England during the Crusades
John (1199-1216)
John is very often portrayed as a bad king, largely because of the influence of certain chroniclers and later historians. He is portrayed as either incompetent or wicked, or both. Yet, he seemed strong enough early in his reign.
John was his father's favorite son. He received a number of assignments and commissions under Henry, none of which kept John from joining Richard in rebellion at the end of Henry's life, but the assignments gave John experience in military command and in governing. Then again, while Richard was away, John took a hand (sometimes too strong a hand) in ruling England. All this meant that John was well experienced when he became king, and that he had a circle of supporters and advisers whom he trusted.
Once king, he was faced at once with challenges to his authority (from his brother Geoffrey), which he met successfully. He continued Richard's policy of heavy taxation and an ambitious foreign policy, but he could never pull it off. He was faced with a formidable foe, one who was probably even more clever than he: King Philip II of France. He fell afoul of Pope Innocent III and so could not turn to the Church for support. And, finally, he lost the support of his barons. Always ready to be rebellious, the English barons could forgive much if their king were successful in war. But John proved to be spectacularly unsuccessful.
France succeeded in driving the English out of Normandy, Maine and Anjou—the very heart of the Angevin Empire—by 1204. John undertook a long and very expensive plan to recover these territories, involving him in ever-increasing taxations. In order to win back papal favor, he went so far as to make England a papal fief (a gesture that had few practical consequences but which was symbolic of his "weakness"). He did this in 1213, in preparation for his new military campaign in France.
That campaign involved a double invasion, from England and from Germany. John was actually successful on his part, but the Germans were so soundly defeated at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214 that John was forced to return to England empty-handed. The loss of the campaign was bitterly resented and John was blamed for it.
All the taxation, all the defeats, all the outrages and humiliations finally proved too much for the English barons. They rebelled in 1215 and John was unable to defeat them. The result of the rebellion was a document, the Magna Carta, in which the barons asserted their rights against the crown. Later historians make much of this document, but at the time it really meant very little. As before, each English king's authority extended just so far as he could force it and no farther. But by the time of Edward I, it had become customary for the new king at his coronation to confirm that he would honor the provisions of the Magna Carta, and from that time onward, the document was elevated to an almost mythic status. And, of course, King John was necessarily portrayed as the bad guy in the drama, the very model of a tyrant king.
John died in 1216, unmourned by most. His son was only nine years old, and so England, defeated on the Continent, was ruled by a regency--one controlled by those very same rebellious barons.