John ILackland PLANTAGENET, KING OF ENGLAND HRH

                   King of England, 1199 - 1216, on the death of his brother, Richard,The
Lionhearted. He issued the Magna Charta. He was, by all accounts, a
cunning, treacherous and tyrannical King.
Sources include but are not limited to;
Ancestral File and the IGI, International Genealogical Index,both
resource systems developed and solely owned by The Church of JesusChrist of
Latter Day Saints.
Event: Reigned BET. 1199 - 1216 King of EnglandNote: Youngest son; called Lackland; King John of England, 1199; signed Magna Carta, 1215; married twice; DNB.
King John took the throne upon the death of his brother King Richard I in 1199. There are quite a number of ironies connected with the reign of John, for during his reign all the vast Plantagenet possessions in France except Gascony were lost. From now on, the House of Anjou was separated from its links with its homeland, and the Crown of England eventually could concern itself solely with running its own affairs, free from Continental intrigue. But that was later. In the meantime, John's mishandling of his responsibilities at home led to increased baronial resistance and to the great concessions of the Magna Carta, hailed as one of the greatest developments in human rights in history and the precursor of the United States Bill of Rights. It was also in John's reign that the first income tax was levied in England. In an attempt to recover his lost lands in France, John introduced his tax of one thirteenth on income from rents and moveable property, to be collected by the sheriffs. To be fair to the unfortunate John, his English Kingdom had been drained of its wealth for Richard's wars in France and the Crusade as well as the exorbitant ransom. His own resources were insufficient to overcome the problems he thus inherited. He also lacked the military abilities of his brother. It has been said that John could win a battle in a sudden display of energy, but then fritter away any advantage gained in a spell of indolence. More than one historian wrote of John as having the mental abilities of a great King, but the inclinations of a petty tyrant. John alienated his vassals in Aquitaine by divorcing his first wife, Isabella of Gloucester (who had failed to give him a son and heir), and taking as his second wife the teenage daughter of the Count of Angouleme, a political move that brought him no gain. The young woman was already betrothed to Hugh of Lusignan and Poitou, and John was summoned to appear before King Philip ll his nominal overlord in France. After all his lands in France were forfeited for his refusal to appear, John seized the initiative, marched to Poitier, seized young Arthur, and released Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was held captive. He then threw everything away by releasing the most dangerous of his prisoners, who continued the revolt against him and worse, he had Arthur of Bretagne killed. When Arthur was murdered, it was the end for John's hopes in France. The act alienated just about everybody, and Philip now pressed home his advantage. The King of England's ineptitude and lack of support, despite winning some victories in some provinces, eventually caused him to flee across the Channel, never to return. It was the greatest reverse suffered by the English Crown since the Battle of Hastings in 1066. When John reached England, the only French lands left to him, apart from Gascony, was the Channel Islands. Philip had not been the only one to be upset by John's repudiation of Isabella. The English barons were also indignant. They had begun to lose confidence in their feudal lord. After Richard's death, they had little faith in a victory over the King of France and became weary of fighting John's wars, deserting him in droves. When John began to direct his attention to matters in England, he was unable to gain their confidence. William the Lion of Scotland seized the opportunity to reassert his country's claim to Northumberland and Cumberland, though his age and lack of allies prevented him from achieving his aims. John's greatest problems, apart from the mistrust of his barons, lay not with Scotland, but with the Church of Rome, now under a strong and determined Pope, Innocent lll.
Innocent, Pope from 1198 to 1216 was the first to style himself Vicar of Christ. He proved to be a formidable adversary to the English King. Their major dispute came over the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury at the death of Hubert Walter in 1205. John refused to accept Stephen Langton, an Englishman active in the papal court at Rome. He was punished by the Interdict of 1208, and for the next five years, English priests were forbidden from administering the sacraments, even from burying the dead. Most of the bishops left the country. York had been without an Archbishop since 1207 when John's half brother Geoffrey had fled to the continent after a quarrel over church taxes. In 1209, Innocent excommunicated John, who was eventually forced to submit by accepting Langton as his primary Church leader. Not only that, but he had to place England under the direct overlordship of the papacy, and it was this humiliation that completely destroyed his political credibility. In the meantime, however, John had successfully dealt with the problem of Ireland. The King had already been in Ireland, sent by his father to try to complete Henry's plans to bring the feuding Irish chiefs and independent Norman lords to order. He had failed miserably, and the behavior of his undisciplined troops quickly led to his ignominious withdrawal from that troubled land. The campaign of 1210 was more successful. Many Anglo-Norman lords had consolidated major landholdings and were in defiance of royal authority. John's efforts to bring them to heel proved to be one of the few successes of his seventeen-year reign. He allied himself with the Irish chiefs, and with their help was able to dispossess the powerful Walter and Hugh of Lacy. He placed the royal Justiciar in charge of Ireland and had castles built at Carrickfergus and Dublin to strengthen English control over the country. It was time for the king of England to turn back to France. In 1212, John's plans to re-conquer his former French possessions led to the revolt of his barons. His request for money and arms was the flash point. When the northern barons refused to help, John took an army to punish the rebels. Only Langton's intervention effected a reconciliation. The expedition to Poitou then proceeded, but ended in total failure with the defeat by Philip at Bouvines. His continued disregard of feudal law and customs, allied to the disgrace of the defeat in France and loss of lands, were now seized on by the majority of English barons who presented their grievances at Runnymede, on June 15, 1215. The Magna Carta, the Great Charter was something of a compromise, a treaty of peace between John and his rebellious barons, whose chief grievance was that of punishment without trial. Archbishop Langton drew up the grievances into a form of statements that constitute a complex document of 63 clauses. Though John's signature meant that baronial grievances were to be remedied, in later years, the charter became almost a manifesto of royal powers. In fact, for the next 450 years, even though John reluctantly signed the charter, all subsequent rulers of England fundamentally disagreed with its principles. They preferred to see themselves as the source of all laws and thus above the law. For posterity, however, the two most important clauses were 39, which states that no one should be imprisoned without trial and 40, which states that no one could buy or deny justice. Also of particular interest is the provision that taxes henceforth could not be levied except with the agreement of leading churchmen and barons at a meeting to which 40 days notice was to be given. In addition, restrictions were placed on the powers of the king's local officials to prevent them from abusing their financial, administrative and judicial powers. Weights and measures were regulated, the safety of merchants ensured and the privileges of the citizens of London were confirmed. The most lasting effect of the somewhat vague conditions of the Magna Carta was the upholding of individual rights against arbitrary government.
Baronial rebellion in England was not crushed by the provisions signed at Runnymede. John spent the rest of his reign marching back and forth trying to stamp out opposition that was led by Prince Louis of France, son of Philip ll, but achieving little. One persistent legend is that he lost all his baggage train, including the Crown jewels in the marshy area known as the Wash in the county of Norfolk. The angry and frustrated king died in October 1216. His burial at Worcester, however, showed that the center of Plantagenet rule was now firmly established in England, and not France (both Henry ll and Richard l had been buried in Anjou). King John was buried in Worcester Cathedral near the Saints Oswald and Wulfstan, Saints that he revered in life.
John Succeeded his brother Richard, as king on May 27, 1199. His
reign was notable for the difficulties with the Church and the
barons, which eventually resulted in the Magna Carta.  He
inherited a weak position with a bankrupt state left by Richard
and animosity left over from his predecessors.  He lost most of
his English holdings in France, including Anjou, Brittany and
Normandy.  John's defeat at Poitou in 1214 gave the English
barons an excuse to start a civil war, which was only
temporarily stalled by the Magna Carta.
See Note Page
Eric Delderfield:
The archetype of the 'wicked king', John was the fourth son of Henry II, the child of his father's middle age.  Not without some administrative ability, especially as regards the collection of money, he was yet cruel and avaricious.
He was nicknamed 'Lackland', because his brothers were give territory by their father when he received none until being made King of Ireland in 1177.  However, his campaign there in 1185-86 was disastrous, and his brother recalled him for misconduct.  Though John had intrigued against Richard [#2963] while his brother was on crusade, they were reconciled, and on his death-bed Richard made John his heir.  John continued to live up to his nickname, for in 1204 he lost Normandy and Anjou to the King of France, and by 1205 only a fragment remained of the vast Angevin empire.  In the long run, this enforced insularity fostered the growth of the English nation state.
In 1205 John quarrelled with the Church, because he refused to accept Stephen Langton, the Pope's nominee, as the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1207 England was laid under an interdict, and John himself was excommunicated two years later.  The dispute ended with John's abject surrender to Innocent III, one of the greatest of Medieval popes.  The loss of England's French possessions, the ignominious failure of his quarrel with Rome, allied to misgovernment and the raising of extortionate taxes, untied against John the articulate elements of society.  John's conduct encouraged men of intellect to conceive of law as having an independence independent of and above the king.  The gradual removal of feudal balances and responsibilities,  begun by Henry II, required the substitution of other mechanisms to prevent despotism.  It was John's extortions to finance incompetent expeditions to recover his Angevin inheritance that proved the final straw:  during his absence on the continent fighting against the French king, a project crowned with failure at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, a party led by Langton came into existence.  This is the first time in English history that a consensus of influential opinion enabled concerted action to be taken on such a scale against bad government.  Londoners and the clergy supported the initiative of the Archbishop and the barons. A demand was made for the confirmation of popular liberties.  After the barons' forces had assembled at Stamford and marched to London, the king capitulated and on Monday, 15 June 1215, on the small island of Runnymede in the Thames near Windsor, sealed the Magna Carta, the Great Charter, which restated the rights of the Church, the barons and all in the land.  The three most important clauses laid down:
1. That the Church was free to choose its own officials.
2. That with no money, over and above certain payments, was to be paid by the king's feudal tenants without their previous consent.
3. That no freeman (Medieval society distinguished, of course, between servile and free men was to be punished except according to the laws of the land.
Langton's key role was all the more remarkable for being contrary to the Pope's wishes; since John's agreement to hold England as a fief of the Papacy, Innocent III had supported him in the conflict.  John soon reneged on his agreement with Langton and the barons, but after the barons invited the French Dauphin to lead them, the situation was reversed.  John died at Newark, after eating peaches and beer, in the midst of an invasion, bequeathing enormous problems to his nine-year-old son.
Facts about this person:
Record Change  December 06, 1999
Burial    1216
Worcester, England