Reigned 1199-1216. Signed Magna Carta in 1215 at Runnymede. His reign saw renewal of war with Phillip II Augustus of France to whom he lost several continental possessions including Normandy by 1205. He came into
conflict with his Barons and was forced to Sign the Magna Carta. His later repudiation of the charter led to the first barons war 1215-17 during which John died. Burke says he was born in 1160. King of Ireland 1177, Count of Mortain 1189, Earl of Gloucester.

In 1189 Henry was at Tours when he received the news that his youngest and favorite son John was in league with his enemies. It broke his heart.

John's brother King Richard returned to London from the Crusades in Mar 1194 to find that John had been depleting the treasury and planning to supplant him. John, like many other rogues, possessed charm and good looks and Richard readily forgave him, exclaiming, "You are a child!"

From "Debrett's Kings and Queens of Britain" by David Williamson, ISBN 0-86350-101-X, p. 66-7:
Acceded 6 Apr 1199
Crowned at Westminster Abbey 27 May 1199.
1st marriage annulled on the ground of consanguinity.
The youngest child of Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine. Became their favorite child. He did not inherit or acquire any patrimony as did his brothers, and his nickname of 'Lackland' was bestowed on him by his father. He grew up a dandy, a gourmet and a womanizer, dedicated to a sybaritic existence and entirely unprincipled. His parents looked on his youthful escapades with indulgence. At 18 he was sent to Ireland to complete the conquest but was soon recalled when his ridicule of the long beards and style of dress of the Irish princes and chieftains aggravated an already delicate situation.
His brother, Richard I, seems to have had a soft spot for him, and on his accession conferred upon him the county of Mortain in Normandy. He also arranged a marriage with an English heiress, the granddaughter of Robert, Earl of Gloucester (Henry I's bastard), who had been such a staunch supporter of the Empress Matilda. The marriage at once encountered ecclesiastical difficulties as the couple were 2d cousins and the Archbishop of Canterbury declared the marriage void and placed their lands under an interdict. John at once appealed to the Pope and got the decision reversed. However, there was little or no love lost between the pair and they soon ceased to live together.
Though fond of John, King Richard was aware of his weaknesses and at first excluded him from any part in the government when he left for the Crusade, appointing a Norman, William de Longchamp, as Chancellor and principal regent. John lost no time identifying himself with the people, who resented the Chancellor's arrogant French ways. With the assistance of his half-brother, Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, one of Henry II's bastards, he led a force to seize London, where he promptly won over the citizens by granting them the right to elect a mayor. Longchamp fled disguised as a woman and was about to sail from Dover when the advances of an over-amorous sailor discovered him. John was so amused on hearing of this incident that he allowed him to go.
Despite John's scheming against him, Richard was ever forgiving and on his deathbed named John as heir. By the rules of primogeniture Arthur, Duke of Britanny, the posthumous son of John's elder brother Geoffrey should have succeeded, but he was only 11 years old and the succession of a child in those times was to be avoided if possible.
John was invested as Duke of Normandy at Rouen on 25 Apr 1199. In the course of the solemn ceremony he dropped the spear, part of the ducal insignia, and this was later taken as a portent of the loss of the duchy 5 years later. After this he set out for England and his coronation at Westminster at which the Archbishop, Hubert Walter, delivered an oration arguing that the election of a sovereign was more important than hereditary right.
John's next step was to rid himself of his now unwanted wife, who had not been acknowledged as queen. An annulment was easily procured, and after a whirlwind courtship John married Isabella of Angouleme, a 12 year old girl with whom he had become infatuated while campaigning in France. Neither was to be a model of fidelity.
The murder of his nephew and rival Arthur of Brittany at Rouen in Apr 1203 was carried out at John's instigation and aroused the fury of Philip Augustus of France who, as overlord of both Brittany and Normandy, declared John's duchy forfeit and began an invasion. Chateau-Gaillard fell in Mar 1204 and in Jun the French King entered Rouen. The once mighty Angevin empire had shrunk to a fragment.
In 1205 John began a quarrel with the Church when he refused to accept Pope Innocent III's nomination of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury in preference to John, Bishop of Norwich, his own nominee and a personal friend. His intransigence in this matter led to a papal interdict being laid over the whole country in 1208 and his own excommunication. John was forced to submit at last and humiliatingly resign his kingdom to the Pope and receive it back again as a fief of the papacy before the interdict and excommunication were ended in May 1213.
In 1214 John conducted another campaign in France and suffered a catastrophic defeat at Bouvines. During his absence the barons banded together under the leadership of Stephen Langton to protest against the longstanding misgovernment of the realm. This culminated in the best known event of John's reign, his forced sealing of Magna Carta at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 Jun 1215. The charter defined the rights of the Church, the barons and the people. In essence it declared that the Church was free to choose its own bishops, that no money over and above certain regular payments was to be exacted from the King's feudal tenants without their previous consent; and that no freedom was to be punished except in accordance with the laws of the land.
John was infuriated by this forced agreement and claimed that he had acted under duress. He gained the backing of the Pope who had once excommunicated him and received his blessing to gather an army and fight the barons, who for their part called in Louis of France, the heir to the French throne. Louis landed at Sandwich and proceeded at once to London where the barons made him their leader and promised him the throne. Once again civil war was rife in the land and a year of indecisive skirmishing ensued.
Journeying through East Anglia with his band, John attempted to cross the Wash from Norfolk to Lincolnshire but misjudged the tides so that the whole of his baggage train was lost, including his crown and many valuables. Nothing was ever recovered except a small crest crown from a helmet. The loss affected John so greatly that Matthew Paris says: "He fell into such deep despondency . . . that being seized with a sharp fever he became seriously ill. But he aggravated the discomfort of his illness by his disgusting gluttony, for that night by indulging too freely in peaches and copious draughts of new cider he greatly increased his feverishness." Next day John was suffering from dysentery but he managed to ride as far as Sleaford, where he took to a litter and was carried to Newark Castle. Here in a day or two he died on the night of 18 Oct 1216, aged nearly 49.
John was buried in Worcester Cathedral, clad as a monk and at his own request, as near the shrine of St Wulfstan as posible. Later his tomb was moved to the centre of the choir where his effigy may be seen today.

King Henry II granted the O'Carroll country (in Ireland) to Philip de Worcester and Theobald Fitzwalter, but his son, King John, sold the same country to William de Braose. This led to complications. Fitzwalter, who was the first of the Irish Butlers, entered into an arrangement with de Braose, explained in some charters.118

William de Braose entered into a contest with King John, mainly with reference to royal rents claimed from lands in Ireland. In this dispute his wife, Matilda, also became involved. John, while in Ireland in 1210 captured Matilda de Braose and her eldest son, William, and sent them prisoners to England. There, by his orders, the mother and son were confined in a dungeon, and starved to death. William de Braose, the father, disguised as a beggar, effected his escape to Paris, where he died.118