History UsefulNotes / KingJohnOfEngland

* EmbarrassingNickname: His father jokingly called him "John Lackland" since, as a fifth born son, he wasn't expected to inherit any territories.

As you might have noticed, he has no number after his name. He's the ''only'' John to have ever ruled England. The name is so closely tied with his troubled reign that not a single one of his successors has ever been named or chosen to call himself John. It ''almost'' happened, though; his grandson UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst named his eldest son John, but the boy died young. That said, it is ''not'' true that "John" is considered a cursed name for British royals; besides Edward, a few other royals have given the name to their children, albeit admittedly never their senior son and heir.[[note]]The most notable of these is [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor George V]], who named one of his sons John. Interestingly, this Prince John was, like his ancestor, his parents' fifth son and youngest child, though unlike King John, Prince John was sickly--epileptic, in fact--and died at the age of 13 in 1919.[[/note]] On the other hand, it is significant that when the future UsefulNotes/CharlesIII's first son was born, [[UsefulNotes/DianaPrincessOfWales the Princess of Wales]]'s suggestion to call the new second-in-line "John" (after her father, the 8th Earl Spencer) was rejected basically because nobody else in the Royal Family wanted to be responsible for a King John II. (The boy was eventually named [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily William]], after his father's suggestion of "Arthur" was also shot down.)

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Well, not without cause is he usually portrayed as this. Constancy was not one of John's best features. It is the subject of a surviving letter from his mother, where she explicitly explains that she just got a visit from the '''only''' Aquitainian vassal who ''didn't'' rebel against him, and John should ''really'' cultivate this potential ally, but...

* IntimidatingRevenueService: One of the main reasons he became so reviled and was eventually rebelled against. In order to pay for the armies needed to retake his lost French territories, John levied obscenely high taxes onto England's nobility and its Jewish population, none of whom would have benefited in anyway even if John's attempted conquests had been successful. John also reportedly wanted to squeeze the nobles dry to try and control them through their debts to the Crown. A few of John's taxes included heavy taxes on all land, castles, inheritances and noble titles, taxes to avoid mandatory military conscription and taxes on widows to avoid being forcibly remarried.

As you might have noticed, he has no number after his name. He's the ''only'' John to have ever ruled England. The name is so closely tied with his troubled reign that not a single one of his successors has ever been named or chosen to call himself John. It ''almost'' happened, though; his grandson UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst named his eldest son John, but the boy died young. That said, it is ''not'' true that "John" is considered a cursed name for British royals; besides Edward, a few other royals have given the name to their children, albeit admittedly never their senior son and heir.[[note]]The most notable of these is [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor George V]], who named one of his sons John. Interestingly, this Prince John was, like his ancestor, his parents' fifth son and youngest child, though unlike King John, Prince John was sickly--epileptic, in fact--and died at the age of 13 in 1919.[[/note]]

* MommasBoy: Works which portray him as spoiled and insipid generally also usually go on to lay the fault at his mother's feet. Richard is traditionally held to be Eleanor's favorite child (as second surviving son, he was heir to ''her'' duchy for his early life, not his father's holdings), but when Richard died, Eleanor strongly supported John inheriting the empire over the son of his deceased older brother, and personally secured Aquitaine for him by doling out forty charters' worth of favors and privileges and doing homage to the king of France[[note]]Since this usually required a vassal to pledge arms to the king, Eleanor's husband or son typically did this for her in the past, but she needed to personally have the king's acknowledgement of her sole control of her duchy, which legally prevented him from supporting John's nephew, Arthur of Brittany, as Duke of Aquitaine[[/note]] and then officially designating John as her next heir. John in turn did homage to Eleanor, declaring her authority over him and all of his lands as his liege-lady, and she pledged her vassals' loyalty to him as their own liege-lord. It is worth noting that while John lost his father's French lands in Normandy, Anjou, and Maine, he did manage to hold onto Gascony, part of Eleanor's demesne. ''The Lion in Winter,'' at least, paints him as his father's favorite, and gives the role of MommasBoy to Richard - a fact he bemoans in his [[WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973 Walt Disney incarnation]].

He started his career when he was appointed by his father UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond to rule as Lord of Ireland. Henry had in fact attempted to make John ''King'' of Ireland (the previous intended king, Henry's brother, having since died), intending to divide the Angevin possessions between his four sons (John, as the youngest, was not expected to inherit England). However, Henry's quarrels with the Pope prevented this and John had to make do as a mere 'Lord'. He did a bad job (this is putting it ''very'' mildly; John certainly wasn't singlehandedly responsible for the roots of [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles the Troubles]], but he strengthened and expanded on the existing foundations of what would morph into UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion in a remarkably short time by being a prime irritant in local affairs) and returned to England within a year, having antagonized many and run out of money. He later betrayed his father and joined his brother UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart in his rebellion. When Richard was held captive for 2 years in Austria, John declared himself king. When big brother came back, John begged for his life.

* {{Bookworm}}: He reportedly love to read and had libraries of books he would travel with.

-> ''“We owe far more to the vices of John than to the labours of virtuous sovereigns.”''
-->-- UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill

* ParentalFavoritism: Contemporary observers believed him to be Henry II's favorite son, with his father repeatedly working to create some kind of inheritance for his youngest son at the expense of various nobles as well as making him Lord of Ireland.