King John and the Magna Carta

Since Richard the Lionheart got killed at Castle Chalus, in France, England needed a new king. After some debate, officials decided that the rightful succession should go to his brother John Lackland, instead of Richard and John's nephew Arthur. After his coronation, King John wanted to secure the lands of his father in Normandy and other areas in France.

King John

 King John soon went to France and met with Philip, the King of France. The two did not get along and soon they were at war, taking each others' castles.

King Phillip II of France

In one instance, King John's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine was living at the Castle of Mirebeau. It was soon under siege by her own grandson Arthur and King Philip. She sent for help to King John, who was 80 miles away in Le Mans. She anxiously watched for his arrival and sure enough! He was coming to her rescue. They could hear the trumpet blasts and the cavalry charging to aid her against the French. The knights pressed forward crying, “A rescue! A rescue!”

In the end, King John was victorious. The English got lots of rich booty for their captors, nobles of Poitou and Anjou, 200 knights, and Prince Arthur himself. The prisoners were chained and sent to damp dungeons to await liberation by ransom.

“Ah my son, my son,” cried the old Queen through her tears to John, “I knew you would not fail me. God hath wrought for us a glorious victory and overthrown our enemies by His mighty arm.”

What to do with his nephew Arthur was a very serious problem for King John, for Arthur boldly claimed the throne of England and the whole of Angevin dominions as Richard the Lionheart's lawful heir.

King John's advisers proposed a solution that would remove the danger. “Put out the boy's eyes,” they suggested. It would be momentarily painful but not fatal, they pointed out, and would be entirely effective in removing Arthur as an active threat to King John's throne. King John agreed to this plan and sent three experienced retainers to execute it. King John's executioners were not squeamish men but when it actually came to touching the hot iron to Arthur's eyes, they refused.

Arthur, Duke of Brittany

 However, word was sent to King John that the order had been carried out and that Arthur had died from the ordeal. When this rumor reached the barons of Brittany, they threatened vengeance and immediate war. This was prevented only by the confession of the King's executioner's that Arthur was still alive and unharmed.

Thinking that his nephew might now listen to reason, King John call Arthur before him. He wished to befriend and honor him, he said gently, and would do so if Arthur would forsake the evil company of the French and their king and adhere to his loving uncle and lord. But Arthur would not bend, and still claimed to be the rightful heir to the throne of England.

For a few moments, King John, checking his wrath, bit his lip and drummed on his chair with his fingers. Arthur gave him no choice. He would have to do away with him.

Arthur was sent to Rouen Castle and was never seen again. There was a rumor that King John had gotten into a drunken rage and murdered his nephew with his own hands.

Rouen Castle, Normandy, France

 But King John had troubles in Normandy. King Philip kept taking his castles and with each success, more nobles started to pledge loyalty to King Philip. Soon King John realized that he was running out of money and supplies, and that he no longer had the means to defend his Angevin dominions.

When King John was angry, he threw himself down and rolled on the floor, yelling and chewing the expensive oriental rugs that Crusaders had brought back from the East. If there were no rugs about, he chewed straw and sticks that littered the floor. It was bad for his teeth. At such times the dogs, servants, and hostages fled from the palace and the nobles left town.

And King John was furious with the barons who had abandoned him in Normandy. They would not give him their loyalty and even worse, King John had no money. So at the moment, he was powerless. What to do?

He levied a tax of one-seventh of all movable goods on the whole kingdom-barons, bishops, and commoners. A high tax of this sort amounted almost to confiscation. But in time his sheriffs were able to collect most of it. King John was worried that King Philip would conquer all English lands in France so he assembled a huge fleet to invade France.

But King John was a bit paranoid. He didn't know if his barons were loyal to him or to King Philip. The barons tried to dissuade King John to invade France. They fell down before him and, embracing his knees, restrained him from leaving them, declaring that of a surety, “if he would not yield to their prayers, they would detain him by force, lest by his departure the whole kingdom be brought to confusion.”

King John was now weeping with rage and furiously demanded what the barons proposed to do to save the King's honor and aid his friends beyond the sea.

It was finally decided to disband the army and just send a task force to aid King John's friends.

To punish the stubborn barons, King John now laid a heavy tax upon the whole land, for he was firmly determined that he would yet recover his lost heritage across the Channel.

Later, the Archbishop of Canterbury died and King John did not like the new Archbishop that the Pope appointed to the position. He forbid him to come to England. In response, the pope banished the church from giving sacraments and sacred rites. People did not get last rites, no one received the sacraments: the church was closed for business. To believers, this was a calamity.

King John did not want Stephen Langton to be the new  Archbishop of Canterbury.

King John responded to the church by confiscating church lands and seizing revenues from rich monasteries. He filled the treasury with church property. He was showing the church, King Philip, and his own barons and bishops who was King of England. In his boldness and pride he laid heavier burdens on the people and increased their griefs beyond measure.

As King John's power and wealth increased, his wickedness grew. He inflicted unjust fines on the barons, banished some and confiscated property, he even took children and relatives hostages for those who stayed away from his evil court.

The church responded by excommunicating King John. People stayed away and resentful barons began corresponding with King Philip, wanting him to invade England. Even the pope wanted King Philip to invade and proclaimed a universal crusade against King John.

King John realized he was in a desperate situation. He prepared England for war. But at the last minute, he made peace with the church and eventually was absolved from his argument with them. But he did not have peace with the barons. Their enmity for him was growing quickly. King John had shown unrestrained and reckless power. The barons were the only ones with enough power in England to restrain the king at all. For many years, the nobles had endured King John's insults until now their hidden enmity was smoldering beneath the surface ready to burst into rebellion. Now the time had come to enlist their power to force a charter from the King.

All King John wanted to do was beat King Philip and reclaim old English lands in France. This cost a lot of money, taxes that were an unbearable burden to England. So King John marched off to France with an army and while he was gone, the barons organized and planned a means of checking the king's power with a charter.

While in France, King John was betrayed by the barons he was always suspicious of for years. They would not help and actually sided with King Philip. “Nothing has gone prosperously with me, and everything unlucky has happened to me,” muttered John bitterly.

King John returned to England after his defeat in France, in a very bad Angevin temper. It was not improved by what he found awaiting him at home. The barons had ceased fighting among themselves and were united against him and on the verge of rebellion. What was this rumor about a charter? John wondered. No doubt someone had been putting ideas into their thick heads.

He was practically alone, with only a handful of knights he could trust. King John swore he would never sign a charter. But there was no use rolling on the floor and chewing wood. He must settle with the barons face to face. He summoned them to meet him after Christmas and to bring their demands to him. King John tried to out maneuver the barons, but could not.

He had made too many enemies and the barons were now in open rebellion. They were going to take over all of his castles. If King John wanted their loyalty and support, he would have to sign a charter protecting their rights. He did not want to sign it.

But when he finally realized that he could not defend his castles, and when King John lost control of London, he knew he had no choice.

King John met with the barons at Runnymeade. There he begrudgingly signed the Great Charter, known as the Magna Carta. Grim lords bore themselves proudly, for never had the nobles of England so restrained their King.

 

The clearly defined rights stated in the charter now stood above the will of the King. The love of right and justice of the old Anglo-Saxon freemen lived again in the spirit of the Magna Carta. It was a signpost pointing the way on the beginnings of liberty, equality, fraternity and democracy in later centuries.


**This was summarized or directly quoted from the wonderful book Magna Carta by James Daugherty.  I highly recommend this book for any student of history.


 



Enrichment Activity


As we read this story, the kids listened for key words and then did an action or noise as soon as they heard it.


King John-temper tantrum (shaking fists)
King Philip - "Oui, oui!"
taxes - ka-ching
church - bong, bong (with prayer hands)
barons - exasperated sigh
France - "Ooh-lah-lah!
charter - scribble, with hand motion




We also briefly talked about Robin Hood and his place in this story. Then we made a bow-n-arrow out of a pen. Take the pen apart, drill a hole in the middle body of the pen, put rubber band on each end secured by pen caps, and then use inside of the pen as the arrow.

Magna Carta This Week

The Great Charter...almost 800 years ago.  Look at this news report from England.

And for fun...look at this video.

And this one...here.

Here is my favorite Robin Hood. What do you think? I like this Robin Hood, but I think that the castle is way too clean.

Secret Assignment #4

Here is a little craft project for you to do.  It is easy and you can do it in about 5 minutes.


Bring it to class!  You will want it to go with your weapon we will be making.

Richard the Lionheart and the Crusades

While Richard Plantagenet is revered as one of the great warrior kings of England, he is perhaps best known as “the absent king.” This is due to the fact that during his reign from 1189-1199, he spent a total of six months in England. This aside, Richard I was well known for his bravery which earned him the nickname “The Lionheart”. A name that has reached epic and mythological proportions, best seen in literary works such as Robin Hood and Sir Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe.

Richard Plantagenet came into the world September 8th in the year 1157 AD. Although born in Oxfordshire, England, Richard was a child of Aquitaine a part of Southern France. His native language was not English and throughout his life he spoke little of it.

Richard I

He had four brothers and three sisters, the first of which died at a young age. Of the remainder; Henry was named heir to the English throne, Richard was to succeed his mother’s Aquitaine and Geoffrey was to inherit Brittany. John received no inheritance from his father. Therefore, he was given the name John Lackland.

In 1183 the younger Henry died, leaving Richard as the heir to the English throne. Another family dispute occurred when Richard received the lands of his brother. Henry was expected to give Aquitaine to his brother John. Richard refused to give up the homeland of his mother. While this dispute over family land raged on, Richard learned of the tragic loss at Hattin, where the Crusaders had lost Jerusalem to the Saracen leader Saladin. Richard soon took up the cross of the crusades, against his father's wishes.

In 1189, upon the death of Henry II, Richard was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey, London. One of his first actions was to free his mother from prison. His second was to begin to raise funds for his crusade known to history as the Third Crusade. He imposed a tax on the English people called a Saladin tithe as a means of aiding his war effort.

After the Third Crusade, Richard began his homeward journey to England. Put ashore by bad weather he found himself in Austria, home of Leopold, whom Richard had angered by actions during the crusade. Leopold captured King Richard and imprisoned him in his castle. Eager for a piece of the action the Emperor of Germany offered Leopold 75,000 marks for Richard, taking him into custody in Germany.

Rumors ran rampant throughout England over the missing king. There is a legend that the troubadour Blondel heard his king singing in a castle and responded with a song that the both of them were sure to know. Whether true or not, the fact remains that two Abbots were soon dispatched to journey for him through the network of the church. Even Eleanor, Richard’s mother wrote to the Pope for assistance in the matter. Richard was found and soon a ransom was set for his return to England. The sum was 150,000 marks, an amount equal to three years of annual income and weighing three tons in silver.

Richard returned to England, receiving a hero’s welcome. He forgave his brother John, by saying he was manipulated by cunning people and vowed to punish them and not his brother. Unfortunately for the King, he returned to a land in financial troubles. The cost of the Crusade and his large ransom had tapped out the finances of the land. This monetary trouble was to plague him for his remaining five-year reign. He created a new great seal as a means to raise funds and made void all documents signed with the old.

For such a brave and noble man, King Richard’s death came about in a rather strange way. In Chalus, Aquitaine, a peasant plowing his fields came upon a treasure. This treasure consisted of some gold statues and coins. The feudal lord claimed the treasure from his vassal, Richard in turn claimed the treasure from the lord, who refused. This prompted Richard to siege the village.

Castle Chalus

During the siege Richard was riding close to the castle without the protection of full armor. He spotted an archer with bow in hand on the wall aiming a shot at him. It is said Richard paused to applaud the Bowman. He was struck in the shoulder with the arrow and refused treatment for his wound. Infection set in and Richard the Lionheart died on April the 6th 1199. He was buried in the Fontvraud Abbey in Anjou France.

Secret Assignment #3

Map the crusades...

How did Richard the Lionheart get to Jerusalem?

Make a map of Europe and then draw an arrow in the direction King Richard I went to get to Jerusalem on the THIRD CRUSADE.  Here is a tool that will help you a bit.

Did he travel through Europe or sail around?

That is a good question... Hmmm....

Next Week We Crusade

Next week...the CRUSADES!!!

Check out this fun video that gives you an overview of this fun, epic subject.

The Murder of Thomas Becket

I found this article from this website...

A sword's crushing blow extinguished the life of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, on a cold December evening as he struggled on the steps of his altar. The brutal event sent a tremor through Medieval Europe. Public opinion of the time and subsequent history have laid the blame for the murder at the feet of Becket's former close personal friend, King Henry II.

Becket was born in 1118, in Normandy the son of an English merchant. His family was well off, his father a former Sheriff of London. Becket benefited from his family's status first by being sent to Paris for his education and from there to England where he joined the household of Theobold, the then Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket's administrative skills, his charm, intelligence and diplomacy propelled him forward. The archbishop sent him to Paris to study law and upon his return to England made him Archdeacon of Canterbury.

A Medieval Mass

Becket's big break came in 1154, when Theobold introduced him to the newly crowned King, Henry II. The two hit it off immediately, their similar personal chemistries forming a strong bond between them. Henry named Becket his Chancellor. Archbishop Theobold died in 1161, and Henry immediately saw the opportunity to increase his influence over the Church by naming his loyal advisor to the highest ecclesiastical post in the land. Henry petitioned the Pope who agreed. There was only one slight hindrance. Becket, busy at court, had never been ordained. No problem, Becket was first invested as a priest. The next day he was ordained a Bishop, and that afternoon, June 2, 1162, made Archbishop of Canterbury.

If King Henry believed that by having "his man" in the top post of the Church, he could easily impose his will upon this powerful religious institution, he was sadly mistaken. Becket's allegiance shifted from the court to the Church inspiring him to take a stand against his king. In those days, the Church reserved the right to try felonious clerics in their own religious courts of justice and not those of the crown. Henry was determined to increase control of his realm by eliminating this custom. In 1163, a Canon accused of murder was acquitted by a church court. The public outcry demanded justice and the Canon was brought before a court of the king. Becket's protest halted this attempt but the action spurred King Henry to change the laws to extend his courts' jurisdiction over the clergy. Becket vacillated in his support of the king, finally refusing to agree to changes in the law. His stand prompted a royal summons to Henry's court at Northampton and the king's demand to know what Becket had done with the large sums of money that had passed through his hands as Chancellor.

"Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

Seeing the writing on the wall, Becket fled to France where he remained in exile for six years. The two former friends appeared to resolve their dispute in 1170 when King Henry and Becket met in Normandy. On November 30, Becket crossed the Channel returning to his post at Canterbury. Earlier, while in France, Becket had excomunicated the Bishops of London and Salisbury for their support of the king. Now, Becket remained steadfast in his refusal to absolve the bishops. This news threw King Henry (still in France) into a rage in which he was purported to shout: "What sluggards, what cowards have I brought up in my court, who care nothing for their allegiance to their lord. Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest."

The king's exact words have been lost to history but his outrage inspired four knights to sail to England to rid the realm of this annoying prelate. They arrived at Canterbury during the afternoon of December 29 and immediately searched for the Archbishop. Becket fled to the Cathedral where a service was in progress. The knights found him at the altar, drew their swords and began hacking at their victim finally splitting his skull.

The death of Becket unnerved the king. The knights who did the deed to curry the king's favor, fell into disgrace. Several miracles were said to occur at the tomb of the martyr and he was soon canonized. Hordes of pilgrims transformed Canterbury Cathedral into a shrine. Four years later, in an act of penance, the king donned a sack-cloth walking barefoot through the streets of Canterbury while eighty monks flogged him with branches. Henry capped his atonement by spending the night in the martyr's crypt. St. Thomas continued as a popular cultist figure for the remainder of the Middle Ages.

Observations of a Monk

Edward Grim, a monk, observed the attack from the safety of a hiding place near the altar. He wrote his account some time after the event. Acceptance of his description must be qualified by the influence that Becket's sainthood had on Grim's perspective. However, the fundamentals of his narrative are no doubt true. We pick up the story after the knights have stormed into the cathedral.

"The murderers followed him; 'Absolve', they cried, 'and restore to communion those whom you have excommunicated, and restore their powers to those whom you have suspended.'

"He answered, 'There has been no satisfaction, and I will not absolve them.'

'Then you shall die,' they cried, 'and receive what you deserve.'

'I am ready,' he replied, 'to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace. But in the name of Almighty God, I forbid you to hurt my people whether clerk or lay.'

"Then they lay sacrilegious hands on him, pulling and dragging him that they may kill him outside the church, or carry him away a prisoner, as they afterwards confessed. But when he could not be forced away from the pillar, one of them pressed on him and clung to him more closely. Him he pushed off calling him 'pander', and saying, 'Touch me not, Reginald; you owe me fealty and subjection; you and your accomplices act like madmen.'

"The knight, fired with a terrible rage at this severe repulse, waved his sword over the sacred head. 'No faith', he cried, 'nor subjection do I owe you against my fealty to my lord the King.'

The murder of Thomas Beckett from a contemporary manuscript

"Then the unconquered martyr seeing the hour at hand which should put an end to this miserable life and give him straightway the crown of immortality promised by the Lord, inclined his neck as one who prays and joining his hands he lifted them up, and commended his cause and that of the Church to God, to St. Mary, and to the blessed martry Denys. Scarce had he said the words than the wicked knight, fearing lest he should be rescued by the people and escape alive, leapt upon him suddenly and wounded this lamb who was sacrificed to God on the head, cutting off the top of the crown which the sacred unction of the chrism had dedicated to God; and by the same blow he wounded the arm of him who tells this. For he, when the others, both monks and clerks, fled, stuck close to the sainted Archbishop and held him in his arms till the one he interposed was almost severed.

"Then he received a second blow on the head but still stood firm. At the third blow he fell on his knees and elbows, offering himself a living victim, and saying in a low voice, 'For the Name of Jesus and the protection of the Church I am ready to embrace death.'

"Then the third knight inflicted a terrible wound as he lay, by which the sword was broken against the pavement, and the crown which was large was separated from the head. The fourth knight prevented any from interfering so that the others might freely perpetrate the murder.

"Let us away knights: He will rise no more."

"As to the fifth, no knight but that clerk who had entered with the knights, that a fifth blow might not be wanting to the martyr who was in other things like to Christ, he put his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr, and, horrible to say, scattered his brain and blood over the pavement, calling out to the others, 'Let us away, knights; he will rise no more.'


References:
   Abbot, Edwin A., St. Thomas of Canterbury (1898); Compton, Piers, The Turbulent Priest (1964); Hollister, Warren C., Medieval Europe: a short history (1975)


Enrichment Activity


- Make a real quill out of a feather.  Peel back the feathers so you can easily grip the quill. Cut the edge of the feather at an angle and cut a slit at the point, to hold more ink.


- Ink is made with one cup of water, 1 Tablespoon of sugar, and food coloring to desired hue.


- Color in gothic letters and pictures.