King John

1166 – 1216 · Generation XII · King of England (r. 1199–1216) · House of Plantagenet

John Lackland (1166–1216). King of England (r. 1199–1216). Married Isabella of Angoulême in 1200. Lost Normandy and, at Runnymede in 1215, sealed Magna Carta at the barons’ insistence. The youngest of Henry II’s sons, he tried and failed to seize power while Richard was away on the Third Crusade, yet was proclaimed king at his brother’s death. A quarrel with Pope Innocent III over the see of Canterbury brought an interdict on England and his own excommunication, and his years of heavy revenue-raising and alliance-building ended when his coalition was broken at Bouvines in 1214. The peace sworn with his barons collapsed into civil war, the French king’s son Louis fighting beside the rebels, and John died of dysentery in eastern England with the outcome still unsettled. His judicial reforms nonetheless left a lasting mark on the common law.

One of 23 people of House of Plantagenet (1126–1485) in this archive. The longest-reigning English house, counting its Angevin beginning and the rival Lancaster and York branches that fought the Wars of the Roses.

Line of descent: King William I The Conqueror → King Henry I → Matilda the Empress → King Henry II → King John.

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Parents

• King Henry II (1133 – 1189)
• Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 – 1204)

Siblings

• King Richard I The Lion Heart (1157 – 1199)

Partners

• Married Isabella of Angoulême (1188 – 1246) in 1200 — one child together

Children

• King Henry III (1207 – 1272)

Life

• 1166 — Born
• 1199 — John accedes to the throne on the death of his brother, Richard I.
• 1200 — Married Isabella of Angoulême
• 1205 — John refuses to accept Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1209 — Pope Innocent III excommunicates John for his confiscation of ecclesiastical property
• 1212 — Innocent III declares that John is no longer the rightful King
• 1213 — John submits to the Pope’s demands and accepts the authority of the Pope
• 1215 — John meets the English barons at Runnymede, agrees to their demands, and seals the Magna Carta which set limits on the powers of the monarch, lays out the feudal obligations of the barons, confirms the liberties of the Church, and grants rights to all freemen of the realm and their heirs for ever. It is the first written constitution.
• 1215 — The Pope decrees that John need not adhere to the Magna Carta, and civil war breaks out
• 1216 — Died
• 1216 — The barons seek French aid in their fight against John. Prince Louis of France lands in England and captures the Tower of London
• 1216 — John flees North and loses his war chest of cash and jewels in the Wash estuary
• 1216 — John dies of a fever at Newark and is buried Worcester Cathedral