"Bad" King John: How Rubbish Was He?

King John is often named as one of, if not the, worst kings in British history… but just how rubbish was he?

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Intro / Outro song: Silent Partner, "Greenery" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeIkbW49B6A]

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Linked videos and playlists:

Line of kings: https://youtu.be/u2eX8tsJKdo


Images (from Wikimedia Commons, unless otherwise stated):

Screenshots from Disney’s “Robin Hood” (1973) from https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Robin_Hood_(film)

First page of “King John” from “Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies” or The First Folio (1623). From Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image (SCETI).

Production photograph of Philip Leach as King John in front of the tomb of the monarch in the 2016 production of Shakespeare’s King John staged by the Worcester Repertory Company in Worcester Cathedral on the 800th Anniversary of the King’s Death. Directed by Ben Humphrey (17 October 2016)

A 12th-century depiction of Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine holding court from an illuminated manuscript. Illumination adorning the Lancelot du Lac manuscript of Gautier Map, part two, La Quest du Saint Grail, la Mort d’Arthur, c.1301-1400. Held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, French Manuscript 123, folio 229.

Detail from one of the Becket Leaves (BL Loan MS 88), possibly by Matthew Paris, showing Henry the Young King (13th century).

King Henry II of England and his children (before 1308). Held by the British Library (Royal 14 B VI)

Chronique de Saint-Denis (ou de France), The Coronation of Philip II of France; 14th Century (after 1332, before 1350). Held by the British Library (Royal 16 G VI f. 331).

Richard the Lionheart, Richard I of England, being anointed during his coronation in Westminster Abbey from a 13th-century chronicle by Matthew Paris: Chetham MS Ms 6712 (A.6.89), fol.141r.

Manuscript illumination from “Grandes Chroniques de France” depicting Richard I and Phillip II receiving the keys to Acre in 1191 (c.1375-1380). Held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, département des Manuscrits, Français 2813, folio 238 verso.

Map the Angevin (Plantagenet) Empire across France and England during the 12th century. Created for Wikimedia by Amitchell125.

Photograph of the tomb effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the church of Fontevraud Abbey. Taken by Adam Bishop (2011).

Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI grants a pardon to a pleading Richard I of England from Petrus de Ebulo, Liber ad honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis, fol 129, recto (circa 1196). Source: Gerd Althoff, Hans Werner Goetz, Ernst Schubert –- Menschen im Schatten der Kathedrale, Darmstadt: Primus Verlag 1998 S. 18 (Scan) ISBN 3-89678-090-5 (Burgerbibliothek Bern, Cod. 120.II, f. 129r aus der Handschrift Petrus de Ebulo, Liber ad honorem Augusti)

Portrait of King John of England (John Lackland) by Matthew Paris from his Historia Anglorum 1250-59. British Library Royal MS 14 C.VII, f.9 (detail).

Photograph of the tomb effigy of Isabella of Angoulême in the church of Fontevraud Abbey. Taken by UAltmann (2006)

Murder of Prince Arthur by Thomas Welly (1754). Engraving after The Death of Arthur painted by William Hamilton. Held by the National Galleries of Scotland.

Fresco depicting Pope Innocent III at the cloister Sacro Speco (c.1219).

King John of England hunting on horseback, 1167-1216. Illuminated manuscript, De Rege Johanne, 1300-1400. MS Cott. Claud DII, folio 116, British Library.

Arrival of Louis in England from Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, II, fol. 46v (13th century).

Illumination showing the Coronation of King Henry III (13th century). Cotton Vitellius A. XIII.


Quoted texts:

Sobehrad, Lane. “Hating John: HOW ENGLISH CHRONICLERS PORTRAYED THE KING.” Medieval Warfare, vol. 7, no. 2, Karwansaray BV, 2017, pp. 12–15, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48578157.

Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal (History of William Marshall) (13th century).


Also consulted:
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries for the various individuals discussed in today’s video.