A supplementary bull, of one day’s later date, reminded the barons that the suzerainty of England belonged to Rome, and that therefore nothing could be done in the kingdom without papal consent.[[58]] Thereafter, at a Lateran Council, Innocent formally excommunicated the English barons who had persecuted “John, King of England, crusader and vassal of the Church of Rome, by endeavouring to take from him his kingdom, a fief of the Holy See.”[[59]]
Meanwhile, the points in dispute had been submitted to the rude arbitrament of civil war, in which the first notable success fell to King John in the capture, by assault, of Rochester Castle on 30th November. The barons had already made overtures to Louis, the French King’s son, to whom they promised as a reward for his help, yet not perhaps with entire sincerity, the crown of England. Towards the end of November, some seven thousand French troops arrived in London, where they spent the winter—a winter consumed by John in marching from place to place meeting, on the whole, with success, especially in the east of England. John’s best ally was the Pope, who had no intention of allowing a French Prince to usurp the throne of one who was now his humble vassal. Gualo was dispatched from Rome to Philip, King of France, forbidding his son’s invasion, and asking rather protection and assistance for John as a papal vassal. Philip, anxious to meet the force of the Pope’s arguments with some title to intervene, of more weight than the invitation of a group of rebels, replied by an ingenious string of fictions. He endeavoured to find defects in John’s title as King of England, and to argue that therefore John was not in titulo to grant to the Pope the rights of an overlord. Among other arguments it was urged that John had been convicted of treason while Richard was King, and that this sentence involved forfeiture by the traitor of all rights of succession to the Crown. Thus the Pope’s claim of intervention was invalid, while Prince Louis justified his own interference by some imagined right which he ingeniously argued had passed to him through the mother of his wife.
John had not relied solely on papal protection. A great fleet, collected at Dover to block Louis with his smaller vessels in Calais harbour, was wrecked on 18th May, 1216. The channel thus cleared of English ships, the French Prince, setting sail on the night of the 20th May, landed next morning without opposition. John, reduced to dependence on mercenaries, did not dare oppose his landing. Gualo, now in England, on 28th May excommunicated Louis by name, and laid London under interdict. Such thunderbolts had now lost their blasting power by frequent repetition, and produced no effect whatever. On 2nd June, Louis entered London amid acclamations, and marched against John at Winchester, which he reached on 14th June, after John had fled. Ten days later, the ancient capital of Wessex with its castles surrendered. Next day, the French Prince attacked Dover, whose brave defender, Hubert de Burgh, after some months of stubborn resistance, obtained a truce, on 14th October, in order that the garrison might communicate with the King. Before Hubert’s messengers could reach him, John was dying. During these months, when the verdict of war was going against him in the south, he had been acting in the north strenuously, and not without success. The issue still trembled in the balance. A royalist reaction had begun. The insolence of the French troops caused desertions from the barons.
On 10th October John, after being feasted to excess by the loyal burghers of Lynn, fell into an illness from which he never really recovered. Nine days later, worn out by his wars, and by excitement and chagrin, at this critical juncture when fortune might have taken any sudden turn, he died at Newark Castle, in the early hours of the morning of 19th October, 1216. His death saved the situation, rendering a compromise possible. Almost immediately, there took place an entirely new grouping of political forces inside and outside of England. A silent compromise was effected, all parties returning gradually to their natural allegiance to the son of John, on the understanding that the Charter in its main features should be accepted as the basis of his government. Prince Louis was soon discarded. Rome also fell into line; the death of Innocent, on 16th June, 1216, had been equally opportune with the death of John, four months later, removing an obstacle from the path of peace. Gualo, in the name of Innocent’s successor, consented to the re-issue of the Charter by the advisers of the young King Henry.
[1]. R. Hoveden, Chronica, II. 218.
[2]. The details of these reforms are fully discussed infra under the head of “[Royal Justice and Feudal Justice],” and some of their ultimate effects under the head of “[Trial by Jury].”
[3]. In one county, Westmoreland, the office did become hereditary.
[4]. See Round, Commune of London, 273. This measure is discussed infra pp. [91-2].
[5]. R. Wendover, III. 239.