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A Study Guide . Revised in 2010..© Type of Work .......King John is classified as a history play although it also qualifies as a tragedy inasmuch as it depicts the downfall of the main character. Key Dates .......Shakespeare’s source was The Troublesome Raigne of King John of England (Anonymous, 1591), which was based on accounts in The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (Holinshed’s Chronicles), by Raphael Holinshed (?-1580?). Holinshed began work on this history under the royal printer Reginald Wolfe. The first edition of the chronicles was published in 1577 in two volumes. .......England's King John was born in 1167 as the youngest of three sons of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine (Queen Elinor in the play). His brother Richard the Lion-Hearted, acceded to the throne in 1189, but envious John tried to usurp the kingship while Richard was fighting in the Third Crusade. After Richard died in battle in France in 1189, John inherited the throne. Settings Characters . Arthur, just a child, is the son of John’s deceased brother Geoffrey Plantagenet. John and Geoffrey's other brother, Richard I the Lion-Hearted (1157-1199), sat on the English throne from 1189 until his death in 1199 during a battle in France. It was Arthur’s mother, Constance, who persuaded the French king to claim the English throne for Arthur. As a kind of stage mother, she is ever ready to bully, badger, and browbeat to further her son’s career. And she has been quite successful in making her case on behalf of little Arthur. John is weak and cowardly, but he has a powerful ally: his domineering mother, Queen Elinor. She is as forceful in championing John as Constance is in championing Arthur. John dismisses Chatillon, warning him that England chooses war. Meanwhile, a charming, happy-go-lucky fellow named Philip Faulconbridge presents himself before John to request that the king settle an argument. It seems that Philip Faulconbridge’s brother, Robert, claims all of Philip’s lands because the latter is a bastard and, therefore, not legally entitled to receive property. King John notices that Philip bears a remarkable resemblance to his late brother, Richard I the Lion-Hearted. (Philip is the illegitimate son of Richard I and Lady Faulconbridge.) John offers Philip a choice: Take the disputed property or claim as his father King Richard I. Philip chooses to be the son of a king. John then bestows on him the title “Sir Richard Plantagenet.” However, Philip goes by a single name throughout the rest of the play: “Bastard.” He is to take the field on John’s behalf in the coming war against France. In France, King Philip and his forces are besieging the English-held town of Angiers when Arthur and his mother, Constance, welcome Lymoges, the Duke of Austria, an ally of the French. (When he was the viscount of Lymoges—usually spelled Limoges—the duke was attacked by Richard the Lion-Hearted at the viscount’s castle at Châlus after the viscount refused to surrender gold dug up by a French peasant. An arrow shot by one of the viscount’s men killed Richard. (The account of this incident is not part of Shakespeare’s play.) However, in Act II, the oldest son of the King of France, Lewis, introduces the Duke of Austria as the slayer of Richard (Arthur’s father) and says the duke has decided to fight for France to redeem himself. Young Arthur absolves the duke of any guilt, saying, “God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion’s death / The rather that you give his offspring life” (2.1.14-15). When King Philip prepares to bombard the town with cannon fire, Chatillon arrives from England. He tells the king to Turn your forces from this paltry siege And stir them up against a mightier task. England, impatient of your just demands, Hath put himself in arms: the adverse winds, Whose leisure I have stay’d, have given him time To land his legions all as soon as I; His marches are expedient to this town, His forces strong, his soldiers confident. (2.1.57-64)Soon thereafter, King John and his army arrive, along with John’s mother, Queen Elinor. Drums beat, heralding John’s arrival for a parley with the French. The two kings—along with the would-be king, Arthur, and his mother, Constance—meet to voice their demands and grievances. While the kings and their representatives argue their claims, Elinor and Constance exchange insults:QUEEN ELINOR Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth! CONSTANCE Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth! Call not me slanderer; thou and thine usurp The dominations, royalties and rights Of this oppressed boy: this is thy eld’st son’s son. (2.1.181-185)Faulconbridge, hot to wield his sword for England, calls for all-out war, as does the Duke of Austria on behalf of the French side. As the armies prepare to engage, the citizens of Angiers propose a settlement sealed by a marriage. John’s niece Blanch, the daughter of the King of Spain, should marry Lewis, the oldest son (dauphin) of the King of France. Lewis and Blanch are both present. Thus, France and England would become “in-laws” and friends. The two kings endorse this agreement. However, the Bastard disapproves of the plan, believing it will only cause more trouble in the end. Constance, too, disapproves. Her son, after all, will lose the throne. Nevertheless, the marriage takes place. By and by, Cardinal Pandulph, an envoy from Pope Innocent, arrives to confront King John on an ecclesiastical matter. It seems the king opposes the pope’s choice of Stephen Langton to be Archbishop of Canterbury. King John tells Pandulph that as King of England he holds supreme authority in his realm and pays no heed to the demands of the Vatican. John says:Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of England Add thus much more, that no Italian priest Shall tithe or toll in our dominions; But as we, under heaven, are supreme head, So under Him that great supremacy, Where we do reign, we will alone uphold, Without the assistance of a mortal hand. (3.1.158-164)Philip, shocked that King John would oppose the will of Pope Innocent, says, “Brother of England, you blaspheme in this” (3. 1. 167). The cardinal then wields a  fearsome weapon of the Vatican: He excommunicates John, barring him from participating in church rites and receiving the sacraments, such as Holy Eucharist, and disqualifying him from Christian burial.
(Cut off from the church’s salvific powers, an excommunicated person risks loss of heaven. The purpose of excommunication is to force a sinner to acknowledge his errors in order to allow him to return to full community in the church.) Philip, not wishing to risk the wrath of the church, sides with Pandulph. Thus, John and Philip are again at odds and they go to war. After the armies clash, the Bastard kills the man who killed his father (Richard I) and rescues King John’s mother, Queen Elinor. Arthur is taken captive, and the English win the day. John orders the Bastard back to England to “shake the bags / Of hoarding abbots” (3. 3. 9-10), explaining that “the fat ribs of peace / Must by the hungry now be fed upon” (3.3.11-12). King John next orders his friend, Hubert de Burgh, to kill Arthur after the boy has been transported to England, declaring that Arthur “is a very serpent in my way” (3.3.65). Meanwhile, Cardinal Pandulph, believing Arthur will indeed die, encourages Lewis to claim the English throne. John, now back in England, orders Hubert to burn out Arthur’s eyes with hot irons. However, Hubert has taken a liking to the innocent lad and spares him. To protect the boy, Hubert gives out word that Arthur is dead. In response, the great lords who have been entreating John to allow Arthur to live, break with John and form an alliance with the French, who have landed an army in England to win the throne for Lewis. Constance, stricken with a terrible sense of loss over the apparent death of her son, says:Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form. (3.4.98)Later, she dies in a frenzy of grief. Queen Elinor also dies. (No explanation for her death is given.) When John begins to repent his actions and all seems lost, Hubert tells the king young Arthur is yet alive. John then orders Hubert to go to the great lords and “throw this report on their incensed rage” (4. 2. 275). But, alas, Arthur, in an attempt to escape imprisonment, falls onto rocks and dies. The lords blame Hubert and John for the boy’s death and join the French forces. While John is concluding a reconciliation with the Vatican, he asks Cardinal Pandulph to go to the French and effect a peace. Pandulph agrees, saying, “My tongue shall hush again this storm of war” (5. 1. 23). After Pandulph leaves, the Bastard arrives with news that the lords have deserted King John and that Arthur has been found dead. John gives the Bastard command of the English troops after Pandulph fails at peacemaking. The Bastard serves his king well, almost singlehandedly holding off the French. When the English lords learn from a dying Frenchman that Lewis plans to execute them if he wins the throne, they return to the side of King John. However, King John is also dying. A monk, “a resolved villain” (5. 6. 35), has poisoned him, Hubert tells the Bastard. When asked how he fares, King John says he is Poison’d—ill fare—dead, forsook, cast off: And none of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw, Nor let my kingdom’s rivers take their course Through my burn’d bosom, nor entreat the north To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much, I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait And so ingrateful, you deny me that. (5.7.41-49)After John expires, Pandulph forges a peace agreement between England and France, and John’s son, Prince Henry, inherits the throne as King Henry III. Henry decrees that his father is to be buried at Worcester, according to his wishes. The Bastard then salutes and pledges his loyalty to the new king, to whom “I do bequeath my faithful services / And true subjection everlastingly” (112-114).  Climax.......The climax of a play or narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of King John occurs,
according to the first definition, when John orders the death of Arthur even though John has won the battle against the French. His cruelty turns his own people against him and sets in motion his downfall. According to the second definition, the climax occurs when John dies by poisoning. Themes Family feuds can bring deadly results. Unresolved disputes involving family members lead to great political and social upheaval, war, and sometimes death. The power-hungry often victimize the innocent. In the struggle for power in King John—and in struggles for power in any age and place—the adversaries often stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Arthur, a little boy who is the focus of the conflict in King John, becomes a pawn in the effort of his grasping mother and her French supporters to seize the throne of England. Ironically, Arthur himself has no desire to be king. In Act II, Scene I, he says, "I would that I were low laid in my grave: / I am not worth this coil that's made for me." Mothers can be mighty. Arthur's mother, Constance, persuades the King of France to press England to accept Arthur as its rightful king. John's mother, Elinor, stands by her son like a rabid pit bull. Imagery .......King John contains memorable similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech even though Shakespeare wrote the play early in his career. Here is a sampling: Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. (3.4.113-114) In a simile, Lewis compares life to a tale. Alliteration occurs in tedious, twice-told, and tale. When Fortune means to men most good, To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, And oftentimes excusing of a fault How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds [H]is pure brain, There is so hot a summer in my bosom, And none of you will bid the winter come King John and the Magna Carta .......King John was the signer of the Magna Carta on June 15, 1215, at Runnymede meadows in Surrey, England. It granted special liberties and rights, including a clause used later to establish habeas corpus (the right to a speedy trial). John signed the historic document under pressure from the disenchanted nobility, whom he had taxed heavily. The Magna Carta (Latin for Great Charter) provided that the king was subject to the law, not above the law. Modern legal documents in the U.S., England, and elsewhere have adopted this principle, making heads of state and other officials answerable to the law of the land. History Repeats Itself .......The conflict in King John similar to the conflict between Elizabeth and Mary in the sixteenth century. Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587), a grand-niece of King Henry VIII (1491-1547), claimed the English throne after Elizabeth (1533-1603), Henry's daughter by Anne Boleyn (1507-1536), became Queen of England in 1558. Because Henry eventually rejected and executed Elizabeth's mother and remarried, supporters of Mary Queen of Scots declared she was the rightful queen of England, not Elizabeth. A period of unrest ensued in England, mainly between Catholic supporters of Mary and Protestant supporters of Elizabeth. Like King John, Queen Elizabeth was condemned by the papacy. Like the throne claimant Arthur, Mary eventually died (by beheading). Murder by Poisoning Study Questions and Essay Topics
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