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IN THE BITTER 13TH CENTURY STRUGGLE BETWEEN KING JOHN AND THE UPSTART ENGLISH BARONS, THE MAGNA CARTA WAS FAR FROM THE LAST WORD
Vengeance has been called the true sport of kings, and few monarchs have taken it as seriously as England's King John. While not nearly the warrior his older brother Richard the Lionheart had been, John proved himself more than adept at exacting revenge for injuries real and imagined.
Among the former were insults hurled at the monarch by the same barons who in June 1215 had forced their sovereign to sign one of history's great documents, the Magna Carta, which limited John's royal powers and protected the barons' privileges as freemen. John's signature would have ended the longstanding strife between king and barons, had either side possessed the good sense to make some small measure of accommodation toward the other. Unfortunately, that is not the way of over-proud men. No sooner was the "Great Charter" signed than the barons turned to drink and, in their drunkenness, loudly proclaimed John a "disgrace," "a worthless man and a king contemptible to his people," "a slave" and "the scum of the people," according to 13th century English chronicler Roger of Wendover.
Upon hearing of these insults, John flew into an impressive rage, "gnashing his teeth, scowling with his eyes, and gnawing at the limbs of trees." Once he calmed down, he shifted his energies to the business of vengeance. And serious business it would be.
John's first concern was to ensure the safety of what he still possessed. He sent royal writs to the mercenaries guarding his castles, ordering them to secretly provision their strongholds and prepare for war. He then snuck off to the Isle of Wight, accompanied by the seven nobles who remained faithful to him. There, John gathered forces for a campaign that would break the power of England's barons.
For two months, John busied himself with amassing funds and buying the loyalty of the southern ports' garrisons. Even as he tackled these tasks, his emissaries were making their way to Rome to seek papal support, while his military commanders were dispatched to France to gather a mercenary army. In the first of these tasks, John's cause was gready assisted by...