John had spent fortunes paying for his unsuccessful French campaigns. The money came from excessive taxation on his subjects. The most heavily taxed were the barons, who were expected to provide John with troops or pay cash sums, called "scutages". While his brother, Richard the Lionheart, had levied three scutages to pay for his wars, John levied 11 and, on two occasions, he doubled the amount required. In times of emergency, John demanded an additional sum of money from his barons called an "aid". In 1207, he became the first monarch to collect an income tax from his subjects.

The barons demand a charter

Early in 1215, the barons wrote to the King demanding a charter guaranteeing their rights, and threatening to withdraw their allegiance if he refused. Beside himself with fury, John exclaimed, ''Why do not the barons, with these unjust exactions, ask my kingdom?"

On March 4, John came up with a clever counter-move, and took vows to go on a crusade. He had no intention of setting off for the Holy Land but, as a crusader, he was now under the protection of the Church. This made it more difficult for the barons to justify their rebellion. Yet John's act made the barons even more determined to resist him, and each side began to gather troops for the war.

The King suffered a major reverse on May 17, when the rebels seized control of London. The barons then sent letters to all the nobles still loyal to the King, inviting them to join their rebellion. This capture of the capital persuaded many who had remained uncommitted to side with the rebels.

Magna Carta is sealed

The loss of London convinced John, now besieged in Windsor Castle, that he would have to make a deal. He agreed to meet the barons by the Thames near Staines where, on June 10, he gave in to all their demands. Five days later, the King and the barons had a second meeting at Runnymede, where they held a formal peace ceremony. The barons renewed their allegiance to John. Now Magna Carta, with its 63 clauses, was drawn up, and the King placed his seal at the bottom. Copies were made and distributed around the kingdom.

War breaks out again

John had agreed to Magna Carta as a way of buying time, for he had no intention of keeping his word. On the baronial side, there were also extremists who had hoped to get rid of John altogether, and who refused to accept the agreement. Relations worsened in August, when a letter arrived from Pope Innocent III excommunicating the rebel barons and denouncing Magna Carta as "not only shameful and base but illegal and unjust". The Pope had taken John's vow to go on a crusade seriously.

Encouraged by the Pope's letter, John began to confiscate the lands of his opponents and, in September, a new civil war broke out. By this time, the barons were so sick of John that they invited Prince Louis of France to replace him as King. In 1216, Louis invaded England, winning the support of two-thirds of the barons. John fled north, and lost his entire treasury while crossing the marshes of the Wash in East Anglia. A broken man, he fell ill with dysentery, and died at Newark on October 18, 1216.

John's death was a blow for Prince Louis. A council of leading English nobles declared John's nine-year-old son King, as Henry III, and reissued Magna Carta in his name. The English barons, their grievances met, quickly abandoned Louis, who was now seen as a foreign invader. In 1217, Prince Louis, defeated in battle at Lincoln and Sandwich, sailed back to France.

John was buried in Worcester Cathedral, beside the shrine of Wulfstan, his favourite saint. In 1230, Henry III raised a purbeck marble effigy of his father on the tomb, which you can still see. This is the oldest example of a royal effigy in England.