John, King of England

One of John's principal challenges was acquiring the large sums of money needed for his proposed campaigns to reclaim Normandy.

The result was a sequence of innovative but unpopular financial measures.^{[nb 10]} 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.^[100] 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.^[100] John maximised his right to demand relief payments when estates and castles were inherited, sometimes charging enormous sums, beyond barons' abilities to pay.^[100] Building on the successful sale of sheriff appointments in 1194, the King initiated a new round of appointments, with the new incumbents making back their investment through increased fines and penalties, particularly in the forests.^[101] Another innovation of Richard's, increased charges levied on widows who wished to remain single, was expanded under John.^[101] 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.^{[102][nb 11]} 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.^{[101][nb 12]} 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.^[104] He found that these measures enabled him to raise further resources through the confiscation of the lands of barons who could not pay or refused to pay.^[105]

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.^[106] The resulting social pressures were complicated by bursts of deflation that resulted from John's military campaigns.^[107] 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.^[108] 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.^[109] 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.^[110]

Royal household and ira et malevolentia

John's royal household was based around several groups of followers. One group was the familiares regis, his immediate friends and knights who travelled around the country with him. They also played an important role in organising and leading military campaigns.

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.[116] 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 malevolentia—royal ill-will.^[117] 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, which ultimately resulted in Becket's death.^[117] 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.^[118]

John was deeply suspicious of the barons, particularly those with sufficient power and wealth to potentially challenge him.

John's personal life greatly affected his reign. Contemporary chroniclers state that John was sinfully lustful and lacking in piety.^[123] 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.^[123] John had at least five children with mistresses during his first marriage, and two of those mistresses are known to have been noblewomen.^[124] John's sexual behaviour after his second marriage is less clear, however. None of his 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.^[125] 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.^{[123][nb 14]}

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.^{[127][nb 15]} Even by the standards of the time, she was married whilst very young.^[128] 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.^[129] Vincent concluded that the marriage was not a particularly "amicable" one.^[130] Other aspects of their marriage suggest a closer, more positive relationship. Chroniclers recorded that John had a "mad infatuation" with Isabella, and certainly the King and Queen had conjugal relations between at least 1207 and 1215; they had five children.^[131] 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.^[132]

John's lack of religious conviction has been noted by contemporary chroniclers and later historians, with some suspecting that he was at best impious, or even

During the remainder of his reign, John focused on trying to retake Normandy.^[138] The available evidence suggests that he did not regard the loss of the Duchy as a permanent shift in Capetian power.^[138] Strategically, John faced several challenges:^[139] England itself had to be secured against possible French invasion,^[139] 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.^[139] 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.^[139] 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.^[139] All of this would require a great deal of money and soldiers.^[140]

John spent much of 1205 securing England against a potential French invasion.

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.^[142] By the end of 1204 he had around 50 large galleys available; another 54 vessels were built between 1209 and 1212.^[143] William of Wrotham was appointed "keeper of the galleys", effectively John's chief admiral.^[138] Wrotham was responsible for fusing John's galleys, the ships of the Cinque Ports and pressed merchant vessels into a single operational fleet.^[138] John adopted recent improvements in ship design, including new large transport ships called buisses and removable forecastles for use in combat.^[142]

Baronial unrest in England prevented the departure of the planned 1205 expedition, and only a smaller force under William Longespée deployed to Poitou.^[140] In 1206 John departed for Poitou himself, but was forced to divert south to counter a threat to Gascony from Alfonso VIII of Castile.^[140] After a successful campaign against Alfonso, John headed north again, taking the city of Angers.^[140] Philip moved south to meet John; the year's campaigning ended in stalemate and a two-year truce was made between the two rulers.^[144]

During the truce of 1206–1208, John focused on building up his financial and military resources in preparation for another attempt to recapture Normandy.

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 the Lion to swear fealty to him at the Treaty of Falaise in 1174.^[147] This had been rescinded by Richard I in exchange for financial compensation in 1189, but the relationship remained uneasy.^[148] 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.^[149] The two kings maintained a friendly relationship, meeting in 1206 and 1207,^[150] until it was rumoured in 1209 that William was intending to ally himself with Philip II of France.^[151] 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.^[152] This effectively crippled William's power north of the border, and by 1212 John had to intervene militarily to support William against his internal rivals.^{[152][nb 16]} John made no efforts to reinvigorate the Treaty of Falaise, though, and William and his son Alexander II of Scotland in turn remained independent kings, supported by, but not owing fealty to, John.^[154]

John remained Lord of Ireland throughout his reign. He drew on the country for resources to fight his war with Philip on the continent.^[155] 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.^[155] During Richard's rule, John had successfully increased the size of his lands in Ireland, and he continued this policy as king.^[156] 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.^[157] 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.^[158]

Royal power in Wales was unevenly applied, with the country divided between the

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.^[162] After the 1140s, these principles had been largely accepted within the English Church, albeit with an element of concern about centralising authority in Rome.^[163] These changes brought the customary rights of lay rulers such as John over ecclesiastical appointments into question.^[163] Pope Innocent was, according to historian Ralph Turner, an "ambitious and aggressive" religious leader, insistent on his rights and responsibilities within the church.^[164]

John wanted

John was incensed about what he perceived as an abrogation of his customary right as monarch to influence the election.[167] 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.^[168] He barred Langton from entering England and seized the lands of the archbishopric and other papal possessions.^[168] 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.^[169]

John treated the interdict as "the equivalent of a papal declaration of war".

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 Pandulf Verraccio in May 1213 at the Templar Church at Dover.^[179] 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 ~£700 at the time) annually; 700 marks (~£500) for England and 300 marks (~£200) for Ireland, as well as compensation to the Church for any revenue lost during the crisis.^[180] 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.^[181] The Pope 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.^[182] Innocent immediately turned against Philip, calling upon him to reject plans to invade England and to sue for peace.^[182] 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.^[183]

Failure in France and the First Barons' War (1215–1216)

Tensions and discontent

Tensions between John and the barons had been growing for several years, as demonstrated by the 1212 plot against the King.

In 1214 John began his final campaign to reclaim Normandy from Philip. He was optimistic, as he had successfully built up alliances with the Emperor Otto, Renaud of Boulogne and 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.[190] Nonetheless, when John left for Poitou in February 1214, many barons refused to provide military service; mercenary knights had to fill the gaps.^[191] 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.^[191]

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.

Within a few months of John's return, rebel barons in the north and east of England were organising resistance to his rule.^[195] 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.^[196] He 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.^[197] In the meantime, John began to recruit fresh mercenary forces from Poitou, although some were later sent back to avoid giving the impression that John was escalating the conflict.^[196] The King announced his intent to become a crusader, a move which gave him additional political protection under church law.^[198]

Letters of support from the Pope arrived in April but by then the rebel barons had organised. They congregated at

Neither John nor the rebel barons seriously attempted to implement the peace accord.[204] 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.^[205] 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.^[206] Innocent obliged; he declared the charter "not only shameful and demeaning, but illegal and unjust" and excommunicated the rebel barons.^[206] The failure of the agreement led rapidly to the First Barons' War.^[206]

War with the barons

The rebels made the first move in the war, seizing the strategic

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".^[211] 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.^[212] Both operations were successful and the majority of the remaining rebels were pinned down in London.^[212] In January 1216 John marched against Alexander II of Scotland, who had allied himself with the rebel cause.^[213] John took back Alexander's possessions in northern England in a rapid campaign and pushed up towards Edinburgh over a ten-day period.^[213]

The rebel barons responded by inviting the French prince Louis 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.^[214] 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.^[214] Louis' 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.^[215] Once John contained Alexander in Scotland, he marched south to deal with the challenge of the coming invasion.^[213]

Prince Louis intended to land in the south of England in May 1216, and John assembled a naval force to intercept him.^[212] Unfortunately for John, his fleet was dispersed by bad storms and Louis landed unopposed in Kent.^[212] 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.^[212] Louis and the rebel barons advanced west and John retreated, spending the summer reorganising his defences across the rest of the kingdom.^[216] 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.^[216]

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.^[217] From there he travelled north to relieve the rebel siege at Lincoln and back east to Lynn, probably to order further supplies from the continent.^[218] In Lynn, John contracted dysentery, which would ultimately prove fatal.^[218] 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.^[219] 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.^[220]

Crown Jewels

John returned west but is said to have lost much of his baggage train along the way.

John's illness grew worse and by the time he reached Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, he was unable to travel any farther; he died on the night of 18/19 October.^[5][224] Numerous—probably fictitious—accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale, poisoned plums or a "surfeit of peaches".^[225] 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.^[226] A new sarcophagus with an effigy was made for him in 1232, in which his remains now rest.^[227]

In his will, John ordered that his niece Eleanor, who might have had a claim to the throne of his successor, Henry III, never be released from prison.^[228]

Legacy

In the aftermath of John's death, William Marshal was declared the protector of the nine-year-old Henry III.

By various mistresses, John had eight, possibly nine, sons—Richard, Oliver, John, Geoffrey, Henry, Osbert Gifford, Eudes, Bartholomew and probably Philip—and two or three daughters—Joan, Maud and probably Isabel.^[236] Of these, Joan became the most famous, marrying Prince Llywelyn the Great of Wales.^[237]

Historiography

Historical interpretations of John have been subject to considerable change over the centuries. Medieval