1207 Onwards and upwards to Runnymede!
‘Now that John’s French empire had been disastrously lost!
He turned west in an attempt to recoup the enormous cost’!
Ireland had been the first land bequeathed to John,and for a while it was expected that it would be the only one that he would inherit.
‘To John, the youngest son, a mere morsel of land!
However before long, fate would play it’s own decisive hand’!
His brothers all dead, John remained the only royal Plantagenet standing.
Medieval Ireland.
King John, preoccupied with the threat to his continental holdings from ‘De-esgusting Augustus’, had afforded Eire’s western shores little thought. In the wake of the loss of the French territories, this minor jewel in the crown began to assume a greater importance. John now sought to exercise greater control over Ireland. The reason for this was that as his barons became bereft of their French estates, they sought compensation for their loss by extending operations in Ireland. This concerned John, and he decided to check their actions by altering the way that Ireland was ruled. John’s restructuring of the governance of Ireland in the south-west of the country adversely affected one William de Briouze, once a royal favourite who controlled the city of Limerick.
The coat of arms of the de Briouze family.
This would lead to of the more notorious episodes of King John’s reign.
The debts of great men.
With the loss of his French estates, John became rather short of funds.
‘With financial matters giving so little ease!
The nobles, their revenue, I, John must squeeze!
If unforthcoming with payment, their assets I will seize!’
When the barons were awarded lands by the Crown, they were of course expected to pay for the privilege. However, it had always been understood that these payments were to be made over a very long period of time. His royal predecessors had adhered to this custom, but after 1207, John did not. A new policy of swift repayment was implemented and if not, the penalty was imprisonment and/or the surrendering of hostages.
‘If in payment you cause delay!
You will soon receive notice one day!
To surrender hostages in the form of your wife, son and daughter!
A refusal to pay might well end in their eventual slaughter’!
William de Briouze, the lord of Limerick rebelled at what he considered King John’s unreasonable terms regarding repayment. After a long conflict, John managed to capture de Briouze’s wife Matilda, and her son William the younger in 1211. Matilda had once greatly angered the king at what she said to his messenger when she refused to hand over her children as a hostages.
‘I will not deliver my sons to your lord, King John, for he foully murdered his nephew Arthur, for whom he should have cared honourably.’
This reference to Arthur of Brittany’s alleged fate was an unpardonable act in John’s eyes. Many thought it true that Arthur had died at John’s hands, but very few would say so aloud. Clearly the punishment would have to fit the crime and of course it most certainly did. John had Matilda and her son imprisoned, where they were deliberately starved to death. This foul deed probably occurred at Corfe castle in Dorset.
Corfe Castle.
It appears that William died first, because when their bodies were discovered, the young man’s cheeks had been badly gnawed by his starving mother. This desperate intake of sustenance was to no avail, as she too died in the same dungeon. William de Briouze the elder had escaped to France, but would die shortly after his wife and son. It is said that he died of shock and grief at the manner of their demise.
This action did little to enhance King John’s standing amongst the nobility. When Magna Carta was drawn up in 1215, clause 39 may well have been written with the fate of Matilda and her son in mind.
‘No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.’