Skip to main content

Magna Carta and Bad King John

BRLSI 6th July 2015
Sean McGly, of the Open University
Notes by William Gaskell

King John is known to us as a “Rotter”.
There were 3 ways of judging a king:
1.       Knight
2.       Priest
3.       Judge
King John lived in the shadow of his older brother, King Richard the Lionheart. They were of the Angevin Dynasty, the counts of Anjou,. King Richard had bankrupted the country with crusades.
King John earned the nickname “mollygladum” which means “soft sword” for paying tribute to the king of France early in his reign for the protection of English lands in France.
King John is known to have murdered his nephew Prince Arthur out of jealousy perhaps as he was set to be next in line for the throne as the son of King Richard.
King John was tenacious despite his failures; he was only partially competent as a warrior, following up victories with moments of bad judgements leading to defeats.
He suffered an invasion of the French lands by the King Phillip Augustus of France.
“Scutage” was the tax he tried to levy many times during his reign which was a shield tax to raise mercenaries. He raised it 11 times in his 16 year reign whilst his father, Henry II, raised it only 6 times in 32 years, but both ended up raising a similar amount in total for all the levies.
John was very corrupt in resolving legal cases, he would prevaricate about judgement perniciously unless a bribe was made to in in order to settle the case in someone’s favour and then would also be prone to imposing harsh fines even more perniciously.
King John created interdict in 1213 for 2 years.
·         King John was excommunicated
John made bad decisions especially regarding the people who mattered most to him, his sister, Matilda, was starved to death in his custody.
Barons unhappy at having to pay many levies of scutage tax after failed campaigns in France. They got offended by the situation. Ultimately this led them to take over much of the country with the support of the French, eventually taking London and forcing King John to sign Magna Carta.
Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was architect of Magna Carta, his interest was to promote the English Church.
French occupation of England by King Louis, (prince of France but acknowledged by King Alexander of Scotland to be king of England but never crowned), between 1216-1217 lasting until the Battle of Sandwich.
King John died in 1216 and was succeeded by King Henry III.
King John committed atrocities in order to keep people guessing what he’d do next. He was taken seriously for fear of retribution.
I think he wasn’t taken seriously because he was called “lacklands” before he inherited from his brother and Magna Carta sought to make his position of responsibility more serious.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LETTERS TO BEN: Accessing Better Housing in Bath

Notes from Energy & Utility Forum 2017

1. Robert Symons, CEO of Western Power Distribution said: “Energy demand could rise by 100% by 2030. Smart grids will be needed to manage electric vehicle charging so that the usage does not exceed the supply capacity at any time during the day.” 2. Spoke to Harry Vickers, Business Development Manager of Camborne Energy Storage, Camborne Capital at the Energy and Utility Forum in London on October 23rd 2017. He told me his company is working with Elon Musk to bring Tesla battery grid storage solutions to the UK. 3. Spoke to Sally Barrett-Williams, Chairman of Energy and Utility Forum on October 23rd, who said subsidies for solar projects had ended and her company’s focus has shifted to energy storage schemes. 4. Spoke to Simon Dowland, PhD, at 13:00 on Sunday 29th October, Simon is now working up in Cambridge at the Cavendish Physics Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, he is working in industry for the company Eight19 Ltd a spin off from a research project to bring ne

Camden Crescent and Hedgemead Park

Camden Crescent at the centre of the image, just above Hedgemead Park viewed from Prior Park Landscape Gardens Here are my thoughts: Did you know that Camden Crescent, originally Camden Place and Upper Camden Place (which is now round the corner) was named after the Earl of Camden, Charles Pratt, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer so sponsored the scheme with his symbol on every door and crest of the exchequer on the decoration at the centre of the crescent? Charles Pratt was actually lord of Camden Place in Chislehurst in Kent. He was mates with William Pitt the Elder from Eton and Cambridge days. It was built 1788-1792 by John Eveleigh the architect.  One third of the 22 house crescent collapsed during a landslip which claimed 136 houses on the slopes of Lansdown Hill leading to the creation of Hedgemead Park below Camden Crescent. John Eveleigh was notoriously bankrupted in Bath, being called to the coffee shop in the Bath Chronicle by his creditors. Earl Camden was famous