widespread across Europe , it was less popular amongst the Norman kings of England . Most believed that Henry would divide the empire , giving each son a substantial portion , and hoping that his children would continue to work together as allies after his death . To complicate matters , much of the Angevin empire was held by Henry only as a vassal of the King of France of the rival line of the House of Capet . Henry had often allied himself with the Holy Roman Emperor against France , making the feudal relationship even more challenging . Shortly after his birth , John was passed from Eleanor into the care of a wet nurse , a traditional practice for medieval noble families . Eleanor then left for Poitiers , the capital of Aquitaine , and sent John and his sister Joan north to Fontevrault Abbey . This may have been done with the aim of steering her youngest son , with no obvious inheritance , towards a future ecclesiastical career . Eleanor spent the next few years conspiring against her husband Henry and neither parent played a part in John ' s very early life . John was probably , like his brothers , assigned a " magister " whilst he was at Fontevrault , a teacher charged with his early education and with managing the servants of his immediate household ; John was later taught by Ranulph Glanville , a leading English administrator . John spent some time as a member of the household of his eldest living brother Henry the Young King , where he probably received instruction in hunting and military skills . John grew up to be around 5 ft 5 in ( 1 . 68 m ) tall , relatively short , with a " powerful , barrel - chested body " and dark red hair ; he looked to contemporaries like an inhabitant of Poitou . John enjoyed reading and , unusually for the period , built up a travelling library of books . He enjoyed gambling , in particular at backgammon , and was an enthusiastic hunter , even by medieval standards . He liked music , although not songs . John would become a " connoisseur of jewels " , building up a large collection , and became famous for his opulent clothes and also , according to French chroniclers , for his fondness for bad wine . As John grew up , he became known for sometimes being " genial , witty , generous and hospitable " ; at other moments , he could be jealous , over - sensitive and prone to fits of rage , " biting and gnawing his fingers " in anger . Early life . During John ' s early years , Henry attempted to resolve the question of his succession . Henry the Young King had been crowned King of England in 1170 , but was not given any formal powers by his father ; he was also promised Normandy and Anjou as part of his future inheritance . Richard was to be appointed the Count of Poitou with control of Aquitaine , whilst Geoffrey was to become the Duke of Brittany . At this time it seemed unlikely that John would ever inherit substantial lands , and he was jokingly nicknamed " Lackland " by his father . Henry II wanted to secure the southern borders of Aquitaine and decided to betroth his youngest son to Alais , the daughter and heiress of Humbert III of Savoy . As part of this agreement John was promised the future inheritance of Savoy , Piemonte , Maurienne , and the other possessions of Count Humbert . For his part in the potential marriage alliance , Henry II transferred the castles of Chinon , Loudun and Mirebeau into John ' s name ; as John was only five years old his father would continue to control them for practical purposes . Henry the Young King was unimpressed by this ; although he had yet to be granted control of any castles in his new kingdom , these were effectively his future property and had been given away without consultation . Alais made the trip over the Alps and joined Henry II ' s court , but she died before marrying John , which left the prince once again without an inheritance . In 1173 John ' s elder brothers , backed by Eleanor , rose in revolt against Henry in the short - lived rebellion of 1173 to 1174 . Growing irritated with his subordinate position to Henry II and increasingly worried that John might be given additional lands and castles at his expense , Henry the Young King travelled to Paris and allied himself with Louis VII . Eleanor , irritated by her husband ' s persistent interference in Aquitaine , encouraged Richard and Geoffrey to join their brother Henry in Paris . Henry II triumphed over the coalition of his sons , but was generous to them in the peace settlement agreed at Montlouis . Henry the Young King was allowed to travel widely in Europe with his own household of knights , Richard was given Aquitaine back , and Geoffrey was allowed to return to Brittany ; only Eleanor was imprisoned for her role in the revolt . John had spent the conflict travelling alongside his father , and was given widespread possessions across the Angevin empire as part of the Montlouis settlement ; from then onwards , most observers regarded John as Henry II ' s favourite child , although he was the furthest removed in terms of the royal succession . Henry II began to find more lands for John , mostly at various nobles ' expense . In 1175 he appropriated the estates of the late Earl of Cornwall and gave them to John . The following year , Henry disinherited the sisters of Isabelle of Gloucester , contrary to legal custom , and betrothed John to the now extremely wealthy Isabelle . In 1177 , at the Council of Oxford , Henry dismissed William FitzAldelm as the Lord of Ireland and replaced him with the ten - year - old John . Henry the Young King fought a short war with his brother Richard in 1183 over the status of England , Normandy and Aquitaine . Henry II moved in support of Richard , and Henry the Young King died from dysentery at the end of the campaign . With his primary heir dead , Henry rearranged the plans for the succession : Richard was to be made King of England , albeit without any actual power until the death of his father ; Geoffrey would retain Brittany ; and John would now become the Duke of Aquitaine in place of Richard . Richard refused to give up Aquitaine ; Henry II was furious and ordered John , with help from Geoffrey , to march south and retake the duchy by force . The two attacked the capital of Poitiers , and Richard responded by attacking Brittany . The war ended in stalemate and a tense family reconciliation in England at the end of 1184 . In 1185 John made his first visit to Ireland , accompanied by 300 knights and a team of administrators . Henry had tried to have John officially proclaimed King of Ireland , but Pope Lucius III would not agree . John ' s first period of rule in Ireland was not a success . Ireland had only recently been conquered by Anglo - Norman forces , and tensions were still rife between Henry II , the new settlers and the existing inhabitants . John infamously offended the local Irish rulers by making fun of their unfashionable long beards , failed to make allies amongst the Anglo - Norman settlers , began to lose ground militarily against the Irish and finally returned to England later in the year , blaming the viceroy , Hugh de Lacy , for the fiasco . The problems amongst John ' s wider family continued to grow . His elder brother Geoffrey died during a tournament in 1186 , leaving a posthumous son , Arthur , and an elder daughter , Eleanor . The duchy of Brittany was given to Arthur rather than John , but Geoffrey ' s death brought John slightly closer to the throne of England . The uncertainty about what would happen after Henry ' s death continued to grow ; Richard was keen to join a new crusade and remained concerned that whilst he was away Henry would appoint John his formal successor . Richard began discussions about a potential alliance with Philip II in Paris during 1187 , and the next year Richard gave homage to Philip in exchange for support for a war against Henry . Richard and Philip fought a joint campaign against Henry , and by the summer of 1189 the king made peace , promising Richard the succession . John initially remained loyal to his father , but changed sides once it appeared that Richard would win . Henry died shortly afterwards . Richard ' s reign ( 1189 – 99 ) . When John ' s elder brother Richard became king in September 1189 , he had already declared his intention of joining the Third Crusade . Richard set about raising the huge sums of money required for this expedition through the sale of lands , titles and appointments , and attempted to ensure that he would not face a revolt while away from his empire . John was made Count of Mortain , was married to the wealthy Isabel of Gloucester , and was given valuable lands in Lancaster and the counties of Cornwall , Derby , Devon , Dorset , Nottingham and Somerset , all with the aim of buying his loyalty to Richard whilst the king was on crusade . Richard retained royal control of key castles in these counties , thereby preventing John from accumulating too much military and political power , and , for the time being , the king named the four - year - old Arthur of Brittany as the heir to the throne . In return , John promised not to visit England for the next three years , thereby in theory giving Richard adequate time to conduct a successful crusade and return from the Levant without fear of John seizing power . Richard left political authority in England – the post of justiciar – jointly in the hands of Bishop Hugh de Puiset and William Mandeville , and made William Longchamp , the Bishop of Ely , his chancellor . Mandeville immediately died , and Longchamp took over as joint justiciar with Puiset , which would prove to be a less than satisfactory partnership . Eleanor , the queen mother , convinced Richard to allow John into England in his absence . The political situation in England rapidly began to deteriorate . Longchamp refused to work with Puiset and became unpopular with the English nobility and clergy . John exploited this unpopularity to set himself up as an alternative ruler with his own royal court , complete with his own justiciar , chancellor and other royal posts , and was happy to be portrayed as an alternative regent , and possibly the next king . Armed conflict broke out between John and Longchamp , and by October 1191 Longchamp was isolated in the Tower of London with John in control of the city of London , thanks to promises John had made to the citizens in return for recognition as Richard ' s heir presumptive . At this point Walter of Coutances , the Archbishop of Rouen , returned to England , having been sent by Richard to restore order . John ' s position was undermined by Walter ' s relative popularity and by the news that Richard had married whilst in Cyprus , which presented the possibility that Richard would have legitimate children and heirs . The political turmoil continued . John began to explore an alliance with the French king Philip II , freshly returned from the crusade . John hoped to acquire Normandy , Anjou and the other lands in France held by Richard in exchange for allying himself with Philip . John was persuaded not to pursue an alliance by his mother . Longchamp , who had left England after Walter ' s intervention , now returned , and argued that he had been wrongly removed as justiciar . John intervened , suppressing Longchamp ' s claims in return for promises of support from the royal administration , including a reaffirmation of his position as heir to the throne . When Richard still did not return from the crusade , John began to assert that his brother was dead or otherwise permanently lost . Richard had in fact been captured en route to England by the Duke of Austria and was handed over to Emperor Henry VI , who held him for ransom . John seized the opportunity and went to Paris , where he formed an alliance with Philip . He agreed to set aside his wife , Isabella of Gloucester , and marry Philip ' s sister , Alys , in exchange for Philip ' s support . Fighting broke out in England between forces loyal to Richard and those being gathered by John . John ' s military position was weak and he agreed to a truce ; in early 1194 the king finally returned to England , and John ' s remaining forces surrendered . John retreated to Normandy , where Richard finally found him later that year . Richard declared that his younger brother – despite being 27 years old – was merely " a child who has had evil counsellors " and forgave him , but removed his lands with the exception of Ireland . For the remaining years of Richard ' s reign , John supported his brother on the continent , apparently loyally . Richard ' s policy on the continent was to attempt to regain the castles he had lost to Philip II whilst on crusade through steady , limited campaigns . He allied himself with the leaders of Flanders , Boulogne and the Holy Roman Empire to apply pressure on Philip from Germany . In 1195 John successfully conducted a sudden attack and siege of Évreux castle , and subsequently managed the defences of Normandy against Philip . The following year , John seized the town of Gamaches and led a raiding party within of Paris , capturing the Bishop of Beauvais . In return for this service , Richard withdrew his " malevontia " ( ill - will ) towards John , restored him to the county of Gloucestershire and made him again the Count of Mortain . Early reign ( 1199 – 1204 ) . Accession to the throne , 1199 . After Richard ' s death on 6 April 1199 there were two potential claimants to the Angevin throne : John , whose claim rested on being the sole surviving son of Henry II , and young Arthur of Brittany , who held a claim as the son of Geoffrey , John ' s elder brother . Richard appears to have started to recognise John as his legitimate heir in the final years before his death , but the matter was not clear - cut and medieval law gave little guidance as to how the competing claims should be decided . With Norman law favouring John as the only surviving son of Henry II and Angevin law favouring Arthur as the heir of Henry ' s elder son , the matter rapidly became an open conflict . John was supported by the bulk of the English and Norman nobility and was crowned at Westminster , backed by his mother , Eleanor . Arthur was supported by the majority of the Breton , Maine and Anjou nobles and received the support of Philip II , who remained committed to breaking up the Angevin territories on the continent . With Arthur ' s army pressing up the Loire valley towards Angers and Philip ' s forces moving down the valley towards Tours , John ' s continental empire was in danger of being cut in two . Warfare in Normandy at the time was shaped by the defensive potential of castles and the increasing costs of conducting campaigns . The Norman frontiers had limited natural defences but were heavily reinforced with castles , such as Château Gaillard , at strategic points , built and maintained at considerable expense . It was difficult for a commander to advance far into fresh territory without having secured his lines of communication by capturing these fortifications , which slowed the progress of any attack . Armies of the period could be formed from either feudal or mercenary forces . Feudal levies could only be raised for a fixed length of time before they returned home , forcing an end to a campaign ; mercenary forces , often called Brabançon s after the Duchy of Brabant but actually recruited from across northern Europe , could operate all year long and provide a commander with more strategic options to pursue a campaign , but cost much more than equivalent feudal forces . As a result commanders of the period were increasingly drawing on larger numbers of mercenaries . After his coronation , John moved south into France with military forces and adopted a defensive posture along the eastern and southern Normandy borders . Both sides paused for desultory negotiations before the war recommenced ; John ' s position was now stronger , thanks to confirmation that Count Baldwin of Flanders and Renaud of Boulogne had renewed the anti - French alliances they had previously agreed to with Richard . The powerful Anjou nobleman William de Roches was persuaded to switch sides from Arthur to John ; suddenly the balance seemed to be tipping away from Philip and Arthur in favour of John . Neither side was keen to continue the conflict , and following a papal truce the two leaders met in January 1200 to negotiate possible terms for peace . From John ' s perspective , what then followed represented an opportunity to stabilise control over his continental possessions and produce a lasting peace with Philip in Paris . John and Philip negotiated the May 1200 Treaty of Le Goulet ; by this treaty , Philip recognised John as the rightful heir to Richard in respect to his French possessions , temporarily abandoning the wider claims of his client , Arthur . John , in turn , abandoned Richard ' s former policy of containing Philip through alliances with Flanders and Boulogne , and accepted Philip ' s right as the legitimate feudal overlord of John ' s lands in France . John ' s policy earned him the disrespectful title of " John Softsword " from some English chroniclers , who contrasted his behaviour with his more aggressive brother , Richard . Le Goulet peace , 1200 – 02 . The new peace would only last for two years ; war recommenced in the aftermath of John ' s decision in August 1200 to marry Isabella of Angoulême . In order to remarry , John first needed to abandon Isabel , Countess of Gloucester , his first wife ; John accomplished this by arguing that he had failed to get the necessary papal permission to marry Isabel in the first place – as a cousin , John could not have legally wed her without this . It remains unclear why John chose to marry Isabella of Angoulême . Contemporary chroniclers argued that John had fallen deeply in love with Isabella , and John may have been motivated by desire for an apparently beautiful , if rather young , girl . On the other hand , the Angoumois lands that came with Isabella were strategically vital to John : by marrying Isabella , John was acquiring a key land route between Poitou and Gascony , which significantly strengthened his grip on Aquitaine . Unfortunately , Isabella was already engaged to Hugh de Lusignan , an important member of a key Poitou noble family and brother of Raoul de Lusignan , the Count of Eu , who possessed lands along the sensitive eastern Normandy border . Just as John stood to benefit strategically from marrying Isabella , so the marriage threatened the interests of the Lusignans , whose own lands currently provided the key route for royal goods and troops across Aquitaine . Rather than negotiating some form of compensation , John treated Hugh " with contempt " ; this resulted in a Lusignan uprising that was promptly crushed by John , who also intervened to suppress Raoul in Normandy . Although John was the Count of Poitou and therefore the rightful feudal lord over the Lusignans , they could legitimately appeal John ' s actions in France to his own feudal lord , Philip . Hugh did exactly this in 1201 and Philip summoned John to attend court in Paris in 1202 , citing the Le Goulet treaty to strengthen his case . John was unwilling to weaken his authority in western France in this way . He argued that he need not attend Philip ' s court because of his special status as the Duke of Normandy , who was exempt by feudal tradition from being called to the French court . Philip argued that he was summoning John not as the Duke of Normandy , but as the Count of Poitou , which carried no such special status . When John still refused to come , Philip declared John in breach of his feudal responsibilities , reassigned all of John ' s lands that fell under the French crown to Arthur – with the exception of Normandy , which he took back for himself – and began a fresh war against John . Loss of Normandy , 1202 – 04 . John initially adopted a defensive posture similar to that of 1199 : avoiding open battle and carefully defending his key castles . John ' s operations became more chaotic as the campaign progressed , and Philip began to make steady progress in the east . John became aware in July that Arthur ' s forces were threatening his mother , Eleanor , at Mirebeau Castle . Accompanied by William de Roches , his seneschal in Anjou , he swung his mercenary army rapidly south to protect her . His forces caught Arthur by surprise and captured the entire rebel leadership at the battle of Mirebeau . With his southern flank weakening , Philip was forced to withdraw in the east and turn south himself to contain John ' s army . John ' s position in France was considerably strengthened by the victory at Mirebeau , but John ' s treatment of his new prisoners and of his ally , William de Roches , quickly undermined these gains . De Roches was a powerful Anjou noble , but John largely ignored him , causing considerable offence , whilst the king kept the rebel leaders in such bad conditions that twenty - two of them died . At this time most of the regional nobility were closely linked through kinship , and this behaviour towards their relatives was regarded as unacceptable . William de Roches and other of John ' s regional allies in Anjou and Brittany deserted him in favour of Philip , and Brittany rose in fresh revolt . John ' s financial situation was tenuous : once factors such as the comparative military costs of materiel and soldiers were taken into account , Philip enjoyed a considerable , although not overwhelming , advantage of resources over John . Further desertions of John ' s local allies at the beginning of 1203 steadily reduced John ' s freedom to manoeuvre in the region . He attempted to convince Pope Innocent III to intervene in the conflict , but Innocent ' s efforts were unsuccessful . As the situation became worse for John , he appears to have decided to have Arthur killed , with the aim of removing his potential rival and of undermining the rebel movement in Brittany . Arthur had initially been imprisoned at Falaise and was then moved to Rouen . After this , Arthur ' s fate remains uncertain , but modern historians believe he was murdered by John . The annals of Margam Abbey suggest that " John had captured Arthur and kept him alive in prison for some time in the castle of Rouen . . . when John was drunk he slew Arthur with his own hand and tying a heavy stone to the body cast it into the Seine . " Rumours of the manner of Arthur ' s death further reduced support for John across the region . Arthur ' s sister , Eleanor , who had also been captured at Mirebeau , was kept imprisoned by John for many years , albeit in relatively good conditions . In late 1203 , John attempted to relieve Château Gaillard , which although besieged by Philip was guarding the eastern flank of Normandy . John attempted a synchronised operation involving land - based and water - borne forces , considered by most historians today to have been imaginative in conception , but overly complex for forces of the period to have carried out successfully . John ' s relief operation was blocked by Philip ' s forces , and John turned back to Brittany in an attempt to draw Philip away from eastern Normandy . John successfully devastated much of Brittany , but did not deflect Philip ' s main thrust into the east of Normandy . Opinions vary amongst historians as to the military skill shown by John during this campaign , with most recent historians arguing that his performance was passable , although not impressive . John ' s situation began to deteriorate rapidly . The eastern border region of Normandy had been extensively cultivated by Philip and his predecessors for several years , whilst Angevin authority in the south had been undermined by Richard ' s giving away of various key castles some years before . His use of " routier " mercenaries in the central regions had rapidly eaten away his remaining support in this area too , which set the stage for a sudden collapse of Angevin power . John retreated back across the Channel in December , sending orders for the establishment of a fresh defensive line to the west of Chateau Gaillard . In March 1204 , Gaillard fell . John ' s mother Eleanor died the following month . This was not just a personal blow for John , but threatened to unravel the widespread Angevin alliances across the far south of France . Philip moved south around the new defensive line and struck upwards at the heart of the Duchy , now facing little resistance . By August , Philip had taken Normandy and advanced south to occupy Anjou and Poitou as well . John ' s only remaining possession on the Continent was now the Duchy of Aquitaine . John as king . Kingship and royal administration . The nature of government under the Angevin monarchs was ill - defined and uncertain . John ' s predecessors had ruled using the principle of " vis et voluntas " , or " force and will " , taking executive and sometimes arbitrary decisions , often justified on the basis that a king was above the law . Both Henry II and Richard had argued that kings possessed a quality of " divine majesty " ; John continued this trend and claimed an " almost imperial status " for himself as ruler . During the 12th century , there were contrary opinions expressed about the nature of kingship , and many contemporary writers believed that monarchs should rule in accordance with the custom and the law , and take counsel of the leading members of the realm . There was as yet no model for what should happen if a king refused to do so . Despite his claim to unique authority within England , John would sometimes justify his actions on the basis that he had taken council with the barons . Modern historians remain divided as to whether John suffered from a case of " royal schizophrenia " in his approach to government , or if his actions merely reflected the complex model of Angevin kingship in the early 13th century . John inherited a sophisticated system of administration in England , with a range of royal agents answering to the Royal Household : the Chancery kept written records and communications ; the Treasury and the Exchequer dealt with income and expenditure respectively ; and various judges were deployed to deliver justice around the kingdom . Thanks to the efforts of men like Hubert Walter , this trend towards improved record keeping continued into his reign . Like previous kings , John managed a peripatetic court that travelled around the kingdom , dealing with both local and national matters as he went . John was very active in the administration of England and was involved in every aspect of government . In part he was following in the tradition of Henry I and Henry II , but by the 13th century the volume of administrative work had greatly increased , which put much more pressure on a king who wished to rule in this style . John was in England for much longer periods than his predecessors , which made his rule more personal than that of previous kings , particularly in previously ignored areas such as the north . The administration of justice was of particular importance to John . Several new processes had been introduced to English law under Henry II , including " novel disseisin " and " mort d ' ancestor " . These processes meant the royal courts had a more significant role in local law cases , which had previously been dealt with only by regional or local lords . John increased the professionalism of local sergeants and bailiffs , and extended the system of coroners first introduced by Hubert Walter in 1194 , creating a new class of borough coroners . John worked extremely hard to ensure that this system operated well , through judges he had appointed , by fostering legal specialists and expertise , and by intervening in cases himself . John continued to try relatively minor cases , even during military crises . Viewed positively , Lewis Warren considers that John discharged " his royal duty of providing justice . . . with a zeal and a tirelessness to which the English common law is greatly endebted " . Seen more critically , John may have been motivated by the potential of the royal legal process to raise fees , rather than a desire to deliver simple justice ; John ' s legal system also only applied to free men , rather than to all of the population . Nonetheless , these changes were popular with many free tenants , who acquired a more reliable legal system that could bypass the barons , against whom such cases were often brought . John ' s reforms were less popular with the barons themselves , especially as they remained subject to arbitrary and frequently vindictive royal justice . Economy . One of John ' s principal challenges was acquiring the large sums of money needed for his proposed campaigns to reclaim Normandy . The Angevin kings had three main sources of income available to them , namely revenue from their personal lands , or " demesne " ; money raised through their rights as a feudal lord ; and revenue from taxation . Revenue from the royal demesne was inflexible and had been diminishing slowly since the Norman conquest . Matters were not helped by Richard ' s sale of many royal properties in 1189 , and taxation played a much smaller role in royal income than in later centuries . English kings had widespread feudal rights which could be used to generate income , including the scutage system , in which feudal military service was avoided by a cash payment to the king . He derived income from fines , court fees and the sale of charters and other privileges . John intensified his efforts to maximise all possible sources of income , to the extent that he has been described as " avaricious , miserly , extortionate and moneyminded " . John also used revenue generation as a way of exerting political control over the barons : debts owed to the crown by the king ' s favoured supporters might be forgiven ; collection of those owed by enemies was more stringently enforced . The result was a sequence of innovative but unpopular financial measures . John levied scutage payments eleven times in his seventeen years as king , as compared to eleven times in total during the reign of the preceding three monarchs . In many cases these were levied in the absence of any actual military campaign , which ran counter to the original idea that scutage was an alternative to actual military service . John maximised his right to demand relief payments when estates and castles were inherited , sometimes charging enormous sums , beyond barons ' abilities to pay . Building on the successful sale of sheriff appointments in 1194 , John initiated a new round of appointments , with the new incumbents making back their investment through increased fines and penalties , particularly in the forests . Another innovation of Richard ' s , increased charges levied on widows who wished to remain single , was expanded under John . John continued to sell charters for new towns , including the planned town of Liverpool , and charters were sold for markets across the kingdom and in Gascony . The king introduced new taxes and extended existing ones . The Jews , who held a vulnerable position in medieval England , protected only by the king , were subject to huge taxes ; £44 , 000 was extracted from the community by the tallage of 1210 ; much of it was passed on to the Christian debtors of Jewish moneylenders . John created a new tax on income and movable goods in 1207 – effectively a version of a modern income tax – that produced £60 , 000 ; he created a new set of import and export duties payable directly to the crown . John found that these measures enabled to him to raise further resources through the confiscation of the lands of barons who could not pay or refused to pay . At the start of John ' s reign there was a sudden change in prices , as bad harvests and high demand for food resulted in much higher prices for grain and animals . This inflationary pressure was to continue for the rest of the 13th century and had long - term economic consequences for England . The resulting social pressures were complicated by bursts of deflation that resulted from John ' s military campaigns . It was usual at the time for the king to collect taxes in silver , which was then re - minted into new coins ; these coins would then be put in barrels and sent to royal castles around the country , to be used to hire mercenaries or to meet other costs . At those times when John was preparing for campaigns in Normandy , for example , huge quantities of silver had to be withdrawn from the economy and stored for months , which unintentionally resulted in periods during which silver coins were simply hard to come by , commercial credit difficult to acquire and deflationary pressure placed on the economy . The result was political unrest across the country . John attempted to address some of the problems with the English currency in 1204 and 1205 by carrying out a radical overhaul of the coinage , improving its quality and consistency . Royal household and " ira et malevolentia " . John ' s royal household was based around several groups of followers . One group was the " familiares regis " , John ' s immediate friends and knights who travelled around the country with him . They also played an important role in organising and leading military campaigns . Another section of royal followers were the " curia regis " ; these " curiales " were the senior officials and agents of the king and were essential to his day - to - day rule . Being a member of these inner circles brought huge advantages , as it was easier to gain favours from the king , file lawsuits , marry a wealthy heiress or have one ' s debts remitted . By the time of Henry II , these posts were increasingly being filled by " new men " from outside the normal ranks of the barons . This intensified under John ' s rule , with many lesser nobles arriving from the continent to take up positions at court ; many were mercenary leaders from Poitou . These men included soldiers who would become infamous in England for their uncivilised behaviour , including Falkes de Breauté , Geard d ' Athies , Engelard de Cigongé and Philip Marc . Many barons perceived the king ' s household as what Ralph Turner has characterised as a " narrow clique enjoying royal favour at barons ' expense " staffed by men of lesser status . This trend for the king to rely on his own men at the expense of the barons was exacerbated by the tradition of Angevin royal " ira et malevolentia " – " anger and ill - will " – and John ' s own personality . From Henry II onwards , " ira et malevolentia " had come to describe the right of the king to express his anger and displeasure at particular barons or clergy , building on the Norman concept of " malevoncia " – royal ill - will . In the Norman period , suffering the king ' s ill - will meant difficulties in obtaining grants , honours or petitions ; Henry II had infamously expressed his fury and ill - will towards Thomas Becket ; this ultimately resulted in Becket ' s death . John now had the additional ability to " cripple his vassals " on a significant scale using his new economic and judicial measures , which made the threat of royal anger all the more serious . John was deeply suspicious of the barons , particularly those with sufficient power and wealth to potentially challenge the king . Numerous barons were subjected to John ' s " malevolentia " , even including William Marshal , a famous knight and baron normally held up as a model of utter loyalty . The most infamous case , which went beyond anything considered acceptable at the time , proved to be that of William de Braose , a powerful marcher lord with lands in Ireland . De Braose was subjected to punitive demands for money , and when he refused to pay a huge sum of 40 , 000 mark s ( equivalent to £26 , 666 at the time ) , his wife and one of his sons were imprisoned by John , which resulted in their death . De Braose died in exile in 1211 , and his grandsons remained in prison until 1218 . John ' s suspicions and jealousies meant that he rarely enjoyed good relationships with even the leading loyalist barons . Personal life . John ' s personal life greatly affected his reign . Contemporary chroniclers state that John was sinfully lustful and lacking in piety . It was common for kings and nobles of the period to keep mistresses , but chroniclers complained that John ' s mistresses were married noblewomen , which was considered unacceptable . John had at least five children with mistresses during his first marriage to Isabelle of Gloucester , and two of those mistresses are known to have been noblewomen . John ' s behaviour after his second marriage to Isabella of Angoulême is less clear , however . None of John ' s known illegitimate children were born after he remarried , and there is no actual documentary proof of adultery after that point , although John certainly had female friends amongst the court throughout the period . The specific accusations made against John during the baronial revolts are now generally considered to have been invented for the purposes of justifying the revolt ; nonetheless , most of John ' s contemporaries seem to have held a poor opinion of his sexual behaviour . The character of John ' s relationship with his second wife , Isabella of Angoulême , is unclear . John married Isabella whilst she was relatively young – her exact date of birth is uncertain , and estimates place her between at most 15 and more probably towards nine years old at the time of her marriage . Even by the standards of the time , Isabella was married whilst very young . John did not provide a great deal of money for his wife ' s household and did not pass on much of the revenue from her lands , to the extent that historian Nicholas Vincent has described him as being " downright mean " towards Isabella . Vincent concluded that the marriage was not a particularly " amicable " one . Other aspects of their marriage suggest a closer , more positive relationship . Chroniclers recorded that John had a " mad infatuation " with Isabella , and certainly John had conjugal relationships with Isabella between at least 1207 and 1215 ; they had five children . In contrast to Vincent , historian William Chester Jordan concludes that the pair were a " companionable couple " who had a successful marriage by the standards of the day . John ' s lack of religious conviction has been noted by contemporary chroniclers and later historians , with some suspecting that John was at best impious , or even atheistic , a very serious issue at the time . Contemporary chroniclers catalogued his various anti - religious habits at length , including his failure to take communion , his blasphemous remarks , and his witty but scandalous jokes about church doctrine , including jokes about the implausibility of the Resurrection . They commented on the paucity of John ' s charitable donations to the church . Historian Frank McLynn argues that John ' s early years at Fontevrault , combined with his relatively advanced education , may have turned him against the church . Other historians have been more cautious in interpreting this material , noting that chroniclers also reported John ' s personal interest in the life of St Wulfstan of Worcester and his friendships with several senior clerics , most especially with Hugh of Lincoln , who was later declared a saint . Financial records show a normal royal household engaged in the usual feasts and pious observances – albeit with many records showing John ' s offerings to the poor to atone for routinely breaking church rules and guidance . Later reign ( 1204 – 14 ) . Continental policy . During the remainder of his reign , John focused on trying to retake Normandy . The available evidence suggests that John did not regard the loss of the Duchy as a permanent shift in Capetian power . Strategically , John faced several challenges : England itself had to be secured against possible French invasion , the sea - routes to Bordeaux needed to be secured following the loss of the land route to Aquitaine , and his remaining possessions in Aquitaine needed to be secured following the death of his mother , Eleanor , in April 1204 . John ' s preferred plan was to use Poitou as a base of operations , advance up the Loire valley to threaten Paris , pin down the French forces and break Philip ' s internal lines of communication before landing a maritime force in the Duchy itself . Ideally , this plan would benefit from the opening of a second front on Philip ' s eastern frontiers with Flanders and Boulogne – effectively a re - creation of Richard ' s old strategy of applying pressure from Germany . All of this would require a great deal of money and soldiers . John spent much of 1205 securing England against a potential French invasion . As an emergency measure , John recreated a version of Henry II ' s Assize of Arms of 1181 , with each shire creating a structure to mobilise local levies . When the threat of invasion faded , John formed a large military force in England intended for Poitou , and a large fleet with soldiers under his own command intended for Normandy . To achieve this , John reformed the English feudal contribution to his campaigns , creating a more flexible system under which only one knight in ten would actually be mobilised , but would be financially supported by the other nine ; knights would serve for an indefinite period . John built up a strong team of engineers for siege warfare and a substantial force of professional crossbowmen . The king was supported by a team of leading barons with military expertise , including William Longespée , William the Marshal , Roger de Lacy and , until he fell from favour , the marcher lord William de Braose . John had already begun to improve his Channel forces before the loss of Normandy and he rapidly built up further maritime capabilities after its collapse . Most of these ships were placed along the Cinque Ports , but Portsmouth was also enlarged . By the end of 1204 he had around 50 large galley s available ; another 54 vessels were built between 1209 and 1212 . William of Wrotham was appointed " keeper of the galleys " , effectively John ' s chief admiral . Wortham was responsible for fusing John ' s galleys , the ships of the Cinque Ports and pressed merchant vessels into a single operational fleet . John adopted recent improvements in ship design , including new large transport ships called " buisses " and removable forecastle s for use in combat . Baronial unrest in England prevented the departure of the planned 1205 expedition , and only a smaller force under William Longespée deployed to Poitou . In 1206 John departed for Poitou himself , but was forced to divert south to counter a threat to Gascony from Alfonso VIII of Castile . After a successful campaign against Alfonso , John headed north again , taking the city of Angers . Philip moved south to meet John ; the year ' s campaigning ended in stalemate and a two - year truce was made between the two rulers . During the truce of 1206 – 1208 , John focused on building up his financial and military resources in preparation for another attempt to recapture Normandy . John used some of this money to pay for new alliances on Philip ' s eastern frontiers , where the growth in Capetian power was beginning to concern France ' s neighbours . By 1212 John had successfully concluded alliances with Renault of Dammartin , who controlled Boulogne , and Count Ferdinand of Flanders , as well as Otto IV , a contender for the crown of Holy Roman Emperor in Germany ; Otto was also John ' s nephew . The invasion plans for 1212 were postponed because of fresh English baronial unrest about service in Poitou . Philip seized the initiative in 1213 , sending his son , Prince Louis , to invade Flanders with the intention of next launching an invasion of England . John was forced to postpone his own invasion plans to counter this threat . He launched his new fleet to attack the French at the harbour of Damme . The attack was a success , destroying Philip ' s vessels and any chances of an invasion of England that year . John hoped to exploit this advantage by invading himself late in 1213 , but baronial discontent again delayed his invasion plans until early 1214 , in what would prove to be his final Continental campaign . Scotland , Ireland and Wales . In the late 12th and early 13th centuries the border and political relationship between England and Scotland was disputed , with the kings of Scotland claiming parts of what is now northern England . John ' s father , Henry II , had forced William of Scotland to swear fealty to him at the Treaty of Falaise in 1174 . This had been rescinded by Richard I in exchange for financial compensation in 1189 , but the relationship remained uneasy . John began his reign by reasserting his sovereignty over the disputed northern counties . He refused William ' s request for the earldom of Northumbria , but did not intervene in Scotland itself and focused on his continental problems . The two kings maintained a friendly relationship , meeting in 1206 and 1207 , until it was rumoured in 1209 that William was intending to ally himself with Philip II of France . John invaded Scotland and forced William to sign the Treaty of Norham , which gave John control of William ' s daughters and required a payment of £10 , 000 . This effectively crippled William ' s power north of the border , and by 1212 John had to intervene militarily to support the Scottish king against his internal rivals . John made no efforts to reinvigorate the Treaty of Falaise , though , and both William and Alexander remained independent kings , supported by , but not owing fealty to , John . John remained Lord of Ireland throughout his reign . He drew on the country for resources to fight his war with Philip on the continent . Conflict continued in Ireland between the Anglo - Norman settlers and the indigenous Irish chieftains , with John manipulating both groups to expand his wealth and power in the country . During Richard ' s rule , John had successfully increased the size of his lands in Ireland , and he continued this policy as king . In 1210 the king crossed into Ireland with a large army to crush a rebellion by the Anglo - Norman lords ; he reasserted his control of the country and used a new charter to order compliance with English laws and customs in Ireland . John stopped short of trying to actively enforce this charter on the native Irish kingdoms , but historian David Carpenter suspects that he might have done so , had the baronial conflict in England not intervened . Simmering tensions remained with the native Irish leaders even after John left for England . Royal power in Wales was unevenly applied , with the country divided between the marcher lords along the borders , royal territories in Pembrokeshire and the more independent native Welsh lords of North Wales . John took a close interest in Wales and knew the country well , visiting every year between 1204 and 1211 and marrying his illegitimate daughter , Joan , to the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great . The king used the marcher lords and the native Welsh to increase his own territory and power , striking a sequence of increasingly precise deals backed by royal military power with the Welsh rulers . A major royal expedition to enforce these agreements occurred in 1211 , after Llywelyn attempted to exploit the instability caused by the removal of William de Braose , through the Welsh uprising of 1211 . John ' s invasion , striking into the Welsh heartlands , was a military success . Llywelyn came to terms that included an expansion of John ' s power across much of Wales , albeit only temporarily . Dispute with the Pope . When the Archbishop of Canterbury , Hubert Walter , died on 13 July 1205 , John became involved in a dispute with Pope Innocent III that would lead to the king ' s excommunication . The Norman and Angevin kings had traditionally exercised a great deal of power over the church within their territories . From the 1040s onwards , however , successive popes had put forward a reforming message that emphasised the importance of the church being " governed more coherently and more hierarchically from the centre " and established " its own sphere of authority and jurisdiction , separate from and independent of that of the lay ruler " , in the words of historian Richard Huscroft . After the 1140s , these principles had been largely accepted within the English church , albeit with an element of concern about centralising authority in Rome . These changes brought the customary rights of lay rulers such as John over ecclesiastical appointments into question . Pope Innocent was , according to historian Ralph Turner , an " ambitious and aggressive " religious leader , insistent on his rights and responsibilities within the church . John wanted John de Gray , the Bishop of Norwich and one of his own supporters , to be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury after the death of Walter , but the cathedral chapter for Canterbury Cathedral claimed the exclusive right to elect Walter ' s successor . They favoured Reginald , the chapter ' s sub - prior . To complicate matters , the bishops of the province of Canterbury also claimed the right to appoint the next Archbishop . The chapter secretly elected Reginald and he travelled to Rome to be confirmed ; the bishops challenged the appointment and the matter was taken before Innocent . John forced the Canterbury chapter to change their support to John de Gray , and a messenger was sent to Rome to inform the papacy of the new decision . Innocent disavowed both Reginald and John de Gray , and instead appointed his own candidate , Stephen Langton . John refused Innocent ' s request that he consent to Langton ' s appointment , but the pope consecrated Langton anyway in June 1207 . John was incensed about what he perceived as an abrogation of his customary right as monarch to influence the election . He complained both about the choice of Langton as an individual , as John felt he was overly influenced by the Capetian court in Paris , and about the process as a whole . He barred Langton from entering England and seized the lands of the archbishopric and other papal possessions . Innocent set a commission in place to try to convince John to change his mind , but to no avail . Innocent then placed an interdict on England in March 1208 , prohibiting clergy from conducting religious services , with the exception of baptisms for the young , and confessions and absolutions for the dying . John treated the interdict as " the equivalent of a papal declaration of war " . He responded by attempting to punish Innocent personally and to drive a wedge between those English clergy that might support him and those allying themselves firmly with the authorities in Rome . John seized the lands of those clergy unwilling to conduct services , as well as those estates linked to Innocent himself ; he arrested the illicit concubines that many clerics kept during the period , only releasing them after the payment of fines ; he seized the lands of members of the church who had fled England , and he promised protection for those clergy willing to remain loyal to him . In many cases , individual institutions were able to negotiate terms for managing their own properties and keeping the produce of their estates . By 1209 the situation showed no signs of resolution , and Innocent threatened to excommunicate John if he did not acquiesce to Langton ' s appointment . When this threat failed , Innocent excommunicated the king in November 1209 . Although theoretically a significant blow to John ' s legitimacy , this did not appear to greatly worry the king . Two of John ’ s close allies , Emperor Otto and Count Raymond VI of Toulouse , had already suffered the same punishment themselves , and the significance of excommunication had been somewhat devalued . John simply tightened his existing measures and accrued significant sums from the income of vacant sees and abbeys : one 1213 estimate , for example , suggested the church had lost an estimated 100 , 000 marks ( equivalent to £66 , 666 at the time ) to John . Official figures suggest that around 14 % of annual income from the English church was being appropriated by John each year . Innocent gave some dispensations as the crisis progressed . Monastic communities were allowed to celebrate mass in private from 1209 onwards , and late in 1212 the viaticum for the dying was authorised . The rules on burials and lay access to churches appear to have been steadily circumvented , at least unofficially . Although the interdict was a burden to much of the population , it did not result in rebellion against John . By 1213 , though , John was increasingly worried about the threat of French invasion . Some contemporary chroniclers suggested that in January Philip II of France had been charged with deposing John on behalf of the papacy , although it appears that Innocent merely prepared secret letters in case Innocent needed to claim the credit if Philip did successfully invade England . Under mounting political pressure , John finally negotiated terms for a reconciliation , and the papal terms for submission were accepted in the presence of the papal legate Pandulph in May 1213 at the Templar Church at Dover . As part of the deal , John offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to the papacy for a feudal service of 1 , 000 marks ( equivalent to £666 at the time ) annually : 700 marks ( £466 ) for England and 300 marks ( £200 ) for Ireland , as well as recompensing the church for revenue lost during the crisis . The agreement was formalised in the " Bulla Aurea " , or Golden Bull . This resolution produced mixed responses . Although some chroniclers felt that John had been humiliated by the sequence of events , there was little public reaction . Innocent benefited from the resolution of his long - standing English problem , but John probably gained more , as Innocent became a firm supporter of John for the rest of his reign , backing him in both domestic and continental policy issues . Innocent immediately turned against Philip , calling upon him to reject plans to invade England and to sue for peace . John paid some of the compensation money he had promised the church , but he ceased making payments in late 1214 , leaving two - thirds of the sum unpaid ; Innocent appears to have conveniently forgotten this debt for the good of the wider relationship . Failure in France and the First Barons ' War ( 1215 – 16 ) . Tensions and discontent . Tensions between John and the barons had been growing for several years , as demonstrated by the 1212 plot against the king . Many of the disaffected barons came from the north of England ; that faction was often labelled by contemporaries and historians as " the Northerners " . The northern barons rarely had any personal stake in the conflict in France , and many of them owed large sums of money to John ; the revolt has been characterised as " a rebellion of the king ' s debtors " . Many of John ' s military household joined the rebels , particularly amongst those that John had appointed to administrative roles across England ; their local links and loyalties outweighed their personal loyalty to John . Tension also grew across North Wales , where opposition to the 1211 treaty between John and Llywelyn was turning into open conflict . For some the appointment of Peter des Roches as justiciar was an important factor , as he was considered an " abrasive foreigner " by many of the barons . The failure of John ' s French military campaign in 1214 was probably the final straw that precipitated the baronial uprising during John ' s final years as king ; James Holt describes the path to civil war as " direct , short and unavoidable " following the defeat at Bouvines . Failure of the 1214 French campaign . In 1214 John began his final campaign to reclaim Normandy from Philip . John was optimistic , as he had successfully built up alliances with the Emperor Otto , Renaud of Boulogne and Count Ferdinand of Flanders ; he was enjoying papal favour ; and he had successfully built up substantial funds to pay for the deployment of his experienced army . Nonetheless , when John left for Poitou in February 1214 , many barons refused to provide military service ; mercenary knights had to fill the gaps . John ' s plan was to split Philip ' s forces by pushing north - east from Poitou towards Paris , whilst Otto , Renaud and Ferdinand , supported by William Longespée , marched south - west from Flanders . The first part of the campaign went well , with John outmanoeuvring the forces under the command of Prince Louis and retaking the county of Anjou by the end of June . John besieged the castle of Roche - au - Moine , a key stronghold , forcing Louis to give battle against John ' s larger army . The local Angevin nobles refused to advance with the king ; left at something of a disadvantage , John retreated back to La Rochelle . Shortly afterwards , Philip won the hard - fought battle of Bouvines in the east against Otto and John ' s other allies , bringing an end to John ' s hopes of retaking Normandy . A peace agreement was signed in which John returned Anjou to Philip and paid the French king compensation ; the truce was intended to last for six years . John arrived back in England in October . Pre - war tensions and Magna Carta . Within a few months of John ' s return , rebel barons in the north and east of England were organising resistance to his rule . John held a council in London in January 1215 to discuss potential reforms and sponsored discussions in Oxford between his agents and the rebels during the spring . John appears to have been playing for time until Pope Innocent III could send letters giving him explicit papal support . This was particularly important for John , as a way of pressuring the barons but also as a way of controlling Stephen Langton , the Archbishop of Canterbury . In the meantime , John began to recruit fresh mercenary forces from Poitou , although some were later sent back to avoid giving the impression that the king was escalating the conflict . John announced his intent to become a crusader , a move which gave him additional political protection under church law . Letters of support from the pope arrived in April but by then the rebel barons had organised . They congregated at Northampton in May and renounced their feudal ties to John , appointing Robert fitz Walter as their military leader . This self - proclaimed " Army of God " marched on London , taking the capital as well as Lincoln and Exeter . John ' s efforts to appear moderate and conciliatory had been largely successful , but once the rebels held London they attracted a fresh wave of defectors from John ' s royalist faction . John instructed Langton to organise peace talks with the rebel barons . John met the rebel leaders at Runnymede , near Windsor Castle , on 15 June 1215 . Langton ' s efforts at mediation created a charter capturing the proposed peace agreement ; it was later renamed " Magna Carta " , or " Great Charter " . The charter went beyond simply addressing specific baronial complaints , and formed a wider proposal for political reform , albeit one focusing on the rights of free men , not serfs and unfree labour . It promised the protection of church rights , protection from illegal imprisonment , access to swift justice , new taxation only with baronial consent and limitations on scutage and other feudal payments . A council of twenty - five neutral barons would be created to monitor and ensure John ' s future adherence to the charter , whilst the rebel army would stand down and London would be surrendered to the king . Neither John nor the rebel barons seriously attempted to implement the peace accord . The rebel barons suspected that the proposed baronial council would be unacceptable to John and that he would challenge the legality of the charter ; they packed the baronial council with their own hardliners and refused to demobilise their forces or surrender London as agreed . Despite his promises to the contrary , John appealed to Innocent for help , observing that the charter compromised the pope ' s rights under the 1213 agreement that had appointed him John ' s feudal lord . Innocent obliged ; he declared the charter " not only shameful and demeaning , but illegal and unjust " and excommunicated the rebel barons . The failure of the agreement led rapidly to the First Barons ' War . War with the barons . The rebels made the first move in the war , seizing the strategic Rochester Castle , owned by Langton but left almost unguarded by the archbishop . John was well prepared for a conflict . He had stockpiled money to pay for mercenaries and ensured the support of the powerful marcher lords with their own feudal forces , such as William Marshal and Ranulf of Chester . The rebels lacked the engineering expertise or heavy equipment necessary to assault the network of royal castles that cut off the northern rebel barons from those in the south . John ' s strategy was to isolate the rebel barons in London , protect his own supply lines to his key source of mercenaries in Flanders , prevent the French from landing in the south - east , and then win the war through slow attrition . John put off dealing with the badly deteriorating situation in North Wales , where Llywelyn the Great was leading a rebellion against the 1211 settlement . John ' s campaign started well . In November John retook Rochester Castle from rebel baron William d ' Aubigny in a sophisticated assault . One chronicler had not seen " a siege so hard pressed or so strongly resisted " , whilst historian Reginald Brown describes it as " one of the greatest [ siege ] operations in England up to that time " . Having regained the south - east John split his forces , sending William Longespée to retake the north side of London and East Anglia , whilst John himself headed north via Nottingham to attack the estates of the northern barons . Both operations were successful and the majority of the remaining rebels were pinned down in London . In January 1216 John marched against Alexander II of Scotland , who had allied himself with the rebel cause . John took back Alexander ' s possessions in northern England in a rapid campaign and pushed up towards Edinburgh over a ten - day period . The rebel barons responded by inviting Prince Louis of France to lead them : Louis had a claim to the English throne by virtue of his marriage to Blanche of Castile , a granddaughter of Henry II . Philip may have provided him with private support but refused to openly support Louis , who was excommunicated by Innocent for taking part in the war against John . Louis ' s planned arrival in England presented a significant problem for John , as the prince would bring with him naval vessels and siege engines essential to the rebel cause . Once John contained Alexander in Scotland , he marched south to deal with the challenge of the coming invasion . Prince Louis intended to land in the south of England in May 1216 , and John assembled a naval force to intercept him . Unfortunately for John , his fleet was dispersed by bad storms and Louis landed unopposed in Kent . John hesitated and decided not to attack Louis immediately , either due to the risks of open battle or over concerns about the loyalty of his own men . Louis and the rebel barons advanced west and John retreated , spending the summer reorganising his defences across the rest of the kingdom . John saw several of his military household desert to the rebels , including his half - brother , William Longespée . By the end of the summer the rebels had regained the south - east of England and parts of the north . Death . In September 1216 John began a fresh , vigorous attack . He marched from the Cotswolds , feigned an offensive to relieve the besieged Windsor Castle , and attacked eastwards around London to Cambridge to separate the rebel - held areas of Lincolnshire and East Anglia . From there he travelled north to relieve the rebel siege at Lincoln and back east to King ' s Lynn , probably to order further supplies from the continent . In King ' s Lynn , John contracted dysentery , which would ultimately prove fatal . Meanwhile , Alexander II invaded northern England again , taking Carlisle in August and then marching south to give homage to Prince Louis for his English possessions ; John narrowly missed intercepting Alexander along the way . Tensions between Louis and the English barons began to increase , prompting a wave of desertions , including William Marshal ' s son William and William Longespée , who both returned to John ' s faction . The king returned west but is said to have lost a significant part of his baggage train along the way . Roger of Wendover provides the most graphic account of this , suggesting that the king ' s belongings , including the Crown Jewels , were lost as he crossed one of the tidal estuaries which empties into the Wash , being sucked in by quicksand and whirlpool s . Accounts of the incident vary considerably between the various chroniclers and the exact location of the incident has never been confirmed ; the losses may have involved only a few of his pack - horses . Modern historians assert that by October 1216 John faced a " stalemate " , " a military situation uncompromised by defeat " . John ' s illness grew worse and by the time he reached Newark Castle he was unable to travel any farther ; John died on the night of 18 October . Numerous – probably fictitious – accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale , poisoned plums or a " surfeit of peaches " . His body was escorted south by a company of mercenaries and he was buried in Worcester Cathedral in front of the altar of St Wulfstan . A new sarcophagus with an effigy was made for him in 1232 , in which his remains now rest . Legacy . In the aftermath of John ' s death William Marshal was declared the protector of the nine - year - old Henry III . The civil war continued until royalist victories at the battles of Lincoln and Dover in 1217 . Louis gave up his claim to the English throne and signed the Treaty of Lambeth . The failed " Magna Carta " agreement was resuscitated by Marshal ' s protectorate and reissued in an edited form in 1217 as a basis for future government . Henry III continued his attempts to reclaim Normandy and Anjou until 1259 , but John ' s continental losses and the consequent growth of Capetian power in the 13th century proved to mark a " turning point in European history " . John ' s first wife , Isabel , Countess of Gloucester , was released from imprisonment in 1214 ; she remarried twice , and died in 1217 . John ' s second wife , Isabella of Angoulême , left England for Angoulême soon after the king ' s death ; she became a powerful regional leader , but largely abandoned the children she had had by John . John had five legitimate children , all by Isabella . His eldest son , Henry III , ruled as king for the majority of the 13th century . Richard became a noted European leader and ultimately the King of the Romans in the Holy Roman Empire . Joan married Alexander II of Scotland to become his queen consort . Isabella married the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II . His youngest daughter , Eleanor , married William Marshal ' s son , also called William , and later the famous English rebel Simon de Montfort . John had a number of illegitimate children by various mistresses , including nine sons – Richard , Oliver , John , Geoffrey , Henry , Osbert Gifford , Eudes , Bartholomew and probably Philip – and three daughters – Joan , Maud and probably Isabel . Of these , Joan became the most famous , marrying Prince Llywelyn the Great of Wales . Historiography . Historical interpretations of John have been subject to considerable change over the years . Medieval chronicle rs provided the first contemporary , or near contemporary , histories of John ' s reign . One group of chroniclers wrote early in John ' s life , or around the time of his accession , including Richard of Devizes , William of Newburgh , Roger of Hoveden and Ralph de Diceto . These historians were generally unsympathetic to John ' s behaviour under Richard ' s rule , but slightly more positive towards the very earliest years of John ' s reign . Reliable accounts of the middle and later parts of John ' s reign are more limited , with Gervase of Canterbury and Ralph of Coggeshall writing the main accounts ; neither of them were positive about John ' s performance as king . Much of John ' s later , negative reputation was established by two chroniclers writing after the king ' s death , Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris , the latter even inventing an account of John offering to convert to Islam . In the 16th century political and religious changes altered the attitude of historians towards John . Tudor historians were generally favourably inclined towards the king , focusing on John ' s opposition to the Papacy and his promotion of the special rights and prerogatives of a king . Revisionist histories written by John Foxe , William Tyndale and Robert Barnes portrayed John as an early Protestant hero , and John Foxe included the king in his " Book of Martyrs " . John Speed ' s " Historie of Great Britaine " in 1632 praised John ' s " great renown " as a king ; he blamed the bias of medieval chroniclers for the king ' s poor reputation . By the Victorian period in the 19th century historians were more inclined to draw on the judgements of the chroniclers and to focus on John ' s moral personality . Kate Norgate , for example , argued that John ' s downfall had been due not to his failure in war or strategy , but due to his " almost superhuman wickedness " , whilst James Ramsay blamed John ' s family background and his cruel personality for his downfall . Historians in the " Whiggish " tradition , focusing on documents such as the Domesday Book and " Magna Carta " , trace a progressive and universalist course of political and economic development in England over the medieval period . These historians were often inclined to see John ' s reign , and his signing of " Magna Carta " in particular , as a positive step in the constitutional development of England , despite the flaws of the king himself . Winston Churchill , for example , argued that " [ w ] hen 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 " . In the 1940s , new interpretations of John ' s reign began to emerge , based on research into the record evidence of his reign , such as pipe roll s , charters , court documents and similar primary records . Notably , an essay by Vivian Galbraith in 1945 proposed a " new approach " to understanding the ruler . The use of recorded evidence was combined with an increased scepticism about two of the most colourful chroniclers of John ' s reign , Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris . In many cases the detail provided by these chroniclers , both writing after John ' s death , was challenged by modern historians . Interpretations of " Magna Carta " and the role of the rebel barons in 1215 have been significantly revised : although the charter ' s symbolic , constitutional value for later generations is unquestionable , in the context of John ' s reign most historians now consider it a failed peace agreement between " partisan " factions . There has been increasing debate about the nature of John ' s Irish policies . Specialists in Irish medieval history , such as Sean Duffy , have challenged the conventional narrative established by Lewis Warren , suggesting that Ireland was less stable by 1216 than was previously supposed . Most historians today , including John ' s recent biographers Ralph Turner and Lewis Warren , argue that John was an unsuccessful monarch , but note that his failings were exaggerated by 12th - and 13th - century chroniclers . Jim Bradbury notes the consensus of contemporary historians that John was a " hard - working administrator , an able man , an able general " , albeit , as Turner suggests , with " distasteful , even dangerous personality traits " , including pettiness , spitefulness and cruelty . John Gillingham , author of a major biography of Richard I , follows this line too , although he considers John a less effective general than do Turner or Warren ; Bradbury takes a moderate line , but suggests that in recent years modern historians have been overly lenient towards John ' s numerous faults . Popular historian Frank McLynn maintains a counter - revisionist perspective on John , arguing that the king ' s modern reputation amongst historians is " bizarre " , and that as a monarch John " fails almost all those [ tests ] that can be legitimately set " . Popular representations . Popular representations of John first began to emerge during the Tudor period , mirroring the revisionist histories of the time . The anonymous play " The Troublesome Reign of King John " portrayed the king as a " proto - Protestant martyr " , similar to that shown in John Bale ' s morality play " Kynge Johan " , in which John attempts to save England from the " evil agents of the Roman Church " . By contrast , Shakespeare ' s " King John " , a relatively anti - Catholic play that draws on " The Troublesome Reign " for its source material , offers a more " balanced , dual view of a complex monarch as both a proto - Protestant victim of Rome ' s machinations and as a weak , selfishly motivated ruler " . Anthony Munday ' s play " The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington " portrays many of John ' s negative traits , but adopts a positive interpretation of the king ' s stand against the Roman Catholic Church , in line with the contemporary views of the Tudor monarchs . By the middle of the 17th century , plays such as Robert Davenport ' s " King John and Matilda " , although based largely on the earlier Elizabethan works , were transferring the role of Protestant champion to the barons and focusing more on the tyrannical aspects of John ' s behaviour . Nineteenth - century fictional depictions of John were heavily influenced by Sir Walter Scott ' s historical romance , " Ivanhoe " , which presented " an almost totally unfavourable picture " of the king ; the work drew on Victorian histories of the period and on Shakespeare ' s play . Scott ' s work influenced the late 19th - century children ' s writer Howard Pyle ' s book " The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood " , which in turn established John as the principal villain within the traditional Robin Hood narrative . During the 20th century , John was normally depicted in fictional books and films alongside Robin Hood . Sam De Grasse ' s role as John in the black - and - white 1922 film version shows John committing numerous atrocities and acts of torture . Claude Rains played John in the 1938 colour version alongside Errol Flynn , starting a trend for films to depict John as an " effeminate . . . arrogant and cowardly stay - at - home " . The character of John acts either to highlight the virtues of King Richard , or contrasts with the Sheriff of Nottingham , who is usually the " swashbuckling villain " opposing Robin . An extreme version of this trend can be seen in the Disney cartoon version , for example , which depicts John , voiced by Peter Ustinov , as a " cowardly , thumbsucking lion " . Popular works that depict John beyond the Robin Hood legends , such as James Goldman ' s play and later film , " The Lion in Winter " , set in 1183 , commonly present him as an " effete weakling " , in this instance contrasted with the more masculine Henry II .