towered over his unimposing younger brother. John resembled his father, Henry II, in both appearance and temperament. He had curly red hair and a barrel-chested physique that became overweight as he grew older. Also like his father and numerous other members of the Plantagenet dynasty, he was prone to sudden changes in mood. Contemporaries observed that John could change from generous, hospitable, and good-natured to angry and vengeful in an instant, erupting into violent rages similar to those of Henry II. While Richard was a formidable soldier, John had neglected the martial training that was an essential part of any young nobleman’s education, preferring hunting, hawking, music, and gambling. John also took unusual care with his appearance, enjoying sumptuous clothing and jewels, especially gold. In an era when rules for monastic orders prescribed two to four baths per year for monks and even the rich viewed bathing as a rare luxury, John took a bath every three weeks. John’s formative experiences in a family where his parents and brothers were frequently at war with each other appear to have made him secretive, and he became skilled at dissimulation.
Despite their differences, the two brothers presented a united front during the early months of Richard I’s reign. Richard released their mother, Eleanor, from confinement and she became a familiar and prominent figure at his court. John accompanied Richard to England for his coronation in August 1189 and was showered with lands, wealth, and honours. On August 29, John married Isabelle of Gloucester, whose married elder sisters were conveniently disinherited by the crown so that the earldom of Gloucester would pass to the king’s brother. Richard named John the Count of Mortain, Normandy. The new king also confirmed John’s right to the English castles that he had been granted by Henry II and bestowed new honours upon him, including the earldom of Cornwall. The revenues from John’s six English shires alone provided him with an independent annual income of £4,000, making him one of the wealthiest men in England, and he maintained a large household in his capacity as Lord of Ireland.
Richard’s accession brought John astonishing new wealth and prestige, but the king was careful to exclude him from any real position of power. There is evidence that Richard was well aware of his younger brother’s limitations as a soldier and statesman, commenting to Roger of Howden in 1193, “My brother John is not the man to conquer a country if there is a single person able to make the slightest resistance to his attempts.”
Richard departed his domains for the Third Crusade in 1190 and, as the only other adult male member of the ruling dynasty, John may have expected to be entrusted with a senior role in the governance of the Angevin domains. Instead, Richard entrusted England to his chief minister, Guillaume de Longchamp, and insisted that John swear an oath to stay away from the kingdom for three years. Eleanor of Aquitaine, who exerted far more political influence during Richard’s reign than John, modified the oath to place John’s exile from England at Longchamp’s discretion, but the existence of any limits on his movements demonstrated the distrust behind the public expressions of unity. Richard also refused to choose John as his successor, instead naming their nephew, Arthur of Brittany, son of their late brother, Geoffrey, as heir to the throne.
Richard was captured by Duke Leopold of Austria on his way home from the crusade in 1192 because of his rumoured involvement in the murder of Leopold’s cousin, Conrad of Montferrat. The duke presented his captive to Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, who held him for ransom. John seized the opportunity to assert his authority over Richard’s domains. While Eleanor raised the ransom for Richard’s release, John swore fealty to Philip II for Richard’s French domains and offered Henry VI a substantial sum to keep Richard in captivity. Eleanor’s interests prevailed over those of her youngest son, and Richard returned to England in March 1194. In May, the two brothers were publicly reconciled, though Richard displayed his contempt for his brother by forgiving John with the words, “Do not be afraid, John. You are a child; you have got into bad company.” Despite Richard’s condescending attitude, the prospect of being named heir to the throne instead of his young nephew, Arthur, ensured John’s loyalty for the remainder of his brother’s reign. On his deathbed, following a crossbow wound to the shoulder he received while besieging a castle held by a rebel baron in Aquitaine in 1199, Richard acknowledged his brother, John, as heir to all the Angevin domains. Finally — and improbably — the youngest and oft-ignored son once known as John Lackland had begun his controversial reign as king of England.
John’s upbringing and rivalry with Richard are crucial to understanding his conflicts with his barons and the church during his reign, circumstances that precipitated Magna Carta. From a young age, John became skilled in dissimulation and exploiting conflict within the ruling family for his own personal gain. During Richard’s reign, John was quick to betray his brother or reconcile with him according to his self-interest. John’s dissimulation continued after he became king. By 1215, the year of Magna Carta, a significant proportion of John’s barons came to the conclusion that the king could not be trusted to keep his word and observe the customs of the realm outlined in the coronation charters of previous monarchs. The solution was Magna Carta, a formal charter of liberties imposed on the king by his subjects.
Nineteenth-century engraving depicting King John refusing to accept the Magna Carta when it was first presented to him by his rebel barons.
Nineteenth-century engraving depicting King John.
Part 2
Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest
Magna Carta and the subsequent Charter of the Forest (Carta de Foresta) were responses to the unique political, social, and economic circumstances that emerged during the reigns of King John and his son, King Henry III, including military defeats that ended Angevin control of western France, a multi-year break with the papacy and arbitrary treatment of influential barons. In 1215, neither John nor his barons expected the terms of Magna Carta to be respected for long. John repudiated the document within weeks and went to war with his barons. Only John’s untimely death in 1216 provided the opportunity for the terms of Magna Carta to be entrenched and expanded through additional charters such as the Charter of the Forest during the reign of his son. Like John, Henry III had experienced military defeats and treated his barons arbitrarily, demonstrating the need for further charters and institutions to ensure the monarch followed the accepted law of the land. In the reign of Henry III, Magna Carta informed the emergence of parliamentary government.
The Reign of King John and the Coming of Magna Carta
Like those of many of his predecessors, John’s accession to the English throne was contested. Although Richard apparently acknowledged John as his successor to all his territories on his deathbed, the new king faced an immediate challenge from supporters of his twelve-year-old nephew, Arthur of Brittany. Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Brittany supported Arthur as Richard’s rightful heir to the Angevin domains; John had the support of England and Normandy. Arthur also had a powerful supporter in King Philip II of France.
Despite John’s reputation for political and military incompetence, which dated from his time in Ireland and attempts to rebel against Richard, he began his reign with victories. When the teenage Arthur besieged his grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in the château de Mirebeau in 1202, John took decisive action to relieve the siege and defeat Arthur’s forces. Arthur was captured by John’s barons on August 1, 1202, and imprisoned in the château de Falaise under the guardianship of William de Braose.
The interior of Bordeaux Cathedral where King John married his second wife, Isabelle of Angouleme, in 1200.
For John’s barons, the existence of an alternate claimant to the throne was advantageous because
