This is the Tom Hartman program.

John, bad King John, shame of the throne that he sat on.

Not a scruple, not a straw, cared this monarch for the law. Promises

he daily broke. None could trust a word he spoke. So the barons brought a deed down to Rushie-Roneymead.

Magna Carta was at height. Charter of the people's right.

Framed and fashion to correct kings who act with disrespect.

And with stern and solemn air pointing to the parchment there,

sign, sign, sign, they said, sign, King John, or resign instead.

John, turning pale, ground his teeth and bit his nail, chewed his long mustache,

and then ground and bit and chewed again.

Plague upon the people, he muttered.

What are they to me?

Plague upon the barons too.

Here he had another chew.

But the barons standing by eyed him with a baleful eye.

Not a finger did they left, not an eyelash did they shift.

But with one tremendous roar even louder than before.

Sign, sign, sign, they said, sign, King John, or resign instead.

It is bad King John by Eleanor Farjan.

His country has been part of an arc of history

away from a king.

An arc of history that one might argue began

...