King John of England

“ Trust me my lord, right well have you advised, Venom for use, but never for a sport Is to be dallied with, lest it infect. Were you installed, as soon I hope you shall, Be free from traitors, and dispatch them all. Lewis
That so I mean, I swear before you all On this same altar, and by heaven’s power, There’s not an English traitor of them all, John once dispatched, and I fair England’s king, Shall on his shoulders bear his head one day, But I will crop it for their guilt’s desert. Nor shall their heirs enjoy their signories, But perish by their parents’ foul amiss. ”

“ We joy to see so sweet a peace begun. Lewis
Lewis with Blanche shall ever live content. But now, King John, what say you to the duke? Father, speak as you may in his behalf. Philip
King John, be good unto thy nephew here, And give him somewhat that shall please thee best. John
Arthur, although thou troublest England’s peace, Yet here I give thee Brittany for thine own, Together with the earldom of Richmond, And this rich city of Angiers withal. ”

“ Success may follow thee; Thus hast thou showed thy kindness to thy king. Sirrah, in haste go greet the cardinal, Pandulph I mean, the legate from the pope. Say that the king desires to speak with him. Now John, bethink thee how thou may’st resolve, And if thou wilt continue England’s king, Then cast about to keep thy diadem, For life and land, and all is leveled at. The pope of Rome, ‘tis he that is the cause, He curseth thee, he sets thy subjects free From due obedience to their sovereign ”

“ Therewith receive this favor at my hands, T’encourage thee to follow Richard’s fame. Arthur
Ye citizens of Angiers, are ye mute? Arthur or John, say which shall be your king! Citizen
We care not which, if once we knew the right, But till we know we will not yield our right. Bastard
Might Philip counsel two so mighty kings, As are the kings of England and of France, He would advise your graces to unite And knit your forces ‘gainst these citizens, Pulling their battered walls about their ears. The town once won, then strive about the claim, For they are minded to delude you both. ”

“ I rather think the menace of the world Sounds in his ears as threats of no esteem, And sooner would he scorn Europae’s power, Than lose the smallest title he enjoys— For questionless he is an Englishman. Lewis
Why are the English peerless in compare? Brave cavaliers as ere that island bred, Have lived and died, and dared and done enough, Yet never graced their country for the cause: England is England, yielding good and bad, And John of England is as other Johns. Trust me, young Arthur, if thou like my reed, Praise thou the French that help thee in this need. ”

“ 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 favour of the dynasty was out of the question.
John’s second wife, Isabella of Angoulême (d. 1246) , who married her former lover, Hugh of Lusignan, after the English king’s death, bore the king two sons, Henry III. and Richard, earl of Cornwall ”

“ We can hardly understand the reign of John unless we remember that at its very beginning men were learning to watch the legality of the king's actions and to demand that he respect the limitations which the law placed on his arbitrary will.
On May 25, John landed in England, and on the 27th, Ascension day, he was crowned in Westminster by the Archbishop of Canterbury before a large assembly of barons and bishops. The coronation followed the regular order, and no dissenting voice made itself heard, though a rather unusual display of force seems to have been thought necessary. ”

“ What holier triumph for the conqueror of the Saracens than the subjugation of these northern infidels? He would dethrone the proud Elizabeth; he would liberate and espouse the Queen of Scots, and together they would reign over, the two united realms. All that the Pope could do with bulls and blessings, letters of excommunication, and patents of investiture, he did with his whole heart. Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland as soon as he liked; all that was left to do was to conquer the kingdoms. ”

“ O peers of England, know you what you do? There’s but a hair that sunders you from harm, The hook is baited, and the train is made, And simply you run doting to your deaths. But lest I die, and leave my tale untold, With silence slaughtering so brave a crew, This I aver, if Lewis win the day, There’s not an Englishman that lifts his hand Against King John to plant the heir of France, But is already damned to cruel death. ”

“ But I, my lord, can prove, and do aver Both to my mother’s shame and his reproach, He is no heir, nor yet legitimate. Then, gracious lord, let Falconbridge enjoy The living that belongs to Falconbridge, And let not him possess another’s right. King John
Prove this, the land is thine by England’s law. Queen Eleanor
Ungracious youth, to rip thy mother’s shame, The womb from whence thou didst thy being take. All honest ears abhor thy wickedness, But gold I see doth beat down nature’s law. ”

“ John was succeeded in the throne by Charles the dauphin, a prince educated in the school of adversity, and well qualified, by his consummate prudence and experience, to repair all the losses which the kingdom had sustained from the errors of his two predecessors. Contrary to the practice of all the great princes of those times, which held nothing in estimation but military courage, he seems to have fixed it as a maxim never to appear at the head of his armies; and he was the first king in Europe that showed the advantage of policy, foresight, and judgment, above a rash and precipitate valor. ”

“ Archbishop Hubert in announcing the result used words which seem strange now: "Forasmuch," he declared to the people assembled to witness John's coronation, "as we see him to be prudent and vigorous, we all, after invoking the Holy Spirit's grace, for his merits no less than his royal blood, have with one consent chosen him for our king." In reality, John was of all men most unworthy. He was without dispute the worst of the English kings. Like William II. he feared not God nor regarded man. ”

“ For now Prince John is King, and Lady Marian
In peril, gossip! Yet we are in advance
Of sun and moon to-night, for sweet Prince John
Is not aware yet of his kinglihood,
Or of his brother's death.
ROBIN
[Pausing a moment.]
Why, Shadow-of-a-Leaf,
What does this mean?
SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF
Come, pick the mortar out;
You have no time to lose. This very night
My Lady Marian must away to Sherwood.
At any moment the dread word may come
That makes John King of England. Quick, be quick!
ROBIN
She is at the masque to-night! ”

“ Enter King John, Eleanor, Arthur, the Bastard, Hubert and Lords.
KING JOHN.
[To Eleanor] So shall it be; your grace shall stay behind
So strongly guarded.
[To Arthur] Cousin, look not sad.
Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will
As dear be to thee as thy father was.
ARTHUR.
O, this will make my mother die with grief!
KING JOHN.
[To the Bastard] Cousin, away for England! Haste before,
And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags
Of hoarding abbots; imprison’d angels
Set at liberty. The fat ribs of peace
Must by the hungry now be fed upon. ”

“ After his marriage John went back to England for the coronation of his queen, which took place on October 8. At Lincoln he received the homage of William of Scotland and made peace with the Cistercians, and then went on a progress through the north as far as Carlisle. In the meantime, as was to be expected, hostilities had begun with the family of the Count of La Marche, and the king sent out a summons to the barons of England to meet him at Portsmouth at Whitsuntide prepared for service abroad. ”

“ Arthur
As please my god, so shall become of me. Queen Eleanor
My son to England, I will see thee shipped, And pray to God to send thee safe ashore. Bastard
Now wars are done I long to be at home To dive into the monks’ and abbots’ bags, To make some sport among the smooth-skin nuns, And keep some revel with the Fanzen Friars. John
To England, lords; each look unto your charge And arm yourselves against the Roman pride. Exeunt.
Scene 10 Enter the King [Philip] of France, Lewis his son, Cardinal Pandulph Legate, and Constance. ”

“ 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 septs. Remaining henceforth at his father’s side he was treated with the 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 (see Henry II.) . ”

“ Never, in truth, had that fiery warrior shown more eagerness and determination than in hastening to the conflict which was to decide his fate.
From the hour in which he received intelligence of the prince's incursion, John was all excitement and activity. No sooner did he learn that the heir of England was marching towards Berry, and carrying all before him, than he mustered all his energies to meet the crisis, and to strike a sure and shattering blow at the pride and honour of the nation by whose king the race which he represented had been humbled to the dust. ”

“ But D. John did not desire to be King of England by any and every means, but by those of justice and nobleness, conquering the kingdom with his sword, setting the lawful Queen, Mary Stuart, at liberty, and sharing her throne by her own wish. ”

“ In September 1356 John gathered the flower of his chivalry and attacked the Black Prince at Poitiers. The utter defeat of the French was made the more humiliating by the capture of their king, who had bravely led the third line of battle. Taken to England to await ransom, John was at first installed in the Savoy Palace, then at Windsor, Hertford, Somerton, and at last in the Tower. He was granted royal state with his captive companions, made a guest at tournaments, and supplied with luxuries imported by him from France. ”

“ These were Arthur of Brittany, the son of his next brother Geoffrey, and John of Cornwall, his false and turbulent youngest brother. The English Great Council chose John as king without any hesitation; they would not take Arthur, a mere boy of twelve, who had never been seen in England; they preferred John in spite of his great and obvious faults. But in the continental dominions of Richard there was no such unanimity: the unruly barons of Anjou and Aquitaine thought they would gain through having a powerless boy to reign over them, rather than the unscrupulous and grasping Earl John. ”

“ King John staggered to his feet. “I will do it, oh, I will do it speedily, and they shall be the very apple of my eye, even as thou. And thou, good father,” he cringed, “thou wilt put up that cruel parchment and sail away and stay that devil Philip?”
“I will be gone when the work here is done, and Pandulf the sub-deacon shall come to take thy homage to the Lord Pope, and Stephen Langton shall shrive thee.”
“So may God give me salvation!” the King cried. “I go, I go, and, good father, do thou go too.” He fled, and spent the bitter rage of fear upon his men. ”

“ 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 (q.v.) , 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. ”

“ Even more oppressive on the community as a whole were the constant exactions of money which he had to make for the king's expenses. The return of John to England in 1190, or early in 1191, made at first no change, but discontent with the chancellor's conduct would naturally look to him for leadership, and it is likely John was made ready to head an active opposition by the discovery of negotiations between Longchamp and the king of Scotland for the recognition of Arthur of Britanny as the heir to the kingdom, negotiations begun—so the chancellor said—under orders from Richard. ”

“ A war broke out which took a turn especially dangerous to the kingdom, because the barons called the heir of France to the English throne and did him homage. So little were the feelings of nationality yet developed, that the barons fought out the war against their King, supported by the presence and military Power of a foreign prince. For the interests of the English crown it was perhaps an advantage that King John died in the midst of the troubles, and his rights passed to his son Henry, a child to whom his father's iniquity could not be imputed. ”

“ Nevertheless, no one, so far as I have read, has had a good word to say of King John. Green vouchsafes “the sober judgment of history” in ratification of the Billingsgatish opinion: “Foul as it is, hell itself is defiled by the fouler presence of John.” I have no kalsomine to mix for him who seems by all accounts to have been worse than his Satanic Majesty, in that John is “as black as he is painted.” Yet it is to this royal monster that England owes her Great Charter of Rights and Freedom, and one of her red letter days. ”