Biography
ICONS traces the events that led up to the signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede, and asks why King John has been given such a bad press
The Basics
It's fair to say that King John was not the best-loved of English monarchs. Having led the country to defeat by the French in 1214, he had virtually bankrupted the national coffers, and acquired a reputation for imposing one punitive levy after another on the landowning barons.
King John was not a Good Man
"Foul as it is, hell itself is defiled by the fouler presence of John," wrote the monk Matthew Paris, soon after the King's death. This verdict on John has lasted through the centuries, inspiring AA Milne to write "King John was not a good man / He had his little ways / And sometimes no one talked to him/ For days and days and days". So just how bad was bad King John?
The Road to Runnymede
In 1214, King John was finally defeated by the French King Philip, at the Battle of Bouvines. The loss of his French lands cost John a large source of royal income. His barons knew that, when he returned, he would try to make up for his losses by squeezing more taxes out of them. In the winter of 1214, a group of around 40 leading barons made up their minds to resist him.
The influence of Magna Carta
Neither King John nor his barons had any idea how important Magna Carta would become for later generations. John never intended to keep his word, and the barons were only interested in their own particular grievances. It was only much later, in the 17th century, that the charter came to be seen as a guarantee of individual rights against arbitrary government.
