"An account of John's life and reign based on modern research and set forth in a manner that will appeal as much to the general reader as to the student"--Daily Telegraph.

King John long ago acquired the epithet 'Bad', and he is reputed to be the worst of England's kings. Before his death in 1216, his desperate exploitation of his subjects for ever more money had turned him into the mythical monster of Hollywood legend. In marked contrast to his brother Richard, John appeared incompetent in battle, failing to defend Normandy (1202-04), and was unsuccessful in recovering his lost lands in 1214. A continuing crisis was a constant need for money, forcing John to drain England of funds for campaigns in France, demanding unlawful and oppressive new taxes. Adding to his evil reputation was an ill-tempered personality and a streak of pettiness and spitfulness that led him to monstrous acts, including murdering his own nephew. King John's unpopularity culminated in a final crisis, a revolt by the English baronage, 1215-16, aimed at subjecting him to the rule of law, that resulted in his grant of Magna Carta.

First published by Methuen in 1981.

Treachery and betrayal are the order of the day during the reign of King John of England (1199-1216.) After he is forced to recognize the illegitimate son of his dead brother, King Richard I, King John finds himself under siege by the French king, Philip. Dealing with themes of royal legitimacy, succession, and the tenuous nature of diplomatic relationships, King John parallels issues prevelant in Shakespeare's own society at the time.

No English king has suffered a worse press than King John: Bad King John, the Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood, Magna Carta - but how to disentangle myth and truth?John was the youngest of the five sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who, on the death of his brother Richard the Lionheart in 1199, took possession of a vast - and vastly wealthy - inheritance. But by his death in 1215, he had squandered it all, and come close to losing his English kingdom, too. Stephen Church vividly recounts exactly how John contrived to lose so much, so quickly and in doing so, tells the story of Magna Carta, which, eight hundred years later, is still one of the cornerstones of Western democracy. Vivid and authoritative, King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant is history at its visceral best. --