BBC - History - Historic Figures: John (c.1167 - 1216) Historic Figures z John I © John was a king of England who is most famous for signing the Magna Carta. John was born around Christmas in 1166 or 1167 in Oxford, the youngest and favourite son of Henry II. On his father's death in 1189 his brother, Richard, became king. John received titles, lands and money, but this was not enough. In October 1190, Richard recognised his nephew, Arthur, as his heir. Three years later, when Richard was imprisoned in Germany, John tried to seize control. He was unsuccessful and, when Richard returned in early 1194, was banished. The two were soon reconciled and, when Arthur was captured by Philip II in 1196, Richard named John heir. In 1199, Richard died and John became king. War with France was renewed, triggered by John's second marriage.

While asked to mediate between the rival families of Lusignan and Angoulâme, he married the Angoulâme heiress Isabella, who had been betrothed to Hugh de Lusignan. A rebellion broke out and John was ordered to appear before his overlord, Philip II of France. His failure to do so resulted in war. By 1206, John had lost Normandy, Anjou, Maine and parts of Poitou. These failures were a damaging blow to his prestige and he was determined to win them back. This required money, so his government became increasingly ruthless and efficient in its financial administration. Taxes soared and he began to exploit his feudal rights ever more harshly. This bred increasing baronial discontent. Negotiations between John and his barons failed and civil war broke out in May 1215. When the rebels seized London, John was compelled to negotiate further and, on 19 June at Runnymede on the River Thames, he accepted the baronial terms embodied in the Magna Carta, which limited royal power, ensured feudal rights and restated English law.

It was the first formal document stating that the monarch was as much under the rule of law as his people, and that the rights of individuals were to be upheld even against the wishes of the sovereign. This settlement was soon rendered impractical when John claimed it was signed under duress. Pope Innocent took his side and in the ensuing civil war John laid waste to the northern counties and the Scottish border. Prince Louis of France then invaded at the barons' request. John continued to wage war vigorously, but his death in October 1216 enabled a compromise peace and the succession of his son Henry III. NFP: Images of King John (1166-1216) - King of England 1199-1216 King John (1166-1216) - King of England 1199-1216 John was the youngest son of King Henry II and brother of his predecessor, King Richard . In his youth, he ruled Ireland for his father, but only managed to alienate everyone he came across. He never got on with his brother, Richard, and tried to take over the country while the former was imprisoned in Germany.

When John became King he refused to appoint the Pope�s man as Archbishop of Canterbury and was excommunicated for his efforts. He lost almost all the English possessions in France and taxed the Barons to pay for his failure. They revolted and forced him to sign a document outlining their common rights. This was called the �Magna Carta�. The King, however, failed to keep his promises and the Barons were forced to ask the French to invade England and help them! The pictures on this page are cropped examples of images in our high resolution photo library. Please e-mail us for details of these or similar image availability at our very reasonable reproduction rates. Location release may be required for some photos.

King John | Britroyals Britroyals Born: December 24, 1166 at Beaumont Palace : Oxford Parents: Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine Relation to Elizabeth II: 21st great-grandfather House of: Angevin Ascended to the throne: April 6, 1199 aged 32 years Crowned: May 27, 1199 at Westminster Abbey Married: 1) Isabella of Gloucester, (annulled 1199), (2) Isabella, Daughter of Count of Angouleme Children: Two sons including Henry III, three daughters and several illegitimate children Died: October 18, 1216 at Newark Castle, aged 49 years, 9 months, and 24 days Buried at: Worcester Reigned for: 17 years, 6 months, and 13 days Succeeded by: his son Henry III John was nicknamed Lackland, probably because, as the youngest of Henry II's five sons, it was difficult to find a portion of his father's French possessions for him to inherit.

He was acting king from 1189 during his brother Richard the Lion-Heart's absence on the Third Crusade. The legend of Robin Hood dates from this time in which John is portrayed as Bad King John. He was involved in intrigues against his absent brother, but became king in 1199 when Richard was killed in battle in France. Most of his reign was dominated by war with France. Following the peace treaty of Le Goulet there was a brief peace, but fighting resumed again in 1202. John had lost Normandy and almost all the other English possessions in France to Philip II of France by 1204. He spent the next decade trying to regain these without success and was finally defeated by Philip Augustus at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. He was also in conflict with the Church. In 1205 he disputed the pope's choice of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, and Pope Innocent III placed England under an interdict, suspending all religious services, including baptisms, marriages, and burials. John retaliated by seizing church revenues, and in 1209 was excommunicated.

Eventually, John submitted, accepting the papal nominee, and agreed to hold the kingdom as a fief of the papacy; an annual monetary tribute was paid to the popes for the next 150 years by successive English monarchs. His repressive policies and ruthless taxation to fund the warin France brought him into conflict with his barons which became known as the Barons War. In 1215 rebel baron leaders marched on London where they were welcomed by an increasing band of defectors from John�s royalist supporters. Their demands were drawn up in a document which became the known as the Magna Carta. John sort peace and met them at Runnymede where on 15th June 1215 he agreed to their demands and sealed the Magna Carta. It was a remarkable document which set limits on the powers of the king, laid out the feudal obligations of the barons, confirmed the liberties of the Church, and granted rights to all freemen of the realm and their heirs for ever. It was the first written constitution. Read and view the Magna Carta . His concessions did not buy peace for long and the Barons War continued.

The barons sought French aid and Prince Louis of France landed in England supported by attacks from the North by Alexander II of Scotland. John fled and according to legend lost most of his baggage and the crown jewels when crossing the tidal estuaries of the Wash. He became ill with dysentery and died at Newark Castle in October 1216. Quotes: No free man shall be taken or imprisioned .. except by lawful judgement of his peers ..' - Magna Carta, Clause 39, 1215 Timeline for King John King John (1167 - 1216) - Find A Grave Memorial Newark and Sherwood District Nottinghamshire, England English Monarch. Born on Christmas Eve, he was the youngest son of Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine' s five sons. It was not expected that he would ever inherit, in fact, Henry left no land to John when he died, and John's oldest surviving brother inherited, becoming Richard I. In 1191, Richard left England to embark on the Third Crusade. He left John in place as regent.

While Richard was away, John attempted to seize his throne through plots with the king of France, Philip Augustus, prompting contemporaries to condemn him as �a mad-headed youth� and �nature�s enemy.� As Richard returned from the Crusades in 1192, he was captured and imprisoned by Duke Leopold of Austria. John again tried to seize the crown, but failed. In 1194, when Richard finally returned to England, John was forgiven. In 1199, Richard was killed in battle, and John finally managed to take the throne, though by the laws of succession, it should have gone to his nephew by his elder brother, Geoffrey, Arthur of Brittany. In 1203 he had his nephew seized and held prisoner first at Falaise and then at Rouen on the River Seine. At least two versions of Arthur's demise exist, one relates that John murdered, or had murdered, his nephew and had the body thrown into the Seine. John then arrested his niece, and had her held "under a gentle house arrest" for the rest of her life. Many in Brittany believed that John was responsible for Arthur's murder and they rebelled.

In 1204, John�s army was defeated there. Within five years, he had lost almost all of his continental territories to Philip Augustus. The losses nearly beggared him, and he responded by increasing tax demands. In 1207, John quarreled with the pope over the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The pope excommunicated John and put England under interdiction. In 1213, John capitulated, but the angry pope issued a bull in 1214, that proclaimed that anybody who tried to overthrow John would be legally entitled to do so. By 1214, John's repressive policies and ruthless taxation to fund the war in France brought him into conflict with his barons. Their rebellion became known as the Barons War. In 1215 rebel baron leaders marched on London where they were welcomed. Their demands of the king were drawn up in a document which became the known as the Magna Carta. John was compelled to meet with them at Runnymede where on 15 June 1215, he agreed to their demands and set his seal to the Magna Carta.

It was an unprecedented document which set limits on the powers of the king, laid out the feudal obligations of the barons, confirmed the liberties of the Church, and granted rights to all freemen of the realm and their heirs forever. Unfortunately, these concessions did not buy peace for long and the Barons War reignited. The barons sought French aid and Prince Louis of France landed in England supported by Alexander II of Scotland. John fled, and suffering from exhaustion, he contracted dysentery in October 1216, and died shortly thereafter at Newark Castle, at the age of 49. (bio by: Iola) Why is King John the classic villain? - BBC News BBC News Why is King John the classic villain? By Tom Geoghegan BBC News Magazine 1 March 2011 Close share panel Image caption Paul Giamatti is the latest to play King John as a villain in Ironclad A new film about King John further underlines history's judgement of the medieval English monarch as a cruel tyrant. But among the dozens of bad kings and despots, why is John always the pantomime villain?

Surrendering lands in France, forced into a humiliating climbdown with the nobility and excommunicated by the Church. Not to mention being blamed for the murder of his nephew. The medieval reign of King John has been characterised by disaster and his reputation languishes among the lowest for all the kings and queens of England. This poor standing is illustrated by his persistently negative appearances in British cultural life 800 years on. Depictions on television, stage and big screen, particularly in Robin Hood films, usually present a man who is treacherous and weak. Life of a king...

1166: Born in Oxford, youngest of four sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine Nicknamed Lackland because no obvious inheritance 1189: Brother Richard becomes king and names nephew Arthur as heir 1192: Tries unsuccessfully to seize throne 1199: Richard is killed and John becomes king 1204: Loses much of western France in war 1207: Quarrels with pope over who should be Archbishop of Canterbury and excommunicated 1215: Signs Magna Carta 1216: Dies from food poisoning In 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, John (played by Claude Rains) is an overtaxing oppressor, while Disney's Robin Hood showed John as a cowardly lion sucking his thumb. A new film Ironclad, released in the UK on Friday, stars American actor Paul Giamatti as the villainous king laying siege to the noble barons in Rochester Castle, in the civil war that followed the Magna Carta. So why do we always like to bash King John?

Make no mistake, he was a bad king, says John Hudson, of the Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of St Andrews. "He was a very considerable failure as a king. He loses a large amount of possessions inherited, in particular lands in France, like Normandy and Anjou. He manages to surrender his realm to the pope and ends up facing a huge baronial rebellion, a civil war and a war with France. In terms of failures, he is one of the worst kings." And his unpleasant personality compounds his mistakes, says Professor Hudson. Trying to seize control of the throne while his brother, King Richard I, was imprisoned abroad, lost him the trust of the people long before he became king himself.

...and the king lives on 1590s: Life and Death of King John, by William Shakespeare (with Leonard Rossiter, above) 1819: Ivanhoe, a novel by Walter Scott 1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood featured Claude Rains as John and Errol Flynn as Robin 1968: The Lion in Winter film 1973: Robin Hood animation by Disney "A lot of very effective medieval kings are cruel and inspire fear but he hasn't inspired trust. For people to trust a king and fear him is essential but people don't trust him. "People wanted someone to be heroic and not to interfere with their lives. But John was a king who did interfere and wasn't heroic." But it's simplistic to portray John as simply evil and Richard good, as in some of the Robin Hood films, he says. At least The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole as John's parents Eleanor and Henry II, portrays the family tensions acutely and gives a sense of the personal power struggles within the Plantagenet dynasty. John grew up in a feuding family.

He was born in Oxford in 1166, the youngest and favourite son of Henry II. When John was five, three of his brothers plotted against their father to seize the throne, enlisting the help of Louis VII of France and their own mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. The case for redemption By John HudsonHistorian "It's two-fold. One, that he inherited a very difficult situation, especially in France. Two, he seems to be very involved in the administration of the king more than previous kings had been. But being very much involved in administration is not a vital attribute to being king." The rebellion was short-lived but Henry II punished his wife by imprisoning her for 16 years. On Henry's death in 1189, John's brother Richard became king but he nominated his nephew, Arthur, as heir. John tried unsuccessfully to instigate a coup while his brother was in prison, captured on his way back from fighting the Crusades. The popular image of John as a cruel tyrant began a few years after his death in 1216, after a turbulent 17 years on the throne.

The chronicles of Roger Wendover, a historian and monk at St Albans, and his successor Matthew Paris, included many accounts of cruelty that have since been questioned. 'John the punchbag' The Tudors were more sympathetic to him, although Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John provides a mixed portrayal of the monarch as treacherous and ruthless, but also patriotic in standing up to Rome. I see him a bit like Barack Obama in so far as he inherited a nightmare situation but because he was a bad politician he didn't help himself to get out of it Paul Sturtevant, Expert in medieval films King John and Magna Carta But it was the Victorians who made King John the pantomime villain he is today, says Paul Sturtevant, who is researching Hollywood depictions of the medieval period, at the University of Leeds. "The Victorians used King John as a punchbag. Prior to the 18th and 19th Century, Robin Hood was not put in a historical place. It wasn't about the monarch at all, just Robin Hood and his adventures. "So the Robin Hood stories being placed in John's reign is a recent thing.

He's portrayed as a pantomime villain because a number of accounts from the time suggest that people found him quite unpleasant as a person. So the question is to what degree those sources are accurate." The Victorians latched on to John's moral failings like his cruelty and his sexual deviancy, taking mistresses married to barons, and this repulsed their newly formed idea of medieval knights as perfect gentlemen. "To the Victorian mindset, he was everything they didn't want in an English king. They reimagined the period in terms of courtly love and chivalry." Most historians would agree he was quite a bad king but whether he was a caricature of evil is another question entirely, he says. Image caption John's most famous moment is signing the Magna Carta "Almost all the depictions of King John out there are Robin Hood ones and as a result he's the villain, either bumbling and idiotic or in the Disney animation he's a lion who sucks his thumb. He's infantile, with a snake as a patsy." The truth is that he was an inept politician but he wasn't a tyrant, says Mr Sturtevant.

His conflicts were not with his subjects but with barons, the Pope or the French. "I see him a bit like Barack Obama in so far as he inherited a nightmare situation from his predecessor but because he was a bad politician he didn't help himself to get out of it. "Richard still has a really good reputation as the heroic, lion-hearted king but he spent only six months of his life in England and the rest either on crusade in Holy Land or at war in France." To pay for his foreign wars, not to mention a huge ransom when he was captured, Richard had raised taxes far higher than any level England had experienced. By the time John was crowned king, the cupboard was bare, but his fiscal demands led to unrest. Mike Ibeji, who researched King John for Simon Schama's History of Britain on the BBC, says it was in the interests of those who put John's successor Henry III on the throne to portray him negatively. King John was very unlucky, he says, but he also made his own bad luck.

A king's ransom On the way back from the Holy Land in 1192, Richard I was imprisoned by Duke Leopold of Austria and handed over to the German emperor Henry VI, who ransomed him for the huge sum of 150,000 marks. Historian David Boyle estimates that sum could be the equivalent of about £2bn today. It was paid by English taxes, and contributed to the parlous finances inherited by King John. Kings John and Richard: Brothers and rivals "There are several times during John's reign where he actually has the upper hand, where he's in a position where if he just does things the right way, he's going to end up succeeding in what he's trying to do. "But he always overplays his hand and goes too far because he's in a position of power and can't rein back. So he doesn't have a sense of scale and that's his biggest problem." For example, he quelled a rebellion in France but when his nephew and enemy Arthur then dies in his custody, the finger of suspicion points at John and the revulsion felt in France renews the revolt and leads to defeat.

A kingdom that once stretched from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees was falling apart. What John will always be remembered for, apart from antagonising Robin Hood, is the Magna Carta, which limited royal power and restated English law. And some of his defenders say that at least he provoked the barons into introducing one of history's most famous documents. In the History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill wrote: "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; for it was through the union of many forces against him that the most famous milestone of our rights and freedom was in fact set up." King John: 1164-1216 Back to "Europe in the Peripheral Period" Chronology Richard however, was an absentee monarch, spending much of his time on crusade and this gave John ample time and freedom to commit mischief by attempting to depose Richard and take over the regency of England. Richard would eventually forgive John's attempts to gain the throne dismissing John as a child who had listened to bad counsel.

Richard I died in 1194 while fighting on French soil. He was accidentally felled by an arrow from one of his own English bowmen. Having no child from his marriage to Berengaria of Navarre, the question of succession was up in the air. The only two legitimate claimants to the British throne were John and his nephew Arthur, Duke of Brittany. John had to move quickly to secure his claim to the throne, and he captured Arthur and imprisoned him for three years. Arthur was murdered reportedly by John's own hand. John returned to England and was crowed King on May 17, 1199. He was married to Isabelle of Angouleme and had several children, many illegitimate from his constant dalliances with mistresses. John inherited an England in political, economic, and financial turmoil. However, John was energetic and enthusiastic about making government reforms. He set about restructuring his administration and reforming accounting practices. His main goal was to increase the crown treasury that had been depleted from Richard's reign due to constant warfare. John also had another problem that would involve the baronial class.

As a result of the two previous king's frequent absences from England, the English barons basically has unlimited power and freedom to do as they wished. When John began to reform and tighten controls on taxes and fees, the barons resented his monetary policies. John recognized that he had to curb the power of the barons and clergy in order to retain the power of the crown. John set on a course to generate revenue for the crown by ignoring traditional English feudal customs and levying new taxes and fines at his whim. He would also arbitrarily seize lands, titles, and castles from his nobles for the slightest infractions, making them pay heavy fines in order to regain their lost lands as well as the king's favor. He would also sell forfeited lands and royal wards and widows to the highest bidder, disregarding age-old feudal customs in the process. As a result, John began to alienate the barons of England and his power began to erode. John also quarreled with the clergy over retaining the rights of the crown to make ecclesiastic appointments. This would lead to a serious incident involving Pope Innocent III and John.

Upon the death of Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, John exercised his right as king to make his own appointment to fill the vacant See of Canterbury. Rome however, had different ideas. Pope Innocent III declared Bishop Stephen of Langton the new Archbishop of Canterbury and John flatly refused his appointment. As a result, England was placed under Interdict and John was excommunicated. John took his vengeful fury out on the monks of Canterbury by expelling them from England. He then set about making life miserable for those who opposed him. He had a fearful temper and a long memory, and his insatiable quest for money and power, combined with his jealous nature, caused irreparable damage to John's regency and reputation. Revenge became a game for John and he exacted his pound of flesh from those who crossed him at any cost. Eventually, John found out that King Philip Augustus of France was plotting to invade England. Realizing that he needed money and military aid he decided to turn to the pope as a penitent soul and accept Innocent's appointment of Langton to the See of Canterbury.

John then placed England in the hands of Innocent making England a papal fief and as a result, gained much needed military and financial aid to defend England against her enemies and regain his lost Angevin holdings in France. It would be this very campaign in France that caused the barons to revolt. John asked for military service from his barons who refused to fight on foreign soil. He then levied a heavy tillage on the barons who refused to provide service. John had to hire a mercenary army and while he was away in France, the barons banded together to decide what to do about John's arbitrary style of rule. They drafted the "Unknown Charter of Liberties" and the "Articles of the Barons" and these documents were actually first drafts of Magna Carta. John returned from France defeated and bitter. As he realized his barons were plotting against him, he began to fortify his personal holdings and this in turn alarmed the barons. As a result, the barons seized London on May 17, 1215. Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, John agreed to accept an offer by Langton to mediate the dispute between the barons and the crown.

A series of meetings were set up at Runnymeade in June of 1215. The barons presented John with Magna Carta on June 15, 1215 and the document was basically a list of grievances the barons had against their king. Magna Carta was never signed and in fact was only a verbal agreement between John and the barons. The pope declared Magna Carta invalid on August 25, 1215 and civil war quickly ensued, lasting a little over a year. However, John died abruptly on October 19, 1216, of an intestinal ailment at the Bishop of Norwhich's castle. He was buried at the cathedral of St. Wulstam in Worchester. John was then succeeded by his nine-year-old son who would become Henry III. Sources: Adams, George Burton, This History of England - From the Norman Conquest to the Death of John, (1066-1216), Greenwood Press Publishers, NY, 1969, pg. 435,436,437.

Holt, J.C., Magna Carta, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, NY, 1992, pg. 256. Painter, Sidney, The Reign of King John, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, MD. 1966, pg. 1, 121, 341, 377. Roberts, Clayton, Roberts, David, A History of England - Pre-history to 1714, Vol. 1, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ , 1985, pg. 118, 144. Warren, W.L., King John, W.W. Norton Co., Inc., NY., 1961 pg. 17, 46, 83.

Researched and Written by King John: the most evil monarch in Britain's history - Telegraph Culture King John: the most evil monarch in Britain's history A lecherous traitor, a depraved tyrant and a hopeless leader in war – it’s no wonder his subjects rose up and forced Magna Carta on him Duplicitous?: a 14th-century depiction of King John hunting Photo: By Marc Morris Comments Tomorrow, you can hardly have failed to notice, marks the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta , the document famously issued by King John at Runnymede on June 15, 1215. Most people are understandably a little hazy about the charter’s contents (it runs to 63 clauses and over 4,000 words). But they are aware that it was a “good thing” – a significant step in the direction of the liberties we enjoy today. At the same time, most people think of John himself as a “bad king” , not least because he crops up as the villain in the tales of Robin Hood. One academic recently described him on Radio 4 as “an absolute rotter”; another, less constrained, has summed him up as “a s---”.

John sealing the Magna Carta by Frank Wood, 1925 Photo: How was it, then, that the bad king left us something so remarkably good in Magna Carta? Is it the case, some historians have asked, that we have King John all wrong? That he was actually not as bad as legend makes out? The answer to this is an emphatic “No!” John was one of the worst kings – arguably the worst king – ever to sit on England’s throne. “A very bad man,” in the words of one contemporary chronicler, “brim-full of evil qualities.” Despite occasional attempts to rehabilitate him, his reputation among academics remains extremely poor. LiberTeas: debate Magna Carta over a cup of tea John’s offences are almost too numerous to list. In the first place, he was treacherous: when his older brother, Richard the Lionheart, was away on crusade, John attempted to seize the throne by plotting with the king of France, Philip Augustus, prompting contemporaries to damn him as “a mad-headed youth” and “nature’s enemy”.

He was also lecherous: several nobles are reported to have taken up arms against him because he had forced himself on their wives and daughters. Most of all, John was shockingly cruel. In a chivalrous age, when aristocrats spared their enemies, capturing them rather than killing them, John preferred to do away with people by grisly means. On one occasion, for example, he ordered 22 captive knights to be taken to Corfe Castle in Dorset and starved to death. Another time he starved to death the wife and son of his former friend, William de Briouze. In 1203 he arranged the murder of his own nephew and rival for power, Arthur of Brittany. Alex Kavanagh, the British Library's exhibition officer, polishes a painting of a fearful King John. Photo: Clare Kendall John might have got away with such nefarious acts had he not also been politically incompetent. At the start of his reign in 1199, he inherited the greatest dominion in Europe — not just England and large parts of Wales and Ireland, but also the whole western half of France: Normandy, Brittany, Anjou and Aquitaine.

Yet within five years, he had lost almost all these continental territories to Philip Augustus. Contemporaries put this down to a lack of boldness on John’s part, calling him “Soft-sword”, and he did indeed lack the necessary martial skill that his brother Richard had possessed in spades. “No man may trust him,” sang the troubadour poet Bertran de Born, “for his heart is soft and cowardly.” Are you a Magna Carta expert? King John’s loss of his continental inheritance was deeply shameful, and he was determined to win it back. To raise the massive armies and fleets this enterprise would require, he wrung unprecedented sums of money from England. Taxes were suddenly demanded on an almost annual basis. Nobles were charged gargantuan sums to inherit their lands. Royal justices imposed exorbitant fines for trifling offences. The lands of the Church were seized, and the Jews were imprisoned and tortured until they agreed to pay up. John’s reign saw the greatest financial exploitation of England since the Norman Conquest. But it was all for nothing. When the king finally launched his long-planned continental campaign in 1214, it was a disaster.

John, true to form, shied away from battle when challenged by French forces, and his allies in the north were defeated in a decisive clash with Philip Augustus. He returned to England that autumn with his treasury empty and his dreams of re-conquest in tatters. Polishing a replica of King John's tomb. Photo: Clare Kendall With their tyrannical ruler over a barrel, his subjects demanded reform. John dodged their demands for six months, until in May 1215 they came out in open rebellion and seized London. With his capital held against him, the king was forced to negotiate, and obliged to make concessions when he met his critics the following month at Runnymede. Such is the general background that led to Magna Carta, a charge-sheet aimed squarely at King John and his many acts of misgovernment. The king did not issue it willingly, but under pressure from his opponents and in the hope of buying time. As soon as the meeting at Runnymede had broken up, John wrote to the pope complaining that the charter had been exacted under duress, and the pope obligingly declared it invalid. Within a few weeks both sides were again at war.

Magna Carta: Exclusive access to the historic text King John did not survive for much longer. Worn out by the exhaustion of fighting a losing war, he contracted dysentery in October 1216 and died a few days later at Newark Castle. Magna Carta, however, was unexpectedly resurrected, reissued by John’s supporters in the name of his nine-year-old son, the newly crowned Henry III. Its most contentious clauses, that allowed the barons to make war on the king should he transgress, were removed, but the bulk of the detail remained. • What is the Magna Carta, and why is it important? Today the detail is no longer relevant. What we now celebrate is the famous sentiment in the middle of the charter, which declares that a free man shall not be imprisoned, exiled, deprived of his property or otherwise destroyed simply because it is the king’s will. King John had indulged in precisely that sort of unjust behaviour, and his subjects had called him to account for it. This is how the “bad king” ended up leaving us something so good.

Marc Morris is the author of King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta Bad King John - The Most Evil Men In History (part 1 of 2) - YouTube Bad King John - The Most Evil Men In History (part 1 of 2) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Nov 7, 2010 Bad King John (1166-1216) He murdered his nephew, inspired the legend of Robin Hood and caused the creation of Magna Carta.John (24 December 1166 -- 19 October 1216) was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death. He acceded to the throne as the younger brother of King Richard I, who died without issue.

John was the youngest of five sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, and was their second surviving son to ascend the throne; thus, he continued the line of Plantagenet or Angevin kings of England. Prior to his coronation, he was Earl of Cornwall and Gloucester, but this title reverted to the Crown once he became King. During his lifetime John acquired two epithets. One was "Lackland" (French: Sans Terre), because, as his father's youngest son, he did not inherit land out of his family's holdings, and because as King he lost significant territory to France. The other was "Softsword" signifying his supposed lack of prowess in battle. Apart from entering popular legend as the enemy of Robin Hood, he is perhaps best-known for having acquiesced —to the barons of English nobility— to seal Magna Carta, a document which limited kingly power in England and which is popularly thought as an early step in the evolution of limited government.

Category King John Lackland King John Lackland Location of death: Newark, Lincolnshire, England Cause of death: Illness Remains: Buried, Worcester Cathedral, Worcester, England Gender: Male Nationality: England Executive summary: Signed the Magna Carta, then reneged John Lackland, King of England, the youngest son of King Henry II by Eleanor of Aquitaine , was born at Oxford on the 24th of December 1167. He was given at an early age the nickname of Lackland because, unlike his elder brothers, he received no land rights in the continental provinces. But his future was subject of anxious thought to Henry II. When only five years old John was betrothed (1173) to the heiress of Maurienne and Savoy, a principality which, as dominating the chief routes from France and Burgundy to Italy, enjoyed a consequence out of all proportion to its area.

Later, when this plan had fallen through he was endowed with castles, revenues and lands on both sides of the channel; the vacant earldom of Cornwall was reserved for him (1175); he was betrothed to Isabella the heiress of the earldom of Gloucester (1176); and he was granted the lordship of Ireland with the homage of the Anglo-Irish baronage (1177). Henry II even provoked a civil war by attempting to transfer he duchy of Aquitaine from the hands of his brother Richard the Lionheart to those of John (1183). In spite of the incapacity which he displayed in this war, John was sent a little later to govern Ireland (1185); but he returned in a few months covered with disgrace, having alienated the loyal chiefs by his childish insolence and entirely failed to defend the settlers from the hostile clans. Remaining henceforth at his father's side he was treated with he utmost indulgence. But he joined with his brother Richard and the French king Philip Augustus in the great conspiracy of 1189, and the discovery of his treason broke the heart of the old king.

Richard on his accession confirmed John's existing possessions; married him to Isabella of Gloucester; and gave him, besides other grants, the entire revenues of six English shires; but excluded him from any share in the regency which was appointed to govern England during the third crusade; and only allowed him to live in the kingdom because urged to this concession by their mother. Soon after the king's departure for the Holy Land it became known that he had designated his nephew, the young Arthur of Brittany, as his successor. John at once began to intrigue against the regents with the aim of securing England for himself. He picked a quarrel with the unpopular chancellor William Longchamp, and succeeded, by the help of the barons and the Londoners, in expelling this minister, whose chief fault was that of fidelity to the absent Richard. Not being permitted to succeed Longchamp as the head of the administration, John next turned to Philip Augustus for help. A bargain was struck; and when Richard was captured by Leopold, duke of Austria (December 1192), the allies endeavored to prevent his release, and planned a partition of his dominions.

They were, however, unable to win either English or Norman support and their schemes collapsed with Richard's return (March 1194). He magnanimously pardoned his brother, and they lived on not unfriendly terms for the next five years. On his deathbed Richard, reversing his former arrangements, caused his barons to swear fealty to John (1199), although the hereditary claim of Arthur was by the law of primogeniture undoubtedly superior. England and Normandy, after some hesitation, recognized John's title; the attempt of Anjou and Brittany to assert the rights of Arthur ended disastrously by the capture of the young prince at Mirebeau in Poitou (1202). But there was no part of his dominions in which John inspired personal devotion. Originally accepted as a political necessity, he soon came to be detested by the people as a tyrant and despised by the nobles for his cowardice and sloth. He inherited great difficulties -- the feud with France, the dissensions of the continental provinces, the growing indifference of England to foreign conquests, the discontent of all his subjects with a strict executive and severe taxation.

But he cannot be acquitted of personal responsibility for his misfortunes. Astute in small matters, he had no breadth of view or foresight; his policy was continually warped by his passions or caprices; he flaunted vices of the most sordid kind with a cynical indifference to public opinion, and shocked an age which was far from tenderhearted by his ferocity to vanquished enemies. He treated his most respectable supporters with base ingratitude, reserved his favor for unscrupulous adventurers, and gave a free rein to the license of his mercenaries. While possessing considerable gifts of mind and a latent fund of energy, he seldom acted or reflected until the favorable moment had passed. Each of his great humiliations followed as the natural result of crimes or blunders. By his divorce from Isabella of Gloucester he offended the English baronage (1200); by his marriage with Isabella of Angoul�me, the betrothed of Hugh of Lusignan, he gave an opportunity to the discontented Poitevins for invoking French assistance and to Philip Augustus for pronouncing against him a sentence of forfeiture.

The murder of Arthur (1203) ruined his cause in Normandy and Anjou; the story that the court of the peers of France condemned him for the murder is a fable, but no legal process was needed to convince men of his guilt. In the later quarrel with Pope Innocent III (1207-13) he prejudiced his case by proposing a worthless favorite for the primacy and by plundering those of the clergy who bowed to the pope's sentences. Threatened with the desertion of his barons he drove all whom he suspected to desperation by his terrible severity towards the Braose family (1210); and by his continued misgovernment irrevocably estranged the lower classes. When submission to Rome had somewhat improved his position he squandered his last resources in a new and unsuccessful war with France (1214), and enraged the feudal classes by new claims for military service and scutages. The barons were consequently able to exact, in Magna Carta (June 1215), much more than the redress of legitimate grievances; and the people allowed the crown to be placed under the control of an oligarchical committee.

When once the sovereign power had been thus divided, the natural consequence was civil war and the intervention of the French king, who had long watched for some such opportunity. John's struggle against the barons and Prince Louis (1216), afterwards King Louis VIII , was the most creditable episode of his career. But the calamitous situation of England at the moment of his death, on the 19th of October 1216, was in the main his work; and while he lived a national reaction in favor of the dynasty was out of the question.

Question: King John of England was the youngest son of which English monarch?
Answer: King Henry II