Royal Tabloid Tales in Worcester

John Lackland was the youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. As the youngest of 10 children John had no direct inheritance, so John was given the nickname Lackland. When Henry's eldest son died in 1183, Henry hoped that Richard, who had now become the heir to the English throne, would transfer Aquitaine to John. Richard thought otherwise. The family strife that followed, as brother fought brother and sons fought parents, marvellously pictured in the play 'The Lion in Winter' was a sad end to Henry's reign. After Henry's conquest of eastern Ireland in 1175, John was invested as Lord of Ireland, but this title also carried no land with it.

In 1207 John rejected the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, and incurred the wrath of the pope in Rome. As a result in 1208 England was placed under an interdict that stopped all church services, and then John was excommunicated. The interdict was not lifted until 1212.

John's campaigns to acquire land in France, although initially successful, went awry and he had to sue for peace. The proud Barons saw this as a defeat and rebelled. Civil war broke out in May 1215. The war was soon over after John was betrayed. John met the Barons at Runnymede on 15th June 1215, where he was forced to sign a charter, agreeing to restore many of the rights that the Barons and church magnates believed they had lost. This later became known as the Magna Carta.