why was king john a bad king?

Question

i know that he lost land in france and that he was fotced to sign the magna carta but why is he said to be a bad king

(long answers if possible)

Answer 1

His main problem was his own personality. He was quite intelligent but was also not able to get along with the nobles, both socially and also he was unable to get along with them in matters of government. King John was difficult, conniving, back-stabbing, duplicitous and prone to intrigued. This didn't work well with the people he had to cooperate with.

King John must be looked at also in terms of his youth. He was referred to as John Lack-land, because his father, Henry II, gave him no land to govern, so her always grew up with a real jealousy for his older brother Richard the Lion-hearted. Richard, however, never had children (he preferred men much more than women) and therefore when he left the country to go on Crusade, Prince John was left with a degree of power (along with his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine - who was a virtual stranger to John because she was held in prison during most of his early life) and he wanted to be totally in charge. He was the left-out one, and when he came to power he tended to abuse his power, over use it, and just make a muddle of things

Answer 2

1. He fell out with his family and his brother
2. He argued with his nephew which soon led to weak English territory in France 1205
3. He made people pay extra tax
4. He treated the barons unfairly which caused them to create the Magna Carta

Answer 3

I think that his entry on Wiki (link below) would go a LONG way toward answering your question. But to sum it up ...

- Multiple military defeats
- Attempting to undermine King Richard by asking his (Richard's) captors to keep him longer
- Dispute with the Pope which resulted in England being placed under Interdict
- Dispute with the barons (which led to the Magna Carta) brought England to the brink of civil war

Small wonder that England has never had another monarch named John, even though John is one of the most common given names in the English-speaking world.

Answer 4

King John was a bad king, yes- (I'm not going to re-state anything said above) but keep in mind that he wasn't so bad as Shakespeare made him out to be. Shakespeare tended to exaggerate the characterisitcs of his characters, especially ones that are viewed as either real heroes or real villans in the course of British history (see Henry V for a hero, and Richard III for a real baddie with a made up hunchback) Just thought I should add this point.

Answer 5

Also, John tried to help himself to Richard's lands. His mother, Queen Eleanor, put a stop to that.