King John: And the Road to Magna Carta

Medieval historian Church (The Household Knights of King John), a noted scholar of the reign of King John, traces the steps and missteps that led to the defeat of the king and the creation of the Magna Carta. Church begins in John’s childhood, looking for potential roots of the failures in judgment that caused his downfall. John’s role during the reign of his brother, Richard the Lionheart, receives meticulous treatment, and Church vividly describes the machinations, intrigue, and duplicity of court life surrounding the young count. In Church’s view, John’s worst fault was that he was “a man all too willing to play at brinkmanship, but who ultimately lacked the fine judgment to know when he had gone too far.” This trait revealed itself many times, especially in John’s demand for uncustomary tithes and his alienation of his English subjects, who refused to support his foreign wars. John was also unfortunate in that his opponents were strong, especially King Phillip II of France, who took over much of John’s French territory, and Pope Innocent III, the most powerful of the medieval popes, with whom John refused to compromise. Church dramatically relates the tragic twists of the king’s fall in this story of power gone awry, with echoes that resonate in the present. [em](Apr.) [/em]