Attempts to
annul the
Charter.
The remaining sixteen months of John’s reign were a mere anarchy, of which it would be difficult to unravel all the causes. In the first place may be counted the savage wrath of the king at being thus defeated and fettered; then the unfortunate interference of the Pope, who quashed the Charter by a Bull of August 25, and on December 16, anathematized the barons singly and collectively; he also peremptorily suspended Archbishop Langton for his share in bringing about the result.
But we are not to lay all the blame of what followed on John. It is true that within a few weeks after the crisis, he had thrown off all semblance of compliance, but the barons were elated with their success, and showed very little moderation. They trusted him no more than he trusted them. They divided the country among their chiefs, some with the idea of enforcing the Charter, many no doubt with the desire of humiliating the king. Langton’s departure for Rome, left them without the prudent, sincere, and honest English counsel that was needed for the successful vindication of the national cause, and gave the chief place amongst them to men who had personal wrongs to avenge and personal objects to attain. Hence the great body that had united to produce the Charter broke up into its former elements; some returned to the king’s side, the more violent intrigued with France and Scotland.
The Crown
offered to
Lewis.
John’s successes.
John showed himself incapable of using his opportunity. The Earl of Essex, the husband of his first wife, took the lead on the baronial side; but Robert Fitz Walter and Eustace de Vesey, two of the second rank, were leagued with Philip, and under their influence John was declared to have forfeited his crown. Lewis, the heir of France, was selected to be the king of the English. War could be delayed no longer. The barons began by besieging the castles of Northampton and Oxford. John brought up his mercenaries to besiege Rochester, a castle which the confederates held in the name of the absent archbishop. He had the first measure of success, and, in spite of the attempt of the barons to relieve Rochester, captured it, showed a politic mercy to its defenders, and then traversed the South of England, securing the population as he went. He kept Christmas at Nottingham, then marched north and seized Berwick, striking consternation into the Scots. The Earl of Salisbury, his half-brother, commanded in the Midland district, and London became the last and almost the only refuge of the malcontents. Colchester was taken by the king in March, 1216; and up to this point he exhibited military skill and energy that shows him to have been not entirely devoid of the qualities of his father and brother.
Success
of
Lewis.
Death of
John.
But now a new actor appears. Lewis, after a long delay, arrived in England in May, and at once gave spirit and consistency to his party. John retired before him and took up a position at Winchester. Lewis marched by Canterbury to London, and there received the homage and fealties of his friends. In spite of the sentence of excommunication actually passed upon him and his adherents by the new legate, Gualo, he then marched on Winchester, John retiring still; took Winchester, and besieged Windsor and Dover. The Northern lords joined him first, then the great earls, even the Earl of Salisbury himself. John was desperate; he roved up and down the country at the head of his banditti, burning and plundering and slaying; whilst Lewis was gathering strength and friends every hour. At last, on October 19, death overtook the king at Newark. From that very day the strength of Lewis, which was based on the popular and baronial hatred of John, began to decline. It melted away as quickly as it had grown, and in less than a year he was obliged to make peace and leave England alone. John ended thus a life of ignominy in which he has no rival in the whole long list of our sovereigns. There is no need to attempt an elaborate analysis of his character. History has set upon it a darker and deeper mark than she has on any other king. He was in every way the worst of the whole list: the most vicious, the most profane, the most tyrannical, the most false, the most short-sighted, the most unscrupulous.
There was an old legendary prophecy, spoken in a dream by an angel to Fulk the Good, Count of Anjou, when he had in an ecstasy of fervent charity carried on his shoulders a leprous beggar for two leagues to the church of Marmoutier. He was told that to the ninth generation his successors should extend the bounds of their dominion until it was immensely great. The prophecy had been fulfilled—to Anjou had been added Maine and Normandy, Aquitaine and England; Palestine too was ruled by his descendants; and at last, in the person of Otho IV., the seed of the good count had reached the summit of earthly ambition. But the time fixed by the legend was come. John was the representative, of the last generation, with which the blessing ended, and the inheritance of Fulk the Good, passed into other hands.