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JOH made Johanna his sole heir. The marriage was celebrated when he was twenty-three years of age. In a great council held at Oxford in 1178, the lordship of Ireland was conferred upon John by Henry II., who had obtained a bull from the pope authorizing him to confer the dignity on one of his sons. In 1185 John went to Ireland, but so disgusted the natives by the insolence of his conduct that he was recalled. Henry by some historians is supposed to have had the intention of settling the crown on John; but however that may be, John made no opposition to the accession of Richard, who bestowed on him the earldoms of Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Nottingham, Derby, and Lancaster; territories so large that they amounted to nearly a third of the kingdom. When Richard's captivity was known in England, John took steps to secure the throne for himself, and attempted to enlist Philip Augustus of France in his evil cause, by surrendering to that monarch part of the rich province of Normandy. On Richard's return to England in 1194 John's castles were seized, and he and his adviser, Hugh, bishop of Coventry, were charged with treason. John fled to Normandy, was pursued by the king, made abject submission, and was so far restored to favour that Richard on his deathbed is said to have named him his successor. When Richard received his fatal wound at Chaluz John was present, and witnessed the decease of the Cœur-de-Lion. He hastened to procure the support of the continental barons, and was readily acknowledged in Normandy, Poitou, and Aquitaine. He then repaired to England, and was crowned at Westminster, 26th May, 1199. Prince Arthur, however, was still alive, and was the lineal heir to the crown. He was supported by Anjou, and Philip Augustus of France, for his own ends, espoused Arthur's cause. John bought the interest of the French king by a large present of money, and by the cession of towns and territories. The insincere compact did not continue long to bind the French monarch. A new cause of quarrel was soon in existence. John divorced his first wife, and married a celebrated beauty, Isabella, daughter of the count of Angoulême. The lady had been affianced to Hugh, count of La Marche, and Hugh's outcry gave Philip a new pretext for interference. He declared Arthur the legitimate lord of the old fiefs of the Plantagenets, and attacked John's towns. John hastened to France, and in August, 1202, the unfortunate young prince and his sister Eleanor fell into the hands of the unscrupulous uncle. Arthur was first sent to the castle of Falaise, and thence to Rouen, after which he was seen no more. Tradition alleges that he was stabbed by John's own hand; but at all events, there is only too much reason to suppose that he was murdered. Eleanor was carried to England and confined in Bristol castle till her death. John was more fit to murder a prince than to war with a monarch. He was summoned by Philip to answer for the death of Arthur, and not appearing was proclaimed a traitor to his lord—Philip the superior of some of the continental territories of England—and adjudged to lose his fiefs. Philip immediately proceeded to help himself to John's territories, and in 1204 Rouen and the duchy of Normandy were conquered by the French, after being separated from the crown of France for three hundred years. Touraine, Maine, and Anjou were also lost. John in fact was a poltroon, with almost every vice. Probably feeling the want of kingly qualities, he endeavoured to procure the infusion of some by the frequency of his coronations. He was first crowned at Westminster by Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, who was made chancellor of England and was the first archbishop who held the office. He was crowned a second time at Westminster with his queen Isabella, a third time at Canterbury, and a fourth time at Canterbury. In the ferment of the times, the sacred oil with which monarchs were anointed may have lost its virtue. It was in the year 1200 that the nations of Christendom were thrown into terror by apocalyptic commentators, who taught that at the end of the year the devil was to be shut up in the bottomless pit. Probably the affrighted hearers were resolved to make the most of their time, and to perpetrate their remaining sins without delay. John at least was a fit exponent of the current belief in wickedness. After the murder of Arthur, he amused himself by starving to death twenty-two nobles in Corfe castle. Nor was this enough. He soon involved himself in disputes with the church, and lived a scoffing and excommunicated reprobate. His ecclesiastical wars fell out in this wise. On the death of Hubert archbishop of Canterbury, and chancellor, the monks of Canterbury proceeded to an election without the king's leave, and chose Reginald their sub-prior for bishop. Afterwards at the instance of the king they chose John Grey, bishop of Norwich, for their archbishop. This was in 1205. The pope, however, was not prepared to allow the pontifical rights to be trespassed on in this fashion, and in 1207 rejected both elections, and compelled the monks to choose Stephen Langton, cardinal, to be archbishop of Canterbury. John thereupon drove the monks from the city of Thomas à Becket and confiscated their goods. Innocent III. was not altogether the man to submit to defiance, and in 1208 he placed John's kingdom under an interdict. The churches were closed, the sacraments administered, the bells untolled, the services unperformed. Except to infants and the dying, the rites of the church were no more permitted, and the dead were buried in unconsecrated ground. John cared not—he confiscated the goods of the clergy who obeyed the interdict, and banished the bishops. The pope replied by excommunicating the reprobate king, and releasing his subjects from obedience. John, as a politician, was characterized by the same recklessness that Richard had manifested in the field of battle. He went about his ordinary affairs as if no pope sat in the chair of St. Peter, and as if no efficacy belonged to the sacraments. His experience of coronation may have convinced him that there was little virtue in ceremonials. He warred with William, king of Scotland, who did him homage, paid him money, and delivered his two daughters as hostages. He went to Ireland and placed the Green-islanders under English law, subduing rebellion, and receiving the homage of the Irish princes. He marched into Wales and subdued Llewellyn. He taxed the clergy, and cared nothing for the tiara. When deposed by the pope, he is even said to have made advances to the emperor of Morocco, and to have offered to become a mahometan if the Moor would aid him. The pope, however, was not discomfited. He had other weapons in addition to ecclesiastical censures. He moved the ambitious Philip Augustus to make war on John, and Philip prepared to invade England. John led an army to France, but effected nothing and returned. His position had become untenable. He was a tyrant in government, hated by the people; and a reprobate in religion, excommunicated by the church. He could not maintain his throne on such terms. The pope was too powerful for the rebellious king, and John like a true recreant consented to the most abject submission. At Dover in the month of May, 1213, in an interview with Pandulfus the legate, he agreed to the papal terms, performed all the degrading ceremonials of resignation, homage, and fealty to the pope—agreed to hold his kingdom from the pontiff at a yearly rent of one thousand merks, and took the ordinary oath of a vassal to a lord. He made the kingdom of England a fief of the papacy, and bowed in wretched submission before the power which he had affected to despise. In consequence of his submission the interdict was removed, after continuing six years; and John on his part agreed to liberate those of his subjects who were in confinement, and to allow those who had been banished to return home. Stephen Langton was of course admitted to the see of Canterbury, and the church triumphed over the wretchedly abused civil power.

John was now ecclesiastically restored, but not politically. When he submitted to the church, it was the duty of the church to receive him as a son, and to blot out the memory of past offences. But the king of France had been called upon to aid the pope, and his political interests were not served by John's submission. He had made preparations for his invasion, and the invasion must be carried out. John on this occasion took time by the forelock, and attacked Philip's vessels in the harbour of Damme, where the English seamen made short work of the enemy. They captured and destroyed a large fleet of vessels; and Philip, deprived of his means of transport, was compelled to remain at home. This victory induced John to revoke certain of the measures of leniency extracted from him by fear, and the barons of the kingdom now began to be turbulent. His despotism was intolerable, and the barons saw the necessity of controlling it. They wished the observance of the charters of the kingdom, which John was ever ready to evade. He proceeded to France, however, and on the 27th July, 1214, fought the battle of Bouvines, where he was signally defeated and compelled to sue for truce. The barons saw their opportunity and took advantage of it. They resolved to bridle the despotic king, and to secure their liberties, or as they may more properly