Friday, 20 January 2012

Why was King John the most unpopular monarch in English History ?

The title of this post is self-explanatory. And here's why John (reigned from 1199-1216) was so unpopular:

  • Under his reign, the English lost the land of Normandy to the French (Normandy had been under English control since the time of William the Conqueror). In fact, he was nicknamed "Lackland" because of this.
King John, why do you think there was only one King John?

  • He was excommunicated from the Church by the Pope in 1209 (this made him even more unpopular)

  • His fiscal policies: He made people pay very high taxes 

  • John was a very bad fighter (he was nicknamed "Softsword" too!), and in those times, a bad warrior made a bad king.

  • John murdered his own nephew for fear of him leading a rebellion against John.

  • The barons (who were Normans) revolted against him because of the above reasons, and after deciding that he was a bad king (especially after realizing how he spent tax money).

  • Perhaps the most significant of all his failures (and the most humourous), he lost the original Crown Jewels in a swamp, in Eastern England.
But, if there's something he did do usefully, he did make positive reforms in the English system of Law as well as signing the Magna Carta (even though he was forced to!), a precursor to the present-day British Constitution.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Grade 8 History!

Mohamed Toorani said...

Not in my school, sadly !

Anonymous said...

For me it's Year 7! Nice post though!

Anonymous said...

thx I am in year 7 thx very very much
helped me a lot

Anonymous said...

yh its good help im in yr seven as well

Anonymous said...

and its really good as we are learning about him

Anonymous said...

i have it

Anonymous said...

Thnx im in yr 7 great help for exams

maree said...

this was a huge help for my essay thx :)

Anonymous said...

Thnx

Anonymous said...

oof my left toe hurts

Zakir Khan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
poop said...

year 7 for me

Unknown said...

Year 7 for me too ಠ_ಠ

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