Historical
and Commemorative Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss
JOHN DASSIER, Jean: England, 1731, Bronze, 41 mm King John (1166-1216) (John Lackland) was King of England
from 1199 to 1216. John was the youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of
Aquitaine. While his elder brother Richard I (The Lionheart) was absent on
the Third Crusade, John conspired with Philip II of France to seize the
throne of England. The plot was foiled, and John was banished and deprived
of his estates. On his brother Richard’s death John was invested as Duke of
Normandy and crowned King of England by Pandulph, the Pope’s Legate, the
event alluded to on the reverse of this medal. In 1200 John married Isabella
of Angouleme, precipitating a war with Philip II that resulted in the loss
of Normandy and almost all of the other English possessions in France. In
1209 John was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III for refusing to accept
Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. John relented to papal
authority in order to gain financial support from the church in his conflict
with Philip II. His nephew and ally , Emperor Otto IV, was decisively
defeated by Philip at the Battle of Bouvines and John’s attack on La
Rochelle floundered. On his return to England, John faced civil war and was
compelled to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. His continued disregard of feudal
rights, however, led to the first of the Baron’s Wars. He was succeeded by
his son, Henry III. (O’Brien) LINK to the
Magna Carta
(from Yale Law School)
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