Magna Carta is the world’s oldest constitutional document. It has been seen as the cornerstone of liberty throughout the English-speaking world. But the story of how it came to be accepted is long and complicated. Both King John, (reigned 1199-1216) and his successor Henry III, (reigned 1216-72), opposed attempts to limit their power and this led to a series of conflicts popularly known as the Barons’ Wars.
John was the son of King Henry II, one of Europe’s most powerful monarchs. As well as king of England Henry was also ruler of several provinces in France, from Flanders to the Pyrenees. Historians call these various territories the ‘Angevin Empire’.
As Henry’s youngest son, John was not expected to inherit significant lands, but his father went to great lengths to ensure that he would receive a suitable inheritance. Despite this, John eventually betrayed his father by joining a rebellion against him as he lay dying in 1189. Because three of Henry’s sons had died young, John became heir to the throne during the reign of his childless elder brother King Richard I. He unsuccessfully tried to seize the throne while Richard was absent on the Third Crusade, but on his return his brother forgave him. When Richard was fatally wounded during a siege of a castle in France in 1199 John became king.
John’s accession was greeted with little enthusiasm. Few people trusted him while many of his French subjects believed that the rightful king was Prince Arthur of Brittany, the son of John’s older brother Geoffrey. In 1202 John captured Arthur and in April 1203 he is believed to have had him murdered, an event which shocked people across Europe. John’s great rival, Philip Il Augustus, king of France, took advantage of the situation to invade John’s French territories and by 1204 he had conquered both Normandy and Anjou. This disaster cast a dark shadow over John’s reign and earned him the mocking nickname ‘Softsword’.
Determined to raise the money and resources he needed to reconquer his lost provinces, John bullied and threatened his barons, raising new taxes and finding excuses to seize their lands and property. At the same time John was in conflict with the Church and confiscated part of its wealth. As a result, in 1209, Pope Innocent III, excommunicated John. All this eventually resulted in John becoming one of England’s the most detested kings.
Text and image from the ‘Magna Carta Trust’ Newsletter.
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