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Seminar Studies in History
King John and Magna Carta
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August 20, 2024
I recently visited Salisbury Cathedral and saw on permanent display in a special room the surprisingly small document in very small writing known as the Magna Carta. Following this I turned to this concise study in the Seminar Studies In History Series but, big fan of their output, unusually this one left me cold.
To be fair, much of the problem with this slim book lay with the subject matter and trying to make sense of the chaos and complexity that infused the reign of King John. A short glossary may have helped the novice reader in the medieval world: there was frank-pledge, tallage, scutage, amercements, seneschal, escheats, culvertage, to name but some of the phrases that we are expected to know what they mean.
In "1066 and all that " John was summed up as "An Awful King" and I guess many will know little about him except that his lost his battle with the bolshy barons, sealed not signed an important document about "rights" and lost his crown and baggage in the Wash. But, even in this disappointing account, there is a lot more about John than the familiar snippets above that may deserve further investigation. He was certainly a king under immense pressure in particular from his barons and the Church, but knew no other way of ruling but by the Angevin brand of control.
For those keen to dig deeper into a much maligned monarch Marc Morris may be a better bet and a different Jones ( Dan, not J.A. P) may be your go to alternative authors.
To be fair, much of the problem with this slim book lay with the subject matter and trying to make sense of the chaos and complexity that infused the reign of King John. A short glossary may have helped the novice reader in the medieval world: there was frank-pledge, tallage, scutage, amercements, seneschal, escheats, culvertage, to name but some of the phrases that we are expected to know what they mean.
In "1066 and all that " John was summed up as "An Awful King" and I guess many will know little about him except that his lost his battle with the bolshy barons, sealed not signed an important document about "rights" and lost his crown and baggage in the Wash. But, even in this disappointing account, there is a lot more about John than the familiar snippets above that may deserve further investigation. He was certainly a king under immense pressure in particular from his barons and the Church, but knew no other way of ruling but by the Angevin brand of control.
For those keen to dig deeper into a much maligned monarch Marc Morris may be a better bet and a different Jones ( Dan, not J.A. P) may be your go to alternative authors.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review