The influence of his dominant and at times unpopular mother left John open to criticism.

John remained in his territory throughout his reign and defended it from attack when it was threatened by Scotland in the north and by the French in the south. On reflection however, Richard spent less than one of his 10 years as king in England he left no heirs, a duty of a king and he left the Angevin empire open to attack from Philip II of France. In comparison to this tall, good looking warrior, John who is reputed to have been 5ft 5 inches and much less commanding a person, seemed a lesser king. His willingness to go on crusade at this point marks him out as worthy of his nickname Richard the Lionheart. The Third Crusade was held in the wake of the failure of the second, alongside increasing Muslim unity in the area. The crusade to take back Jerusalem was a challenge, unlike the first successful crusade which had taken Jerusalem and allowed the crusaders to set up Outremer (the crusader states). On his ascension to the throne he also took the cross and agreed to travel to the Holy Land with Philip II of France to battle Saladin in the Third Crusade. Richard was a brave warrior and had already proven himself in battle on countless occasions. However after his three eldest brothers died young, his surviving brother Richard took the throne on the death of their father Henry II. The youngest of five sons he was never expected to rule. And yet in the history of the English monarchy there is only one King John.įrom the outset family connections left John at a disadvantage.

Why then is he remembered in such a disrespectful manner? He is the founder of our modern record keeping system for finance and also brought into being the Magna Carta, the foundation of most modern democracies. King John I has a negative historiography, perhaps only surpassed by that of ‘Bloody’ Mary, her history being penned by the contemporaries of Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’ and Puritan England. John Lackland, John Softsword, the phoney king… Not names one would want to be known by, especially as a monarch ruling over lands that stretched from Scotland to France.

Crusader kings 2 scotland