Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/748

 714 JOHN [KINGS. accompany John on the expedition to France which he planned immediately after his absolution, alleging that their tenures did not oblige them to service abroad. Langton restrained the king from doing immediate ven geance on the barons, and in the meantime an import ant assembly was held at St Albans (the first -to which representatives from the towns are known to have been summoned), at which the justiciar promised in the king s name that the laws of Henry I. should be observed. At an assembly at St Paul s the same year, Langton, who was the moulding spirit of the movement, produced the charter of Henry I., which became the basis of Magna Charta. John was now bent on trying to knit together the Germanic confederacy against Philip, which had been originated by Richard, He showed both policy and energy in this matter, but the barons of Poitou failed him at the critical moment of the war, and his nephew the emperor Otho was utterly defeated by Philip at Bouvines. John was forced to con clude the peace of Chinon (1214), by which he ceded to Philip all bis claims on lands lying north of the Loire. He had scarcely returned to England when his barons formed a confederacy against him at Bury St Edmunds. He attempted to bribe the clergy by granting them free election ; but they stood firm to the national cause. The city of London gave its adhesion to the barons, and John found himself abandoned by all. He was obliged to grant the demands of the barons, and to sign (at llunnymede, June 15, 1215), the Great Charter, which for two hundred years was to be the watchword of English freedom. John signed the charter without the least intention of keeping it, and he found a powerful ally in his new master Inno cent III., who issued a bull against the charter, and suspended Langton. Langton went to Rome to appeal, and the patriot party was thus deprived of its wisest leader. War soon broke out again, but John was able to obtain a host of foreign mercenaries, and the barons were driven to make alliance with France. Louis, son of Philip II., arrived in England in May 1216, and John s unusual audacity and success deserted him at once. In three months the greater part of the country was in the hands of Louis. Yet the national mistrust of the foreigner was already causing a reaction in favour of John, when in marching across the Wash he met with the accident which led to his death. He was overtaken by the tide, lost all his baggage aad treasure, and narrowly escaped himself. Vexation and fatigue, aggravated by excess in eating and drinking, brought on an attack of dysentery; with difficulty he reached Newark, where he died October 19, 1216. The reign of John is a turning point in English history, and marks the beginning of a new era. (1) The separation of Normandy insured the free development of English life, and the absorption of the Norman nobility in the English people. (2) Magna Charta marks the first united attempt of the English people to limit the power of the king. Hitherto the people had been the allies of the royal power against the baronage ; for the two following centuries they art leagued with the baronage and the church against royal tyranny. (3) The surrender of John s kingdom to the pope, followed by the opposition of Innocent to English freedom and the papal exactions of the next reign, caused a change of feeling towards the papacy, and led to the anti- Roman legislation which went on from the reign of Edward I. till the Reformation. (E. s. A.) Kings of JOHN I., king of France, son of Louis X. and dementia France. O f Hungary, was born, after his father s death, 15th Novem ber 1316, and only lived seven days. JOHN II. (1319-1364), surnamed the Good, son of Philip VI. and Jane of Burgundy, was bom in 1319, and succeeded his father in 1350. On the 19th September 1356 ho was defeated and taken prisoner by the Black Prince at the battle of Poitiers. He gained his liberty at the peace of Bretigny in 1360; but, his son the duke of Anjou, whom he left as hostage in England, having fled, John thought himself bound to return to captivity. He died in London in 1364. See FRANCE, vol. ix. p. 546. JOHN II. (1609-1672), Casimir, king of Poland, second King son of Sigismund III. and the duchess Constantia of Polai Austria, was born March 21, 1609. After journeying in several countries of Europe, he in 1640 joined the Jesuit order at Rome, and shortly afterwards was chosen cardinal. Subsequently he returned to Poland, where he resided as a a layman until the death of his brother, 20th November 1648, when he succeeded him on the throne. In Septem ber 1668 he abdicated, after which he went to France, and became abbot of St Germains de Pres and of St Martin, at Nevers. He died September 16, 1672. For the events of his unfortunate reign see POLAND. JOHN III. (1624-1696), Sobieski, king of Poland, son of Jakob Sobieski, castellan of Cracow, was bora 2d June 1624, at Olesko in Galicia. He so distinguished himself in the defensive wars of Poland that in 1667 he received the supreme command of the army, and on the death of Michael Corybut was chosen king, 20th May 1674. He died June 17, 1696. JOHN (JOAO) I. (1357-1433), king of Portugal, the King natural son of Pedro I. (el Justicieiro), was born at Lisbon P 01 * on April 22, 1357, and in 1364 was created grand-master of Aviz. On the death of his lawful brother Ferdinand I., without male issue, in October 1383, strenuous efforts were made in various quarters to secure the succession in the legitimate line for Beatrice, the only child of Ferdinand I., who as heiress apparent had been married to John I. of Castile ; but the popular voice declared decisively against an arrangement by which Portugal would virtually have become a Spanish province, and John was after violent tumults proclaimed protector and regent in the following December. In April 1385 he was unanimously chosen king by the estates of the realm at Coimbra, and the coronation took place some little time afterwards. The king of Castile resorted to arms on behalf of his wife, and invested Lisbon, but the besieging army was compelled by the ravages of a pestilence to withdraw, and subsequently by the decisive battle of Aljubarrota (14th August 1385) the stability of John s throne was permanently secured. Hostilities continued, however, with more or less of inter ruption until the death of John of Castile, without leaving issue by Beatrice, in 1390; and even after that event rela tions between the two countries continued to be strained, In the meanwhile John went on consolidating the power of the crown at home and the influence of the nation abroad. In 1415 Ceuta was taken from the Moors by his sons who had been born to him by his wife Philippa, daughter of John, duke of Lancaster ; specially dis tinguished in the siege was Prince Henry, afterwards gene rally known as &quot; the Navigator,&quot; who in this and also in the following reign did so much to prepare the way for the position of colonial importance subsequently held by Portugal. Porto Santo and Madeira were occupied re spectively in 1419 and 1420. John I., sometimes sur named &quot;the Great,&quot; and sometimes father of his country,&quot; died August 11, 1433, in the forty-eighth year of a reign which had been characterized by great prudence, ability, and FUCCBSS ; he was succeeded by his son Edward or Duarte, so named out of compliment to Edward III. of England. JOHN II. (1455-1495), &quot;the Perfect,&quot; king of Portugal, succeeded his father, Alphonso V., in August 1481. His first business after ascending the throne was to curtail with a vigorous hand the overgrown power of his aristocracy ; noteworthy incidents in the contest were the execution (in 1483) of the duke of Braganza for correspondence with