this video is brought to you by squarespace whether it's your new profession or just a lifelong passion start your journey to website glory with squarespace jack out there awesome all in one platform through the link in the description below more on them in just a bit in all the long centuries that england has been a monarchy some really terrible people have ended up wearing the crown it makes sense any system as old as that is bound to produce a few lemons multiple kings have been deposed by their subjects one charles the first was so hated that he had his head chopped off and the monarchy itself was abolished for over a decade with so many bad examples to choose from it's difficult to settle on just who was worst but serious consideration must be given to the man that wore the crown of england at the beginning of the 13th century a man that presided over a large and prosperous empire and promptly ruined all of it in a truly spectacular fashion king john was never supposed to have been king at all and his unsuitability for the position was quickly made apparent by well everything he did he had all the cruelty of his predecessors but none of their skill on the battlefield little of their cunning and absolutely no inclination towards leadership of his subjects he was the worst of all things a character so cartoonishly villainous that he ended up serving a fictitious role as the natural foil of that most celebrated of english folk heroes robin hood he was so bad at ruling england that eventually his people rose up in revolt against him and he died in the midst of a bloody civil war that was entirely his own making this is the true story of a man who almost single-handedly destroyed an entire kingdom a man with so few redeeming qualities that even the relatively scarce positive steps taken during his reign were done in an attempt to bring him to heal john was born on christmas eve 1166 at the royal palace in oxford his father king henry ii had ruled over england for a decade at that time and was in the process of building an empire that included not only england but most of wales and ireland and the entire western half of france initially no one really paid any attention to john since he had three older brothers his chances of inheriting the english crown or indeed any significant land holdings were very slim as a boy john was seen as king henry's favorite child though even he didn't think highly of his future prospects he jokingly referred to his son as john lachlan a bad thing to be known by in a society where how much land you control directly correlated to how powerful and important you were the problem it seemed was that henry had too many sons the king had planned for his empire to be split up when he died to be divided by princes harry richard and jeffrey this left nothing for jon giving any land to him would involve taking it away from one of his brothers something none of them were willing to countenance indeed the familial squabbles over the vast empire led to a number of armed conflicts between father and sons in the last two decades of henry's reign it was after one of these conflicts that john's mother eleanor of aquitaine was imprisoned by her husband where she would remain until his death jon became much more important following the sudden deaths of first prince henry in 1183 and then prince geoffrey in 1186 leaving only john and henry's second son richard who was now the heir to the throne henry used john to try and control richard seemingly threatening to make jon his heir instead of richard in order to get him to do what he wanted richard chafed at this and finally snapped in 1189 allying himself with the king of france philip ii against his father henry was ill by then a bleeding ulcer was slowly killing him and the broken old king was forced to capitulate the final straw it seemed was finding out that his favorite son john had decided it was in his best interest to side with his brother in the conflict in the middle ages familial loyalty counted for little when power and wealth were on the line but even by the standards of the day it was a stunning betrayal though anyone that knew john personally wouldn't have been surprised extreme self-centeredness was already a well-established personality trait in the prince at the time henry died soon after making peace with his son and richard was crowned in september 1189. before he even became king richard's dearest ambition was to embark upon a crusade to the holy land the egyptian sultan saladin had captured jerusalem from the frankish crusader states in 1187 and richard wanted to reclaim it for christianity it was to be a massive pan-european effort with richard being joined by king philip of france as well as the holy roman emperor frederick barbarossa richard raised vast sums of money through the sale of royal lands and officers as well as taxes to raise an army and equip it but equally important was to make sure his kingdom didn't fall into chaos while he was gone richard set up a regency government to run england while he was gone and named his four-year-old nephew arthur of brittany the son of his late brother jeffrey as his heir if anything happened to him it's notable here that richard took pains to ensure his brother john wasn't a part of the governance of the kingdom it was obvious that he didn't trust him not to try and seize the crown for himself while he was gone instead richard tried to buy john off by giving him vast lands and extracting a promise from him not to visit england for the next three years richard left for the third crusade and things went reasonably well for him he never made it to jerusalem but he captured the strategic cities of jaffa and accra for the crusade estates and also agreed to a peace deal with saladin that allowed christian pilgrims to visit the holy sites in jerusalem unmolested at home however things were falling apart richard's regency government collapsed into inviting between factions and john inserted himself into the mess to try and take power for himself exactly what he promised his brother he wouldn't do richard had made enemies from sicily to cyprus during his crusade and alienated his allies in france and the holy roman empire which quickly came back to haunt him philip returned home before ridge and quickly became an implacable enemy allying himself with john to sow chaos in england richard hearing of the disaster unfolding at home left the holy land but was shipwrecked on the way he tried to take a land route home through germany but was recognized and captured by the new holy roman emperor who imprisoned him a massive ransom was agreed to on the crippled richards empire financially for years to come and richard returned home john's civil war collapsed once richard came back to england and he was forced to grovel at his brother's feet for forgiveness it was obvious that richard held john in contempt and didn't view him as a threat to his power since he forgave his 27 year old brother's actions as those of an ill-advised child john was stripped of most of his lands and exiled to normandy richard spent the remainder of his reign campaigning in france fighting to restore the lands lost to philip while he was on crusade richard was perhaps one of the best warrior kings england had ever had he was a talented general and a fierce warrior gaining the epithet the lionheart for his achievements on the battlefield but the titular king of england spent very little time on the island itself and never got around to fulfilling his kingly duty of producing an heir to his throne when he died in battle in 1199 his vast domains were thrown into chaos and speaking of domains perhaps you want to own one the online variety that isn't if you're looking to build a new website there's no better place to start than with our friends over at squarespace now more than ever people are getting creative with their time they're reaching deep into their savings 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com forward slash biographics to save 10 of your first purchase of a website or a domain and let's get back to king john richard's sudden death left two possible heirs to the english throne along with the vast territories in france that the crown held john as richard's brother and author of brittany richard's nephew richard hadn't designated a successor before he died and the law of the period was confused and unclear making conflict inevitable much of the english norman ability supported john who was crowned king westminster abbey while nobles from brittany angel and maine supported arthur so did king philip of france who saw a weakened england as strengthening his own position initially john saw success in the war against philip and arthur he was able to defend his position in normandy from phillips forces while scoring a surprise victory over arthur's forces at the battle of mirabeau on the 1st of august 1202 capturing arthur and almost all of the rebel leadership but all that he had gained he promptly squandered through his own personal shortcomings government in the middle ages revolved around the king but no king could run his government effectively without support from the nobles and john seemed incapable of getting along with his the king routinely alienated angered and ignored advice from the nobles no matter how close they were to him or how powerful they were added to this was john's pension for cruelty that was considered excessive even by the standards at the time the nobles he captured at mirabeau were imprisoned in such deplorable conditions that many of them died offending and angering their surviving relatives then jon shocked all of europe when in 1203 he murdered his 16 year old nephew arthur after a drinking binge throwing the boy's body in the river more and more french nobles turned away from jon and allied themselves with philip who was on the offensive in normandy by the end of 1204 the entire duchy which had belonged to english monarchs since the days of william the conqueror was now entirely in phillips hands the french king followed up on his success in normandy by seizing anjo and poito as well suddenly and spectacularly john had lost almost all of his continental possessions that his father and brother had captured and offended for decades the dramatic loss of normandy would dominate john's politics for the remainder of his reign the king desperately wanted to regain the lost territory not only because he considered it his birthright but also because the inability to hold it was a personal humiliation for him and the country he led the problem was war in the middle ages was expensive perhaps even more so in relative terms than it is today since standing armies didn't exist at the time any proposed french invasion would involve raising and equipping a large body of troops as well as securing naval vessels to transport them across the english channel further complicating matters was that in this era it was a lot easier to defend territory than it was to capture it the landscape was dotted with castles that dominated the surrounding area which could be garrisoned and provisioned to withstand months of siege an attacking force would steadily be whittled down by the elements by disease by battle wounds and that was even before dealing with the possibility of a relief army that could march out to meet them in a pitched battle all of this meant that once normandy had fallen to king philip it was going to be very very difficult to get it back all of this might have been overcome had england been led by a charismatic leader or at least a brilliant military commander henry ii might have been able to do it or richard the first but john wasn't his father or his brother he was only a marginal soldier at best competent but not brilliant in the field as for charisma he seemed to possess the exact opposite of that people were repelled by him especially the nobles few of england's barons didn't gain anything by a campaign in normandy hardly any of them owned land in france in fact they were increasingly jealous of the expatriate french nobles who'd been displaced by the war and had assumed positions of power in john's court they felt that since normandy had never been part of england in the first place merely ruled jointly by the same monarch that they shouldn't have to spend their treasure or their blood trying to get it back especially not on behalf of a king they were growing to despise john for his part despised the noble's right back he was exceptionally paranoid that any of them might grow powerful enough to challenge him he attempted to squeeze them for the money he needed to conduct campaigns in normandy through any means he could come up with taxes levied on noblemen by john included scottish a cash payment made to avoid mandatory military service inheritance taxes on lands castles and noble titles import and export levies on goods shipped through english ports even forcing widowed women to pay a tax to the crown to avoid being forcibly remarried these levies combined to put much of the english nobility deeply in debt to the crown which jon then used to control them his favorites could have their debts forgiven while those who displeased him could be deprived of their lands and their titles john's eye for money didn't just fall on the nobles either he also sold royal officers including sheriffs to the highest bidder he established import and export fees on goods shipped through english ports england's population of jews which were permitted to live and do business in the country only at the pleasure of the king were heavily taxed a common practice when monarchs found themselves short of cash you'd think that with all of this money flowing in king john would be able to seize back his lost territory in spite of the reluctance of his nobles to follow him into war ah if only it was that easy in 1214 king john must have been feeling pretty confident he was on campaign in france at the head of an army that had captured much of anjou and was still making moves towards the french capital paris after several failed attempts in the previous 10 years it seemed that he was on the verge of gaining back his lost territory and then disaster struck john's campaign hinged on an alliance with the other major player in european politics at the time otto iv the holy roman emperor otto had invaded france from the north while jon was in the south planning to trap king philip and his son louie in a pincer movement philippinoto met each other at the bridge bevin not far from the city of lille on the modern day french belgium border it was a fierce battle for by heavily armored soldiers hacking each other with swords maces and axes typical for the high middle ages after hours of fighting the critical moment came when the french king and the german emperor clashed in the center of the field with their retinues with both men nearly being killed and having horses killed from underneath them after nearly being captured by the french knights otto was forced to flee the battlefield his deputies the counts of flanders and bologna were not so lucky and were taken prisoner the imperial army had been decisively defeated the loss at bouvoin spelled the end of john's ambitions in france left without allies he was forced to sue for peace and once again dejectedly returned to england empty-handed by now things were really reaching a breaking point the nobles of england were on the precipice of rebellion the discontent between john and his subjects had been building for years john's oppressive taxes were making life difficult for more and more people commoner and noble alike the fact that all of this money was being squandered on campaigns against the french king that failed to accomplish anything just made things worse there were also serious questions being raised about jon's behavior while it was expected for wealthy men at the time to keep mistresses it was considered unacceptable for those mistresses to include married noble women something jon is known to have done several times for that matter his wife isabella of all joules might have been as young as nine years old when she was married to the king in 1199 and had already been betrothed to another nobleman hugh of lucinor neither of which apparently bothered john that much he treated most of his nobles with outright contempt preferring the company of his toadies the new man that he entrusted to help him run the government instead of the land in ability and in a move that had serious political and social consequences he had embarked on a dispute with pope innocent iii that had ended with his excommunication in 1209. the pope also put the entirety of england under papal interdict which forbade the saying of mass inside any church in the country at a time when almost all of society revolved around the church this was a serious blow the two had reconciled in 1213 but the experience still haunted the pious kingdom wide and served to turn the majority of england's clergy against the king with so many enemies and so few friends rebellion was probably inevitable it finally flared up in the aftermath of john's failed campaign in france in 1214. a great coalition of barons from the north of england banded together in april 1215 in the city of northampton and at the head of a large body of men marched south capturing the city of london john's position was clearly untenable and in a last-ditch effort to save his crown he sued for peace the king met with his rebellious barons on the 15th of june 1215 ronnie meet 20 miles west to london attempting to mediate between the two was steven langton the archbishop of canterbury the negotiations went beyond the individual demands of the nobles and raised questions about the way kingdoms were governed up to now no real checks on the absolute power of kings to do whatever they wanted existed either in england or most anywhere in europe while english kings swore an oath at their coronation to rule in accordance with the laws and customs that already existed in the kingdom there was no legal recourse if a king simply chose not to do so it was a fatal flaw when a bad king like king john came along put the entire system at risk of collapse in an attempt to rectify this what the nobles wanted was a guarantee of their rights and liberties under the law they wanted the rights of the church to be respected by the king protection from illegal imprisonment and a fair justice system that they could appeal to what they especially wanted was the establishments of limits on the king's ability to tax his subjects without their consent the two sides agreed to the great charter or magna carta in latin on the 19th of june the charter called for the creation of a body of 25 nobles who were empowered to coerce jon into complying with the terms of the charter they would ensure that the king ruled not according to his own personal whims but according to the law of the land most historians consider the creation of this legislative body to be the first english parliament neither side really believed that the peace agreement would hold for long this was proved out when it defined john appealed to his one-time adversary pope innocent for help as part of john's peace agreement with the pope he agreed to make england a papal vassal state and innocent believed that the magna carta curtailed his own rights as a feudal lord so he declared the charter to be null and void it became clear to the barons that if they wanted their rights guaranteed by law they'd first have to earn them on the battlefield the entire kingdom descended into civil war in 1215.
hard-pressed by john the rebel barons turned to france for help king philip proved reluctant intervene in the chaos but his son prince louis did not he invaded england at the head of a french army of knights and mercenaries and joined with the rebels at london where they proclaimed him king the barons had decided that they would rather be ruled by a foreign king than by john any longer despite being excommunicated by the pope louis pressed the war against john to a fever pitch plunging the entire kingdom into anarchy and violence king john seemed to be at war with everyone his barons the french the scottish who took advantage of the chaos to invade northern england still john had plenty of money saved from his various taxation schemes enough to pay for a sizeable royal army john would attempt to fight all of his enemies at once rather than compromise he was defiant to the last but in the midst of this even his body betrayed him in september 1216 while long campaign john contracted dysentery known at the time as the bloody flux the same disease that killed john's brother henry in 1183 and john grew gravely ill as well likely dehydrated due to severe diarrhea in october the king was no longer able to travel he was at newark castle in nottinghamshire on the 19th of october 1216 when he died at age 49.
