England in the five years truce
After the defeat and loses, John was seems be a broken man. The only consolation was the birth of a son. He gives him the name Henry, in honor of his father. Having an heir, consolidate his position as King of England, but the rumors of Arthur’s murdering tarnished his reputation and legitimacy.
Returned in England, John looked for what was wrong and what are the solutions. Of one thing he was sure – he will not be the king who lost the ancestral lands in France. He knew that the 5 years truce was just that – a truce. A new round will comes and this time he will not make the same errors. First, he will not fight alone anymore. France has many enemies who can be England’s friends. He tried to resurrect the complex network of alliances his brother left with.
First, he re-approached his nephew, the Emperor Otto IV. He give him money to fight back his counter pretender, Philip of Swabia, on the promise that when time will come, he will help against France. The death of his rival in 1208 significantly improved Otto’s position… for a while, as the Pope excommunicate him in 1209[1], short after crowning him as Emperor and start to support a new pretender – the king of Sicily, Frederick Roger of Hohenstaufen. John start to pay the succession war in Brittany, in order to keep Prince Louis away from the Duchy, he pay the rebellious Flemish barons to reject the French rule and he approached Toulouse to become allies. John reinforce the relations with Sancho of Navarre, repair the ones with Alphonso of Castile and conclude an alliance with Peter (Pero/Pere) of Aragon.
John knew that both the weakness and the strength of England is being an island and he knew what should be done. He start to rebuild the fleet and expand it more than it was ever before. Strong and big new battlements were built and the existing ones were rearmed.
He personally surveyed the condition of the Royal castles, spending fortune to building, repair and improve them and, especially, to provide them with enough means to conduct war if needed, both defensively and offensively. The side back of this actions was the retreat of money from the economy in order to be stored in those castles, ready to be used for paying mercenaries, and the people start to fill the lack of enough cash.
All that required money. Huge sums of money, so he looked to new sources of them. He worked hard for putting order in England’s economy and administration. He travel in the whole country, putting things in order and reassume the King control and justice. He knew England better than any other king before him. John also derived income from fines, court fees and the sale of charters and other privilege and, of course, the Jews. He was a pioneer on finances, creating a new tax on income and movable goods and a new set of import and export duties payable directly to the crown. These innovative measures will be full used by the kings after him and even exported on the continent, but was not without consequences for John reputation who was perceived as "avaricious, miserly, extortionate and moneyminded".
Having less and less confidence in his barons, John preferred to use the privilege in which feudal military service was avoided by a cash payment to the king. This was called scutage and used before only as exceptional cases. Being always short of money, John transform it into a regular way of extorting money. During his reign, he levied scutage payments twelve[2] times, more than all three previous kings, and most of them were levied in the absence of military campaigns. He also maximized his right to demand relief payments when estates and castles were inherited, but he use this as way of putting down the un-trusting barons, charging them enormous sums, beyond their abilities to pay.
John made full use of the already established practices by his father and brother of “ira et malevolentia” – the right of the king to express his anger and displeasure at particular barons or clergy. Also, he governed by the established principle of
vis et voluntas, or "force and will", taking executive and sometimes arbitrary decisions, often justified on the basis that a king was above the law. What John lacked was the empathy and sense of measure, to know when to stop and when enough is enough.
The best example of exacerbating use of exacerbated repressive measure against disgraced barons was the de Braose case. While he campaigned in France, the King gives him many estates, especially the welsh castles of Skenfrith, Grosmont and the White Castle in Gwent. Some see that as a bribe for his involvement in Arthur’s disappearance. Now, John start to find reasons to take them back. He cited overdue money that de Braose owed the Crown from his estates and he seized the castles and many of his estates in Sussex and Devon. As revenge, de Braose's wife, Maud, fled to Wales and speak loud and clear that John had murdered his nephew Arthur.
But John do not bear to be outdone. He chase her the next two years and once captured her and her son William, he put them in prison, starving them to death[3]. While de Braose aroused the jealousy of the other barons during his rise, the arbitrary and violent manner of his fall creates great indignation among them.
Another complicating element of John Kingship was the conflict with the Pope. Everything start when John refuse the Pope’s appointment of Stephan Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. It was not the first time when the King of England entered in conflict with the Pope, as they had exercised a great deal of power over the church within their territories, but this time Innocent III was decided to bring England to the fold and make an example in the Christendom of what happened if a King defy the Pope. In March 1208 he placed an interdict on England who was perceived by John as a true declaration of war, so he confiscated the “seized the lands of those clergy unwilling to conduct services, as well as those estates linked to Innocent himself; he arrested the illicit concubines that many clerics kept during the period, only releasing them after the payment of fines; he seized the lands of members of the church who had fled England, and he promised protection for those clergy willing to remain loyal to him[FONT="][4][/FONT]”. All that bring him huge amount of moneys but also the Innocent’s wrath, who excommunicate him next year, declaring him as disposed of his reign and of all his territories. The excommunication, his acts against the clergy and the accusation of atheism were big stains on his name and on the perception of the population. Contrary to France, who’s King has also problems with the pope, the clergy become intrusively hostile to him and all his qualities were overshadowed by his defects in the both internal and external perception.
By 1210, John become worried as the last year before the truce will end… Preparation for war increased and a new fine was imposed on Jews to finance a new expedition. But the year brought much joy of John, as his wife gave birth to a second son. John give him the name Richard, after his brother. The birth was rather difficult for the queen who spent long time in bed, many being worried that she will died. John, who seems to be in love of his wife, was very joyful when her health become better, giving a large banquet and paying for the food of more then 3000 poor peoples across the country[5].
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Main Sources:
Wikipedia
"The Household Knights of King John" By S. D. Church
"King John: New Interpretations" by S. D. Church
"King John: England's Evil King?" by Ralph Turner
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[1] Earlier than OTL.
[2] In OTL was done eleven times. ITTL, higher loses and the payment of Alphonso, forced John to requesting one more, and all that were done in shorter period.
[3] This had happened IOTL.
[4] Token from “From Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087–1216” by Stephen Poole
[5] Three times more than the greatest charity act known that John has done in OTL (already more important than the most of the other such acts of the kings of his time). Also, ITTL, his son Richard was born one year later than OTL.
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