The Lacock Magna Carta

Some basic facts first.

• John was born on the 24th December 1166 in Beamont Palace, Oxford and was the son of King Henry II and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine.

• John married twice,

  • Isabella, Countess of Gloucester in 1189

  • Isabella, Countess of Angoulême in 1200.

• He became King on the 6th April 1199 following the death of his brother, Richard I.

• He died on the 19th October 1216 at the age of 49, having fathered five legitimate children, including the future King Henry III. There were also known to have been five illegitimate children born to various noblewomen during his first marriage.

|Although there is a lot that I could say about 'Bad' King John, I am going to limit myself to how his fate was intertwined with the development of the Charter, which subsequently became known as Magna Carta.

No king in English history has anything like the reputation of John. The mere fact that there is no King John II should tell you all there is to know about that. There have been attempts by a few historians to be more positive about him, but I tend to side with the medieval chronicler Matthew Paris that 'Foul as Hell is, Hell itself is defiled by the presence of John'.

When John came to the throne the Angevin Empire encompassed England, Wales, large swathes of the Eastern side of Ireland and a huge part of France, including Normandy, Brittany, Maine, Anjou, Poitou, Aquitaine, Auvergne and Gascony. By the time of his ignominious death in Newark Castle he had managed to lose all of France, bar Gascony and England itself had been invaded by Louis, son of the King of France.

Apart from the way he had treated almost everyone that he came into contact with, nothing illustrates his personality more than the story surrounding Lacock's own Ela, 3rd Countess of Salisbury, who was married to John's half-brother William Longespée. William was a valued soldier who had fought for both Richard and John. His name of Longespée simply meant 'Long Sword' to indicate his height and strength, which enabled him to wield a much larger sword than most. On the 27th July, 1214 he had been captured at the Battle of Bouvines in France, after a heavy defeat was inflicted on the English forces by the forces of King Philip of France. Longespée was held for ransom, but John was in no rush to pay. Stories began to emerge later that while William languished in a French prison, John had seduced Ela, probably at what we know today as the castle at Old Sarum, which was then Salisbury Castle. We will never know if this was actually true, but the French Court certainly believed it was the reason for William Longespée to suddenly change allegiance from John to support the invasion of England by Louis and his French forces.

There was a build up of discontent from the English Barons, who were being taxed by their King at hitherto unseen levels and with increasing frequency. This came to a head in the early summer of 1215 and saw the agreement of the 'Great Charter' on 15th June 1215, which only became generally known as Magna Carta long after John's death. It initially was simply about money and was seen by the barons as a device to reign in the excessive taxation demands of King John. Nothing more, nothing less. The general population were of no consideration to either side. It wasn't until John's son and successor, Henry III issued the final version of Magna Carta in 1225 (There were later reissues that were simply re-confirmations of the 1225 document), that it became about justice and liberty, in short the legend that we know today. So, John's involvement with Magna Carta is peripheral, although it is true to say that without 'Bad' King John there would be no Magna Carta as we know it.

On the death of Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1205, some wanted Reginald, the sub-prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, to succeed him, but King John chose John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich and pressured for his election.

Both choices were unacceptable to Pope Innocent III and sixteen monks of Christ Church, who had gone to Rome with authority to act, were ordered by the Pope to conduct a new election in his presence.

Stephen Langton was then elected and was consecrated by Innocent III at Viterbo on 17 June 1207.

There followed a battle of wills between King John and the Pope. The King proclaiming anyone who recognised Stephen as Archbishop, a public enemy. On 15 July 1207, John expelled the Canterbury monks, who had been unanimous in supporting Stephen’s election.

Then, in March 1208, Pope Innocent III placed a papal interdict on England, which meant that priests were banned from administering most of the sacrements and Christian burials were forbidden.

In May 1213 King John capitulated and this allowed Langton, who had been living in exile at the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny in Burgundy, to return to England. He was finally installed as Archbishop of Canterbury on 1st June 2013. His first act was to absolve the King, who swore that unjust laws should be repealed and the liberties granted by Henry I should be observed. Something John almost immediately ignored.

Langton now became one of the foremost leaders in the opposition to the King. At a council of churchmen at Westminster in August 1213, which included some of the barons, he read the text of the charter of Henry I and called for its renewal.

He disapproved of violent means and appeared at Runnymede as one of the King’s commissioners for the Charter negotiations in June 2015. He may well have influenced some of the clauses in, what was subsequently referred to as ‘Magna Carta’, such as the confirmation of ecclesiastical liberties.

It was a combination of Langton’s leadership and the Barons' military muscle that eventually forced John to agree to the demands and seal the Charter on 15th June 1215.

Although their triumph was short lived, as Pope Innocent III issued a Papal Bull on 24th August 1215 annulling the Charter. So, it had lasted the grand total of seventy-one days, or about two and a half months.

On the subsequent death of King John on 18th October 2016, he was succeeded by the nine year old King Henry III and William Marshall was appointed Regent.

During Henry's reign Langton continued to work for the political independence of England. In 1223 he again appeared as the leader and spokesman of the barons, who demanded that the King confirm the Charter. Under the seal of the Regent, the Charter was re-issued in both 2016 and 2017, but Henry was approching the point of majority by 1223.

When King Henry eventually re-issued a substantially revised Magna Carta under his own seal in 1225, Archbishop Langton was one of the witnesses.

He continued as Archbishop of Canterbury until his death on the 9th July 1228 and was buried at Canterbury Cathedral.

|Pope Innocent III was one of the most powerful and influential popes. He was notable for using interdict, which forbids the celebration of certain Catholic rites, as a method of controlling States and people.

The Pope placed England under an interdict for the six years from 1208 until 1214, after John refused to accept the pope's appointee Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, following the death of the previous archbishop in 1205. Eventually King John was compelled to capitulate in May 1213 and accept Langton's appointment.

Pope Innocent III was next involved in English politics when the King's Charter (later to become known as Magna Carta) was sealed at Runnymede on the 15th June 1215. It did not suit John to stick to the agreement reached, so he appealed directly to the Pope to annul the Charter. On the 24th August 1215 Pope Innocent duly issued a papal bull declaring the charter null and void.

|This was a truly great man, he served no fewer than five English kings - Henry the 'Young King', Henry II, Richard I, John and Henry III. He was knighted in 1166 and spent his early adult years as a 'knight errant' in the romantic style of King Arthur and the Round Table. He was also a successful tournament fighter, fighting in the huge staged 'mêlées' in northern France. He is said to have recounted on his deathbed that he beat some five hundred knights during this part of his career.

It is beyond the scope of this short article to cover his time with Henry the 'Young King' and Henry II, so we now skip to his time with King John.

After falling out with King John over a whole series of disagreements, Marshal remained loyal to the King through all the negotiations with the Barons, culminating in the sealing of the Great Charter at Runnymede on the 15th June 2015. Marshal was one of the very few to remain loyal through the First Baron's War later in the year, following the Pope's annulment of the Charter.

On his deathbed in May 1216, John entrusted Marshal to make sure the nine year old Henry would become King. After John's death, Marshal took responsibility for organising the late King's funeral and burial at Worcester Cathedral. He was duly named by the King's Council as Protector of the young King Henry III and Regent.

England was in disarray at this time, with over half the country under the control of the rebel barons. Marshal and the Papal Legate, Cardinal Guala Bicchieri wasted no time in arranging the boy's coronation at Gloucester Cathedral on the 28th October 1216.

Henry III was in a difficult position, with a real chance that the whole country could fall to the rebels and Marshal, as Regent, re-issued a version of the 1215 Charter under his seal and that of Cardinal Bicchieri, after removing some of the more controversial clauses. As well as sealing the document, he was also listed as one of the witnesses. Marshal's intention for the re-issue was to get the rebel barons to return to the King's cause. It didn't work.

The following year, in late 1217, they had a further attempt to re-issue the charter, this time stripping out the clauses to do with the Royal Forests into a separate charter and including more protection for the rights of the Barons in the main document. William Marshal and Cardinal Bicchieri once again sealed the charters, as the King was still too young and as yet, had no seal of his own.

All his life, William Marshal had been physically a very powerful man. One of the turning points of the struggle against the baron's and their French allies was the Battle of Lincoln in May 1217. Marshal played a key role in this and led the King's forces to victory. He was heavily involved in the fighting outside Lincoln Cathedral, which was all the more remarkable as he was by this time some seventy years old.

By early 1219, Marshal realised his health was at last failing him and organised that the new papal legate, Pandulf Verraccio, should be Regent after his death, as with good reason he did not trust anyone else.

He was invested into the Knights Templar on his deathbed and was subsequently buried in Temple Church, London, where his tomb can be seen today.

|The conventional view of Henry was that he reigned for just over fifty-six years, and yet nothing of real note seemed to have happened during that time. Yet David Carpenter, one of the most respected Magna Carta experts and foremost historians specialising in the medieval period, has managed to write a two-volume biography running to more than 1,400 pages, which suggests that there was a lot more to Henry's reign.

There were some expensive and failed foreign skirmishes and a couple of insurrections against his rule. There were the beginnings of the Parliamentary system and, of course, the 1225 Magna Carta. David Carpenter judged Henry to have been a decent man who failed as a ruler due to his naïvety and inability to produce realistic plans for reform.

He was apparently of medium height, with no particular distinguishing features other than his left eyelid, which tended towards drooping. As for his personality, some thought him rather simple. He was criticised for being passive, submissive and impulsive. A common impression was that he tended to believe the last person that he spoke to, but both his passions and his resentments never lasted for long. In other words, he was absolutely nothing like either his father or his grandfather.

One of the marks of his rule was that Henry was a very pious man. He was said to attend mass three times a day. He revived the cult of Edward the Confessor and adopted him as his patron saint. Henry had Westminster Abbey rebuilt in his memory and arranged to be buried after his death near Edward’s tomb.

It might not have seemed so at the time, but the 1225 Magna Carta would turn out to be a lasting legacy, with its impact being far greater than he could possibly have imagined.