Parents: Henry II, king of England, and Eleanor, duchess of Aquitaine
Born: 24 December 1166
House: Plantagenet
Spouse(s): (1) Isabel, daughter of William, earl of Gloucester, and Hawise de Beaumont, then (2) Isabella, daughter of Aymer, count of Angoulême, and Alice of Courtenay
Predecessor: Richard I
Reign: 1199 – 1216
Brief: No other English monarch is less understood than King John. Demonized by romantic sagas such as Robin Hood, and praised as the establisher of the Magna Carta, few of the stories of John's life are entirely true. His rise to power came at the cost of his agnatic senior, Arthur, duke of Brittany, the son of John's elder brother, Geoffrey. When Richard I died, Arthur was to become king, but John seized the throne. In 1202, the king of France declared all John's French possessions to either be forfeit or Arthur's. While Arthur himself was captured in 1203 and died under mysterious circumstances, Normandy was completely lost to the French. By 1204, only Aquitaine remained as an English possession on the continent.
For the next decade, John campaigned and rallied support for his war to retake Normandy. In 1209, John was excommunicated for heavy interference in church lands within England and only reconciled in 1213. The fame of John's reign derives from the First Barons' War that was a direct result of the French wars. At a meeting near Windsor Castle in 1215, King John signed a peace agreement that gave the barons large independent powers from the king. It became the Magna Carta, "Great Charter," but it did not last for long. John contacted the pope who excommunicated the entire baronial assembly, and the Barons' War continued for another year. The king of Scots, Alexander II, and Llywelyn the Great of Wales both joined the barons in the rebellion, but the barons were still losing, so they invited Prince Louis, the French heir, to England and offered him the throne. Louis quickly conquered much of the south while John was in the north, but then began to lose the support of the barons. When John finally died of dysentery in October of 1216, the war only lasted another year. Louis abandoned his claim to the throne at the 1217 Treaty of Lambeth and the Magna Carta was reissued for the reign of the child Henry III.
Brief: No other English monarch is less understood than King John. Demonized by romantic sagas such as Robin Hood, and praised as the establisher of the Magna Carta, few of the stories of John's life are entirely true. His rise to power came at the cost of his agnatic senior, Arthur, duke of Brittany, the son of John's elder brother, Geoffrey. When Richard I died, Arthur was to become king, but John seized the throne. In 1202, the king of France declared all John's French possessions to either be forfeit or Arthur's. While Arthur himself was captured in 1203 and died under mysterious circumstances, Normandy was completely lost to the French. By 1204, only Aquitaine remained as an English possession on the continent.
For the next decade, John campaigned and rallied support for his war to retake Normandy. In 1209, John was excommunicated for heavy interference in church lands within England and only reconciled in 1213. The fame of John's reign derives from the First Barons' War that was a direct result of the French wars. At a meeting near Windsor Castle in 1215, King John signed a peace agreement that gave the barons large independent powers from the king. It became the Magna Carta, "Great Charter," but it did not last for long. John contacted the pope who excommunicated the entire baronial assembly, and the Barons' War continued for another year. The king of Scots, Alexander II, and Llywelyn the Great of Wales both joined the barons in the rebellion, but the barons were still losing, so they invited Prince Louis, the French heir, to England and offered him the throne. Louis quickly conquered much of the south while John was in the north, but then began to lose the support of the barons. When John finally died of dysentery in October of 1216, the war only lasted another year. Louis abandoned his claim to the throne at the 1217 Treaty of Lambeth and the Magna Carta was reissued for the reign of the child Henry III.
Date of Death: 19 October 1216
Successor: Henry III
Successor: Henry III
Other Monarchs Who Died Today:
- Urban III, pope of Rome (1187)
- Francesco I, grand duke of Tuscany (1587)
- Louis, king of Portugal (1889)
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