DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31962#0081
3^tttg
THts remarkable personage, the events of whose " troublesome reign" are so conspicuous
in English History—and from whose disputes with his Barons we derive the foundation
deed of our liberties, Magna Charta, was born at Oxford in 1166. He was the youngest
son of Henry the Second, by his wife Eleanor of Guienne. His lather jestingly called
him San& Terre or Lackland, as if, being born last, he had nothing left to give him.
He, however, created him Earl of Mortagne in Flanders (latinized in the public acts of
the time "Comes Moritonie"), of Cornwall, and Gloucester, made him titular King of
Ireland, which grant was confirmed by the Pope, and endowed him with divers other
honours and possessions. His hrst wife was Alice, daughter of Humbert second Earl of
Maurienne, now called Savoy ; this marriage was contracted by the parties in their
childhood, A. D. 1173, and John, by the death of Alice, lost his claim, in her right, to
her father s possessions. His second wife w as Isabella, daughter of Robert Earl of Glou-
cester, natural son of King Henry the First; hut falling desperately in love with Isabella,
daughter of Aymer Earl of Angoulesme, he procured a divorce from Isabella of Gloucester,
under the plea of having contracted a marriage with her within the third degree of con-
sanguinity, and in 1200 married Isabella de Angoulesme. King John, in the midst of
public commotions (to which his misgovernment had largely contributed) and adverse
fortune, was cut olf by death at Newark, on the 19th October 1216, in the eighteenth
year of his reign. His death is assigned by Matthew Paris, a writer who lived in his
own time, to natural causes, induced by grief for the disaster which had occurred to his
army in crossing the Well Stream or Lincoln Washes, in his march to oppose Lewis son
of the King of France, who, backed by the discontented Barons, pretended to his King-
dom. Having rested at Swineshead ^ Abbey, in his way to Newark, for a night, a story
gained ground that the ftnal catastrophe of his life was accelerated by poison adminis-
tered to him by a monk. There is no conclusive circumstantial evidence to support
this tale. Speed, the historian, asserts, that it was believed as a fact by his son King
Henrv the Third, and refers, as his authority, to the reply made by that King to the
hold address of the Prior of the Hospitallers at Clerkenwell as related by Matthew
Paris. The expressions of that writer appear, however, too vague to support such an
inference.^- The poisoning of John must, therefore, remain in the list of insoluble
historic doubts. His own will, preserved in the archives of the Dean and Chapter of
Worcester, merely says, that, being seized with a severe distemper he has no time for
*Not Swinestead for Swineshead is an error which has crept into some received authorities owing
to the great similarity in name of these two different piaces in Lincolnshire. See Gent. Mag. June 1855, p.49i.
t These are given as the King's words, " O quid sibi vuit istud, vos Anglici, vultis ne me sicut quondam
patrem meum a regno precipitate atque necare prsecipitatum ?" Matt. Paris, Hist. Angi. edit. Watts, p. 854.
15
THts remarkable personage, the events of whose " troublesome reign" are so conspicuous
in English History—and from whose disputes with his Barons we derive the foundation
deed of our liberties, Magna Charta, was born at Oxford in 1166. He was the youngest
son of Henry the Second, by his wife Eleanor of Guienne. His lather jestingly called
him San& Terre or Lackland, as if, being born last, he had nothing left to give him.
He, however, created him Earl of Mortagne in Flanders (latinized in the public acts of
the time "Comes Moritonie"), of Cornwall, and Gloucester, made him titular King of
Ireland, which grant was confirmed by the Pope, and endowed him with divers other
honours and possessions. His hrst wife was Alice, daughter of Humbert second Earl of
Maurienne, now called Savoy ; this marriage was contracted by the parties in their
childhood, A. D. 1173, and John, by the death of Alice, lost his claim, in her right, to
her father s possessions. His second wife w as Isabella, daughter of Robert Earl of Glou-
cester, natural son of King Henry the First; hut falling desperately in love with Isabella,
daughter of Aymer Earl of Angoulesme, he procured a divorce from Isabella of Gloucester,
under the plea of having contracted a marriage with her within the third degree of con-
sanguinity, and in 1200 married Isabella de Angoulesme. King John, in the midst of
public commotions (to which his misgovernment had largely contributed) and adverse
fortune, was cut olf by death at Newark, on the 19th October 1216, in the eighteenth
year of his reign. His death is assigned by Matthew Paris, a writer who lived in his
own time, to natural causes, induced by grief for the disaster which had occurred to his
army in crossing the Well Stream or Lincoln Washes, in his march to oppose Lewis son
of the King of France, who, backed by the discontented Barons, pretended to his King-
dom. Having rested at Swineshead ^ Abbey, in his way to Newark, for a night, a story
gained ground that the ftnal catastrophe of his life was accelerated by poison adminis-
tered to him by a monk. There is no conclusive circumstantial evidence to support
this tale. Speed, the historian, asserts, that it was believed as a fact by his son King
Henrv the Third, and refers, as his authority, to the reply made by that King to the
hold address of the Prior of the Hospitallers at Clerkenwell as related by Matthew
Paris. The expressions of that writer appear, however, too vague to support such an
inference.^- The poisoning of John must, therefore, remain in the list of insoluble
historic doubts. His own will, preserved in the archives of the Dean and Chapter of
Worcester, merely says, that, being seized with a severe distemper he has no time for
*Not Swinestead for Swineshead is an error which has crept into some received authorities owing
to the great similarity in name of these two different piaces in Lincolnshire. See Gent. Mag. June 1855, p.49i.
t These are given as the King's words, " O quid sibi vuit istud, vos Anglici, vultis ne me sicut quondam
patrem meum a regno precipitate atque necare prsecipitatum ?" Matt. Paris, Hist. Angi. edit. Watts, p. 854.
15