King John I Lackland of England

  General Notes:

King of England
Event: Lackland AKA

Born: 24 Dec 1167, Beaumont Palace, Oxford, England
Marriage: (1): Isabella of Angoulême Taillefer on 24 Aug 1200 in Bordeaux, France
Marriage: (2): Isabella of Gloucester
Marriage: (3): daughter of Earl Warenne
Died: 19 Oct 1216, Newark Castle, Newark, Nottinghamshire at age 48
Buried: Worcester Cathedral
General Notes:
First marriage to Isabella, daughter of Earl of Gloucester (divorced in 1199). Second marriage to Isabella, daughter of Count of Angoulême.Signed Magna Carta in 1215 at Runnymede. His reign saw renewal of war with Phillip II Augustus of France to whom he has lost several continental possesions including Normandy by 1205. He came into conflict with his Barons and was forced to Sign the Magna Carta. His later repudiation of the charter led to the first barons war 1215-17 during which John died.This treaty, later known as Magna Carta, limited royal powers, defined feudal obligations between the King and the barons, and guaranteed a number of rights. The most influential clauses concerned the freedom of the Church; the redress of grievances of owners and tenants of land; the need to consult the Great Council of the Realm so as to prevent unjust taxation; mercantile and trading relationships; regulation of the machinery of justice so that justice be denied to no one; and the requirement to control the behaviour of royal officials. The most important clauses established the basis of habeas corpus ('you have the body'), i.e. that no one shall be imprisoned except by due process of law, and that 'to no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice'. The Charter also established a council of barons who were to ensure that the Sovereign observed the Charter, with the right to wage war on him if he did not. Magna Carta was the first formal document insisting that the Sovereign was as much under the rule of law as his people; and that the rights of individuals were to be upheld even against the wishes of the sovereign. As a source of fundamental constitutional principles, Magna Carta came to be seen as an important definition of aspects of English law, and in later centuries as the basis of the liberties of the English people. As a peace treaty Magna Carta was a failure and the rebels invited Louis of France to become their king. When John died in 1216 England was in the grip of civil war.Early LifeThe king's youngest son, John was left out of Henry's original division of territory among his sons and was nicknamed John Lackland. He was, however, his father's favorite, and despite the opposition of his brothers (whose rebellion of 1173–74 was provoked by Henry's plans for John), he later received scattered possessions in England and France and the lordship of Ireland. His brief expedition to Ireland in 1185 was badly mismanaged.Under Richard IJohn deserted his dying father in 1189 and joined the rebellion of his brother Richard, who succeeded to the throne as Richard I in the same year. The new king generously conferred lands and titles on John. After Richard's departure on the Third Crusade, John led a rebellion against the chancellor, William of Longchamp, had himself acknowledged (1191) temporary ruler and heir to the throne, and conspired with Philip II of France to supplant Richard on the throne. This plot was successfully thwarted by those loyal to Richard, including the queen mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richard pardoned John's treachery.ReignEarly ConflictsOn Richard's death, John ascended the English throne to the exclusion of his nephew, Arthur I of Brittany. The supporters of Arthur, aided by King Philip, began a formidable revolt in France. At this time John alienated public opinion in England by divorcing his first wife, Isabel of Gloucester, and made enemies in France by marrying Isabel of Angoulême, who had been betrothed to Hugh de Lusignan. In 1202, Arthur was defeated and captured, and it is thought that John murdered him in 1203. Philip continued the war and gradually gained ground until by 1206 he was in control of Normandy, Anjou, Brittany, Maine, and Touraine. John had lost all his French dominions except Aquitaine and a part of Poitou, which was a critical factor in his subsequent unpopularity.The death (1205) of John's chancellor, Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, not only removed a moderating influence on the king but precipitated a crisis with the English church. John refused (1206) to accept the election of Stephen Langton as Walter's successor at Canterbury, and as a result Pope Innocent III placed (1208) England under interdict and excommunicated (1209) the king. The quarrel continued until 1213 when John, threatened by the danger of a French invasion and by increasing disaffection among the English barons, surrendered his kingdom to the pope and received it back as a papal fief.The Magna CartaJohn's submission to the pope improved his situation. Now backed by the pope, he formed an expedition to wage war on Philip in Poitou. However, while John was at La Rochelle, his allies, Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV (his nephew) and the count of Flanders, were decisively beaten by Philip at Bouvines in 1214. John had resorted to all means to secure men and money for his Poitou campaign, and after returning home he attempted to collect scutage from the barons who had refused to aid him on the expedition.Abuses of feudal customs and extortion of money from the barons and the towns, not only by John but by Henry II and Richard I, had aroused intense opposition, which increased in John's unfortunate reign. The barons now rose in overwhelming force against the king, and John in capitulation set his seal on the Magna Carta at Runnymede in June, 1215. Thus, the most famous document of English constitutional history was the fruit of predominantly baronial force.John, supported by the pope, gathered forces and renewed the struggle with the barons, who sought the aid of Prince Louis of France (later Louis VIII). In the midst of this campaign John died, and his son, Henry III, was left to carry on the royal cause.Character and InfluenceJohn, though often cruel and treacherous, was an excellent administrator, much concerned with rendering justice among his subjects. The basic cause of his conflicts with the barons was not that he was an innovator in trying to wield an absolute royal power, but that in so doing he ignored and contravened the traditional feudal relationship between the crown and the nobility. The modern hostile picture of John is primarily the work of subsequent chroniclers, mainly Roger of Wendover and Matthew of Paris.
Noted events in his life were:
• He was a King of Ireland 1177, Count of Mortain 1189, Earl of Gloucester.
• Acceded: King of England, 27 May 1199, Westminster Abbey, London, England.
John married Isabella of Angoulême Taillefer, daughter of Aymer of Angoulême Taillefer and Alice de Courtenay, on 24 Aug 1200 in Bordeaux, France. (Isabellaof Angoulême Taillefer was born circa 1188 in Angoulême, France and died on 31 May 1246 in Fontevraud.)

John married Queen Isabella TAILLEFER, daughter of Aymer of Angouleme Taillefer and Alice de Courtenay, on 24 Aug 1200 in Bordeaux, France. (Queen Isabella TAILLEFER was born circa 1188 in Angouleme, France and died on 31 May 1246 in Fontevraud, France.)

John next married Suzanne PLANTAGENET.