King John

The Magna Carta is Latin for “the Great Charter” (Trueman, 2013). This charter was signed by King John of England and the Barons of England in June 1215 (Trueman, 2013). Within the Magna Carta (that was written in Latin) held many rules that the king had to follow. These rules that the king must abide by were to respect the people of England and not abuse the power he possessed. He was to leave the Barons to run their own land.

King John was born in the year 1166 and was the youngest son to King Henry the Second. When Henry died in 1189, (BBC, 2013) he had given the throne to Richard (the eldest son) and some land to John but he had left his two sons a large sum of debt to pay off because of the wars in France. Richard went soon after to fight in the crusades in 1190 and on his journey home was captured by the Duke of Austria and was held for a ransom that was extremely expensive and was paid for through taxes. Richard died April 6th 1199 and he appointed John as heir to the throne.

In April 1199, England, King John was proclaimed king of England and was a failure, making an entire country turn on him in rebellion. What were John’s mistakes that made the Barons of England force him to sign the Magna Carta? King John’s first loss to the French in 1204 led to a loss of land and respect as well as in 1214. The Barons refused to give soldiers to King John after 1204 to raise an army because they did not trust him as a General; in return John taxed them heavily. These were reasons why the country of England made him sign the Magna Carta.

In the first argument we will look at King John’s failure at defending land in 1204 and one way he taxed his people to pay off debts and to raise an army. King John had land in France th...

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...powers he once had (Trueman, 2013).

In conclusion, from reading this essay it is not hard to assume John was a terrible King. His loss in 1204 because of diplomacy and not getting military aid and advice from Barons led to a chain reaction of events. He raised taxes enormously for no real reason other than targeting Barons who did not join his war cause and this was how Barons began to despise him. He soon after was the judge and had absolute authority over his subjects, fining and putting them away in jail because he did not like them. John was so rich from the taxes that half of England’s coins were in John’s possession (mrbuddhistory) but after the war in 1214, he had lost all of those taxes and they were all for no benefit. King John later died in 1216 from dysentery. His history is one of many insulting nicknames and many military defeats. Long live the King!