Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/669

 JOHN (ENGLAND) 649 seized Anjou, Touraine, and Maine for Arthur, and he was advancing into Normandy when John arrived there. After some negotiation, war was renewed ; but the general of Arthur's forces, finding that the French king was acting for himself alone, effected a reconciliation be- tween John and Arthur, which was of brief duration. The uncle sought to make away with his nephew, who fled back to Philip, ac- companied by his mother. In 1200 a peace was made between John and Philip, the latter acknowledging John as Richard's heir, and forcing Arthur to do him homage for Brittany. John paid a large sum of money to Philip, the collection of which caused much trouble in England. The first demand for the privileges of Magna Charta was made by the barons in May, 1201, and refused, whereupon they de- clined accompanying him to Paris, which he visited in order to be present at the marriage of his niece with the dauphin, and the king seized their castles. John, who had put away his first wife, A visa, because they were related within the forbidden degrees, married Isabella, daughter of the count of Angouleme, Aug. 2-i, 1200. This lady had been betrothed to Hugh de Lusignan, son of the count of La Marche, who challenged John to combat. John offered to fight by his champion, an offer which Lu- signan treated with contempt, declaring that the king's champions were bravos. Arthur's claims having been renewed, and insurrections in his favor occurring in Anjou and Maine, Lusignan espoused his cause, and civil war broke out in Poitou and Normandy. Arthur and Lusignan besieged Eleanor of Aquitaine in the castle of Mirebeau, in Poitou, and John hastened to his mother's assistance. On Aug. 1, 1202, he defeated the besiegers in a pitched battle, killing or capturing them all. Arthur, then in his 16th year, was among the captives. He was imprisoned, and is supposed to have been put to death by his uncle, a belief quite in keeping with John's actions. John was ac- cused by Philip Augustus of the murder, and was summoned to defend himself before the peers of France. He refused to attend, and the court pronounced judgment, that "where- as John, duke of Normandy, in violation of his oath to Philip his lord, had murdered the son of his elder brother, a homager of the crown of France, and had perpetrated the crime within the seignory of France, he was found guilty of felony and treason, and was therefore adjudged to forfeit* all the lands which he held by hom- age." This decree of forfeiture was vigorous- ly put in force by Philip, whose proceedings were aided by the discontent that prevailed in John's French possessions. In 1203 nearly all those possessions except Guienne were taken by Philip, and John fled to England. He had said, on hearing of Philip's captures of towns : " Let him take them, I will one day recover them ; the English sterlings will restore all things." This would have been no idle boast had he been a popular monarch in England ; but there he was even more detested than he was in France. The name of Lackland was now revived for him. He landed with an army at La Rochelle in 1206, and took Angers, but then retired. He had received no aid from the English bar- ons, whom he proceeded to fine frequently and heavily; and the archbishop of York cursed the collectors of the fines and left Eng- land. Those, quarrels now began which ended in the granting of the great charter. John be- came involved in a contest with the church concerning the election of Cardinal Langton to the see of Canterbury, and Pope Innocent III. laid England under an interdict. The king seized the possessions of the church, and ban- ished those who had occupied them. A bull of excommunication was issued in 1209, and John sought to prevent its promulgation in England, without which it could have no force. His fear was that Philip Augustus would at- tempt the conquest of England, under papal authority, and he maintained relations with some of that prince's neighbors. In the mean time he compelled William, king of Scotland, to acknowledge his supremacy, and effected conquests in Wales, dictating terms of peace to Prince Llewellyn. He also led a great army to Ireland, where he curbed the Norman colo- nists, divided the English possessions into coun- ties, and established there the laws of England. He was guilty of acts of cruelty that shocked the sentiment of even that ferocious age. Of the captives whom he took in 1202, most of the principal men were starved to death in prison. On an insurrection occurring in Wales, he caused 28 hostages, all young nobles, to be executed. In 1213 the pope solemnly deposed John, and absolved his vassals from their alle- giance. The French king prepared to enforce the sentence, and John assembled a numerous army to defend his kingdom ; but as he could not rely upon its fidelity, he listened to the ar- guments of the nuncio, Pandulph, and resigned his kingdom to the pope, whose vassal he be- came. This act, so degrading to modern ideas, was not viewed so harshly then, and had many precedents ; and the barons themselves acknowledged its validity. Pandulph proceed- ed to France, where he commanded Philip to put an end to his project of invasion, as Eng- land had become the patrimony of St. Peter. That monarch endeavored to turn his prepara- tions to account by planning the conquest of Flanders, but he had ultimately to fight for his own dominions at Bovines. John invaded France, but accomplished nothing, though his fleet had previously defeated that of Philip. As he continued his course of misgovernment, a confederacy was formed against him by the nobility, at the head of which stood Archbishop Langton and the earl of Pembroke, and Rob- ert Fitz- Walter commanded its forces. The king waa compelled to submit to the barons, who forced him to make the grant known as Magna Charta, June 15, 1215. (See MAGNA CHARTA.) His submission was but momentary ;