John (I) Lackland (1167–1216)

King of England from 1199 and acting king from 1189 during his brother Richard (I) the Lion‐Heart's absence on the Third Crusade.

Although branded by contemporaries as cruel and power‐hungry, he is now recognized as a hardworking, able, reforming monarch, who travelled the country tirelessly. He improved the legal system, was the first king to keep records of government writs, and built a large navy that defeated the French fleet before it could invade. He tried vigorously to extend his kingdom, conducting campaigns in Wales, Ireland, and Normandy, and cowing Scotland into a peace treaty. However, he lost Normandy and nearly all other English possessions in France by 1205. The taxes needed to finance his campaigns brought conflict with his barons, and he was forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. Later repudiation of it led to the first Barons' War 1215–17, during which he died. He was succeeded by his son Henry III.

John was nicknamed ‘Lackland’ probably because, as the youngest of Henry II's five sons, it was difficult to find a portion of his father's French possessions for him to inherit. In 1205 he disputed the pope's choice of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, and Pope Innocent III placed England under an interdict, suspending all religious services, including baptisms, marriages, and burials. John retaliated by seizing church revenues, and was excommunicated. Eventually, John submitted, accepting the papal nominee, and agreed to hold the kingdom as a fief of the papacy. After the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, when John's attempt to regain Normandy was defeated by Philip II of France, royal authority collapsed. The barons rebelled and forced him to sign Magna Carta, and the Scots, Welsh, and French attacked England.

John's subsequent bad reputation was only partially deserved. Contemporaries accused him of plotting to depose his brother Richard while acting king; of killing his nephew Arthur, Duke of Brittany (1187–1203), a rival for the English throne; and of numerous acts of cruelty to the English barons and their families. His conflict with the pope was resented by the monastic chroniclers of the time, and these provided much of the evidence upon which his reign was later judged.