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Hello, welcome to the history of England, episode 58, tyranny and defeat. We've rather wondered

around with John, don't you think? It just occurred to me last week that we probably need to get

on with it a bit. And so today, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to start on the journey to a

rather green, peaceful place by the River Thames called Runnymead, which contains incidentally a

square of sovereign territory of the United States. We'll end that journey next week.

The first instalment today is to discuss how John gets to the point where, in 1215, he faces rebellion.

Now up to this point, I get the feeling that I've actually been rather nice to John,

and you could be forgiven for thinking that really there's no difference between John and his

father. After all, John was accused during his life of being pretty harsh and exacting of his

barons, and we've been hearing about how good John was at administration and stuff.

Okay, he's had a bit of a spat-et with the Pope, but that's been okay with the barons.

So really, apart from the small thing about, you know, losing an empire, maybe John wasn't such a bad

egg after all. And this, in the view of a number of historians, would be a perfectly acceptable

point of view. So, let's look at some of the things that made John a pretty nasty piece of work,

and why I'd have been on the side of the barons if I'd been at Runnymead. At the heart of the

problem is the way that John manages the relationship with his barons, and also the legacy that he

acquires from his angivine predecessors. Henry II had restored and extended royal power,

bringing the barons back into line after the anarchy. It hadn't been all plain sailing,

...