History Podcast Notes: 1215 and all that: A Bad King and a Good Thing

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History

Podcast: 1215 and all that: a Bad King, and a Good Thing

Taking

Liberties with Magna Carta

·

Issued

at Runnymede June 1215

·

Grandfather

of all our liberties

·

Totemic

qualities it still possesses

·

42

day detention of rule

·

Citizen

is guaranteed against the state

·

Public

liberties, rights of the citizen

What it

says

·

Only

historical document in English that everybody has heard of

·

Contains

some clauses that even today have general significance and are believed to

guarantee the rights of the people

·

39

and 40 clauses are still on the statute book today: no man outlawed, enslaved

etc. Lands taken off him except by law of the land, no one will we not sell of

refuse right or justice

·

60+

clauses

·

Less

relevant causes e.g removal of fish weirs from rivers

·

50-51

removal of Gerald Daffy etc. Some clauses are very personal and less for the

good of the kingdom

·

Removal

all alien knights etc. Basically anyone not English

·

Opening

of the charter begins conventionally enough with name of the king, those who

attended the issue at Runnymede beginning with AB of C

·

First

clause: we have granted to God – initially granted not to citizens of England

but to God king speaking directly to the almighty.

Context

·

Why

did he sign Magna Carta? Peace treaty to begin with

·

May

1215 Barons had seized London and held it against the king forcing him into

negotiations with his Barons

·

Need

for peace treaty? Because John was a slippery

character

·

Opinions

of John differ little from 13th C similar to Matthew Paris view

“hell itself is defiled by the vileness of John”

·

19th

C “king John cruel as Nero” “combined in his single person all the vices who

ever held the crown”

·

Charged

with a whole catalogue crimes

·

Henry

II 1189 John had rebelled against his father although he was his favourite

·

1190s

Richard crusading etc. John rebelled again

·

1199

Richard died John seized the throne (argued to have belonged to Arthur of

Brittany son of Geoffrey)

·

1200

John remarried divorcing Isabel of Gloucester but kept her lands, married

southern French heiress Isabella of Angouleme (8-14 years old)

·

Isabella

already betrothed to southern French Baron Hugh du Lusignan (withheld

consummation because of her age) Hugh rebelled and dragged Arthur of Brittany

·

1202

in a brilliant military manoeuvre he held Arthur captive at Mirebeau

·

Arthur

led into captivity and never seen again – John believed to have killed him

·

Phillip

declared John’s French lands forfeit and seized John’s possessions in Northern

France: Normandy, Maine and Anjou

·

1203

John lost Normandy 1204 retreated to England

·

John

back in a realm unaccustomed to having a King

·

Set

on reclaiming his lands and raised extraordinary taxation to pay for

reclamation of continental lands

·

Came

into conflict with Barons and Knights who did not wish to pay those taxes

·

Fell

out with the English church and confiscated a large part of their estates

taking their revenues for his re-conquest

·

Arose

from his refusal to allow Stephen Langton become AB of C, John wanted Bishop of

Norwich: John de Gray. Papacy excommunicated them

·

Interdict

1208-124 over England – lack of church services

·

1213

John came to terms with Church allowed Langton back into England placed England

under direct papal sovereignty and paid the Pope 100,000 marks a year

·

Placing

England under the red hand of Rome

·

1214

John spent collected money on an expedition to France to attack Philip

·

August

1214 at Bouvines John’s northern fork cut off

·

Forced

back to England with money and reputation gone

·

Stirrings

of Baronial discontent

·

May

1215 seizure of London by Rebel Barons

·

Lustful

of Barons wives? Cause of discontent

·

When

friends deserted him he punished their families

·

Suspicious

man

·

Pipe

rolls of government 1210 (middle of John’s reign) (written in medieval latin)

tell us about nature of kingship

·

John

kept a copy of everything: outgoing and ingoing

00.00minutes – 30.10minutes/68.20

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