Reigned 1199-1216. Signed Magna Carta in 1215 at Runnymeade. His reign saw renewal of war with Phillip II Augustus of France to whom he had lost several continental possessions including Normandy by 1205. He came into conflict with his Barons and was forced to sign the Magna Carta. His later repudiation of the charter led to the first barons war 1215-17 during which John died. Burke says he was born in 1160.

King of Ireland 1177, Count of Mortain 1189, Earl of Gloucester.

After his brother, Richard I, left on the Third Crusade, John conspired unsuccessfully with King Philip II of France to supplant Richard as King of England. Then, when Richard died, John legally ascended the throne and reigned as King from 1199 to his death in 1216. King John was not a popular ruler. He lost most of England’s holdings in France in wars with the French people. He also taxed the English people heavily, and when people protested, he put them in jail.

John’s refusal to accept a new archbishop of Canterbury led to his excommunication in 1209. To regain Papal favor, he surrendered his kingdom to Pope Innocent III in 1213, and received it back as a Papal fief.

In 1215, England’s nobles rebelled against King John. They forced him to sign an agreement giving them certain rights. That document became known as the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta simply said that the King could not tax English citizens without the consent of the “council of the Kingdom,” gave people accused of breaking the law the right to a fair trial, and made the King subject to the same laws as the people. It was the many violations of accustomed “rights” established as English common law that got the American colonists so upset over 500 years later.

John, Lackland, King of England, 1199-1216; b. 24 Dec. 1166; d. 19 Oct. 1216; m. (2) 24 Aug. 1200, Isabella of Angouleme (117-27, 153-28); b. 1188; d. 31 May 1246. (G. E. Cokayne’s (new revised) “Complete Peerage,” vol.s I-XII pt. 2, 1910-1959 - V, 736; “Century Cyclopedia of Names,” 494).55