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The reign of King John - Coggle Diagram
The reign of King John
The Negatives of King John's Reign
1185- Sent to rule Ireland but failed and was sent back after 6 months
1192- Conspired against his brother Richard I while he was on a crusade
1199- Richard killed and John becomes king
Rumours came out that Arthur would be better than John on the throne. Later Arthur went missing which made people suspect that John had him murdered
1200- John married Isabella, who was promised to Hugh Lusignan. Hugh's family complained to the french king (Philip II) who attacked English lands as retaliation
Because of this John lost English lands in France (the Angevin Empire)
Due to this he gained the name of a weak military leader or 'John Softsword'
To pay for the battles and lost land, he imposed heavy taxes on his people which was very unpopular.
he was already very unpopular with the nobles but this is made worse when his well-loved mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine died.
John fell out with the pope
this was over choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury (Stephen Langton)
This led to is excommunication in 1209
This put England under the Church law that stated no christening or marriage would be legal.
Everyone was infuriated because they thought they could no longer go to heaven
eventually John backed down in 1213 after a war was threatened
John lost another battle to the French. This meant that England had lost all of it's land in France
This was too much for the powerful barons and in 1214 they rebelled
The Positives of King John's Reign
He introduce the Magna Carta even though he was forced to do so by the nobles (and he had no intention of keeping it).
The Magna Carta
The Magna Carta was intended to limit John's power over England
Some clauses are still being used today:
The King was to let the Church govern itself
The King couldn't raise the taxes without the nobles' agreement
John had raised the taxes very high in the past. they wrote this rule so he couldn't raise them massively again without permission
The Tax rate had a restriction level
People were entitled to a fair trial and no one could be punished or imprisoned without a fair trial
Any punishment should fit the crime
John had NO intention AT ALL to keep his promises
As a response, he raised a (very small) army to fight the nobles
But luckily the civil war didn't happen because right before it was due to be fought, John died from dysentery (October 1216)