Impatience, tried to pull the thing out himself. Between the two of them,

Richard and the incompetent surgeon infected the wound, and the king died

of the infection.

Missing Land, Missing Treasure: John

Henry II’s youngest surviving son, John, came to the throne in 1199, after his

brother Richard I named him as his successor. He had always hoped to be king,

but with a hale and hearty Richard on the throne, he didn’t expect to inherit

the crown. His nickname, Lackland, rubbed salt into the wound. Richard had

no sons to inherit his titles, but even when he died, many expected the late

king’s nephew, Arthur, to become king (see the next section). Arthur had a

good claim to the throne as son of Richard’s brother, Geoffrey, but when

Richard named his heir, Arthur was only 10 years old and probably thought too

young to succeed. Richard named John his heir in 1197, but before then, John

had thought he was more likely to get the crown by deposing his brother and

had spent years of his early life plotting against Richard.

In fact, John was a habitual schemer – for example, he was always on the

lookout to find ways of squeezing more taxes out of his barons and the

church. Adding to this downfall was the fact that he had no glamour. He

was not a brave soldier like his brother, but was seen as a bookish character,

educated by churchmen, with little charisma.

The Crusades

The Crusades were a series of wars fought from

1095 to 1291 between Christian and Muslim

forces for control of the sites in the eastern

Mediterranean that were, and are, sacred to

Jews, Christians, and Muslims. They began

as an attempt by Westerners to protect the

rights of Christian pilgrims in the East, but soon

deteriorated into a sorry catalogue of attempted

Western conquests of the Holy Land. Although

most people now look on the European involvement

in the Crusades as wrong, it is important

to understand that many of the actual Crusaders

saw the enterprise as a worthy attempt to protect

pious Christian pilgrims.

In a way, the education helped John. He got to grips with the administrative

side of government better than Richard ever did and regularly presided over

court sittings dispensing justice. But the biggest disaster of John’s reign had

nothing to do with justice.

Royal murderer?

The greatest disaster of John’s career began with a royal marriage scandal.

John was fed up with his wife, Isabella of Gloucester, who had failed to bear

him any children. He wanted to chuck her and marry a well-connected French

princess, another Isabella, Isabella of Angouleme. But this second Isabella

was already betrothed to a French baron, Hugh de Lusignan. When John

grabbed his young fiancee from under his nose, Hugh went to the French

ruler Philip Augustus, who still had his greedy eye on the English king’s lands

In France. Philip saw this request as an opportunity to help himself to a large

chunk of France. The wily Frenchman supported Arthur’s claim to rule in central

France, while preparing to move his army to Normandy with the hope of

taking over there himself.

John suddenly found himself with two enemies in France and decided to

attack the weaker, younger Arthur. John defeated Arthur, clapped him in

prison, and, after a while, Arthur’s death was announced.

The rumour spread quickly that the young prince had been murdered. And

there were stories that John himself had done the deed, visiting Arthur’s cell

late at night, and flying into a fearful temper. Whatever the truth, John was

responsible for Arthur, and the young man had been killed. The year of 1204

was a black one for the monarchy.

Meanwhile, Philip Augustus had pushed John out of Normandy and made it