Royal Birthday Profile: King John of England

John, King of England

     On this day in 1166, King John of England was born. He was the youngest son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and as such was not expected to inherit his father's possessions and territories. But rebellions by John's older brothers resulted in him becoming King Henry's favorite son, and he was appointed Lord of Ireland in 1177 and given other lands in England and France. Upon the death's of three of his brothers and his father, John became heir to the throne during the reign of his last surviving brother, Richard I (the Lionheart), and when Richard died in 1199, John succeeded to the Crown.

     He became embroiled in conflicts with the French king, Philip II, which resulted in John losing much of his family's Continental empire, including Normandy, Anjou, and Brittany in northern France by 1204. For the first time since the Norman Conquest, the King of England was that and not much else. John would spend the next ten years attempting to retake these lands, but to no avail.

     Worse, he got into a confrontation with Pope Innocent III over the appointment of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, which resulted in England being laid under an interdict in 1208, which prevented priests from saying Mass, marrying couples, and burying corpses. In response, John confiscated Church lands from officials who followed the orders of the interdict. For this, and John's continued intransigence on the appointment of Stephen Langton, Pope Innocent had John excommunicated in 1209, and may have invited Philip II of France to invade England and depose John. Eventually in 1213, John agreed to accept Langton as Archbishop, compensate the Church for lost revenues from the confiscated land, and to surrender ultimate authority for England and Ireland to the Pope while paying an annual cash tribute of 1,000 marks (£ 666) to lease it back.

     Meanwhile, his fruitless wars in France had sent taxes spiraling and resulted in the loss of French lands belonging to English barons. John's submission to the pope also soured the attitudes of the power brokers who could make or break him, and in 1215, they forced him to sign Magna Carta (the Great Charter) with the aim of restraining the King's power. The document not only contained clauses regarding the liberties and political rights of free people, but it also included sharp teeth which allowed the barons to overrule John and to use force if he showed any sign of backsliding from Magna Carta.

     John then had his new superior overlord, Pope Innocent, to have the charter declared null and void. The barons were subsequently outraged at the King's faithlessness and a civil war broke out in which they invited Louis, the son of the French king, to take the English throne for himself. But on October 18, 1216, King John died, and the rebellion ended with the accession of his nine-year-old son, Henry III.

     King John has been much-maligned by past and contemporary historians for his conduct and actions against the Church, in France, and with the barons. To be fair, he was a good administrator in the mechanics of government and his reign did see through the continued development of English common law. Also, his moment of humiliation - the signing of Magna Carta - is considered an important step in the constitutional evolution of the United Kingdom, with its emphasis on defining the relationship between monarch and people by establishing constraints upon the monarch's powers and the acknowledging of the people's rights and liberties.

     Nevertheless, this action was viewed as a climb down on the part of the king, and his name has been treated with suspicion ever since, which is probably the reason why there has not been a reigning English or British king named John.