0:00

Welcome to BreezeLine, where

0:02

next-level internet speeds mean next-level

0:04

productivity. Whether it's back to school,

0:06

back to work, or back to reality, don't

0:09

let slow internet slow down your game. Kick

0:11

it up a notch with a game-changing offer

0:13

of 1GB fiber-fast speeds for

0:15

only $59.99 per month. Choose

0:18

BreezeLine and get next-level internet

0:20

and faster speeds backed by a fiber-powered

0:23

network. Terms and conditions apply.

0:25

Go to BreezeLine.com to learn more.

0:32

The knights lie face down on

0:34

the floor of the church as the choir

0:36

begins to sing.

0:41

Winter has barely gone and

0:44

the stone pressing into their faces is hard

0:46

and cold.

0:48

But the knights don't get up. They

0:52

shiver as they listen to the solemn,

0:54

clear voices of the singing churchmen

0:57

running through psalms and hymns.

1:03

As the singing reaches a crescendo, the

1:05

knights now hear the slow,

1:07

steady footsteps of a bishop

1:10

and a bevy of priests pacing

1:12

around them. They

1:15

smell the rich, sickly scent

1:17

of swinging incense burners and

1:20

feel the cool spray of holy water

1:22

being sprinkled around them. They

1:27

listen as the bishop calls out for God

1:29

to preserve them all from diabolical

1:32

attack and enemy ambushes. Should

1:35

the knights get unlucky, the priests

1:38

ask that they shall be granted a smooth path towards heaven. Then the moment

1:40

finally comes that they can pry themselves from the icy floor and approach

1:45

the

1:47

bishop himself. They

1:52

all look at one another and pray. The

1:58

bishop is not able to hear

1:59

them. They all promise to serve the church

2:01

with their bodies and their souls,

2:05

to join an army of the faithful and

2:07

fight for a year against the

2:09

enemies of Christ. The

2:13

bishop gives them each a little white cross

2:15

to sew on their clothes. They've

2:18

all now sworn to become crusaders.

2:25

This in itself isn't so

2:27

unusual. The holy wars

2:30

in the kingdom of Jerusalem are still raging,

2:33

and Pope Innocent III wants all

2:35

hands on deck. What

2:38

is unusual is exactly who

2:40

is among this group of newly pledged

2:43

holy warriors. There's someone

2:45

here who really hasn't been serving

2:47

the church too well for most

2:49

of his life. He's

2:51

not a knight. He's

2:53

a king. King John

2:56

of England, the Plantagenet ruler

2:58

who's ridden roughshod over every

3:01

one of the Ten Commandments he can remember.

3:05

Who was, until recently, excommunicated

3:08

from the church by order of that same

3:10

Pope Innocent III. John

3:13

is one of the least likely crusaders

3:15

it's possible to imagine, but

3:18

here he is, wiping the dust from

3:20

his shirt and telling the Bishop of London that

3:22

he's going to catch the next easy jet to Crusaderville

3:25

and give the infidel a piece of his mind.

3:31

The date of King John's cross-taking

3:33

ceremony is March 4th, 1215.

3:38

In the Christian calendar, that's Ash

3:40

Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It's

3:43

a day John's picks carefully.

3:46

Lent is a season of penitence, of

3:48

saying sorry, of atoning for your sins.

3:53

Is this John finally admitting

3:55

what a low-down dirty scoundrel

3:57

he's been all his life, and seeing the

3:59

error of his life? of his ways? Is

4:01

he going on crusade because he suddenly

4:04

developed an intense fear of damnation

4:06

for his misdeeds? Or,

4:09

John being John, is there some

4:11

other secret agenda? Well,

4:14

if you've been listening this long, I reckon

4:17

you'll have your suspicions,

4:19

and rightly so.

4:21

John's talking the talk. He's even

4:24

making a show of walking the walk, converting

4:26

what little cash he has left into the

4:28

international currency of gold, and

4:30

ordering ships to be kitted out for a long

4:33

trip. But he's not

4:35

doing it because he loves God and yearns

4:37

to see Jerusalem liberated. He's

4:40

doing it because he's a desperate

4:42

man, under attack from

4:45

almost every side, and

4:47

starting to run out of options.

4:52

Seven months ago, John's allies fought

4:54

a decisive battle at Bovine. John

4:57

staked his political future and

4:59

a vast sum of cash on

5:01

winning. He lost.

5:05

Now in England, his barons, fed

5:08

up with being bullied and extorted,

5:10

are on the brink of rebellion. John's

5:13

taking the cross, helping the church

5:16

will protect him from the oncoming

5:18

storm. He'd better hope

5:20

he's right. Otherwise,

5:23

he's a dead man walking. I'm

5:31

Dan Jones, and from Sony Music Entertainment,

5:34

this is History, a dynasty

5:37

to die for season three. Episode

5:41

nine, the Army

5:43

of God. I

6:03

don't think it's easy to feel sorry

6:06

for King John. Even so,

6:08

you have to admit that what happened at Bovine

6:11

in the summer of 1214 was

6:13

a kick in the teeth. He

6:15

was so close to turning his

6:17

whole reign around. In 1213 he'd

6:21

sorted things out with Innocent III. He'd built

6:23

up a handsomely paid network of allies,

6:26

including his nephew, the Emperor Otto.

6:29

He'd had another great win just before

6:31

Bovine when William Longsword

6:33

had led that triumphant raid on Philip

6:36

Augustus' navy. He'd

6:38

finally made it over to France with

6:41

his army, which he'd failed to do so

6:43

many times before. And

6:45

then Bovine itself was a

6:48

really close-run thing. Otto

6:51

was within a whisker of capturing,

6:53

maybe even killing, Philip Augustus

6:56

before the tide of the battle turned. So

6:59

all in all, it was really hard

7:01

luck. Then

7:03

again, like they say, you

7:05

get the luck you deserve, and like

7:07

they also say, what goes around

7:10

comes around. One

7:12

thing's certain. After Bovine,

7:15

trouble comes hurtling John's way.

7:19

Or, in the words of William Marshall's official

7:21

biography, after Bovine, began

7:24

the war, the strife and criminal

7:27

conflict between the king and the barons.

7:31

As we've heard, John is no stranger to

7:33

conflict and strife with his barons.

7:36

He's been taxing them, meddling in their

7:38

business as a stay-at-home king, and

7:40

asking them to ride to war for places

7:43

in France they don't really care

7:45

about. And there was the

7:47

highly unpleasant business with the Brouw's

7:49

family. There

7:51

were whispers of a conspiracy from the barons

7:54

to murder John and his family, which

7:56

caused him to halt his invasion of Ireland.

8:00

But that's nothing compared to what comes

8:02

next. It

8:06

begins in earnest in January 1215, two

8:09

months before John makes

8:11

his crusading vow.

8:13

It's at this point that he makes his first

8:15

serious move to smoke out his enemies

8:18

among the barons, whose smart

8:20

observers think are readying themselves

8:22

to launch a coup against him. Two

8:26

ringleaders have already broken cover,

8:29

Robert Fitzwalter and Eustace Deveschi.

8:32

It's said they're extra mad because

8:34

John tried to seduce their wives and

8:36

daughters. True

8:39

or not, both of them have fled

8:41

England, more or less an admission

8:43

that they are plotting something serious. So

8:47

in January 1215, John

8:49

invites a dozen or so of his most

8:52

senior barons and bishops to come

8:54

to London and tell him to his face

8:56

what their problem is. He

9:03

meets them at the English headquarters

9:05

of the Knights Templar, a massive

9:07

fortified compound just outside

9:09

London's walls, kitted out with

9:12

a stunning, round church, a

9:14

tournament ground and a lot of Templar

9:16

Knights, who have a reputation as

9:19

being the toughest in the world.

9:22

That itself is a sign of just how

9:24

worried John is. The

9:27

barons arrive in a bullish mood. They've

9:30

already been holding meetings of their own, and

9:33

they're being advised by Stephen Langton,

9:36

the Archbishop of Canterbury foisted on

9:38

John by Pope Innocent III. Langton

9:41

is playing peacemaker, but he leans

9:44

more to the rebels' point of view than the kings.

9:48

Seeing as John nearly gave up his immortal

9:50

soul to stop Langton getting the job

9:52

of Archbishop, that's hardly surprising.

9:57

Langtons advise the barons that if they

9:59

want to hold John to account, they

10:01

need a proper list of demands to place

10:04

before him. What might that

10:06

look like?

10:07

Well,

10:08

he's gone rooting around in the history books

10:10

and found a document that

10:12

was issued by John's great-grandfather,

10:15

Henry I.

10:18

When Henry came to the English throne in 1100, he'd

10:21

drawn up a charter, a document

10:23

granting a list of rights and privileges

10:26

to his subjects. Henry

10:28

had basically promised not to hammer

10:30

his barons with new-fangled taxes,

10:33

to write off debts to the Crown and

10:36

to abolish evil customs, whatever

10:38

those might be. Langton

10:41

recommends the barons try to get something

10:43

like this out of John, so when

10:46

they arrive at the temple in January 1215,

10:50

that's what they ask for. The

10:52

trouble is, John isn't interested.

10:55

His back may be up against the wall,

10:58

but there's no way he's going to sign up to anything

11:01

that will prevent him from raising taxes

11:03

and governing the way he wants to. That

11:06

may sound pigheaded, but after

11:09

Bousvene, John is financially

11:11

in a double bind. He

11:13

agreed a peace deal with Philip Augustus

11:16

to avoid losing even more than he already

11:18

had, but Philip had

11:20

made him agree to pay 60,000 quid

11:23

for the privilege. That's

11:26

a debt John has to service if

11:28

he doesn't want very bad things

11:30

to happen. He needs

11:32

to start raking in more cash

11:35

soon, so he can't

11:37

and won't agree to the barons' demands

11:39

at the temple. He tells them

11:41

very vaguely that he's not going to agree

11:44

to this nonsense, that he needs time

11:46

to think, and that he'll come

11:48

back to them at Easter. The

11:51

meeting breaks up, with tempers

11:53

flaring. It

11:56

doesn't take a political genius to

11:58

work out that if there's no... peaceful settlement

12:01

on the table, John's English barons

12:04

are going to start kicking off. A

12:07

civil war could well be on the cards,

12:09

if John isn't prepared to play nice with his

12:11

barons, then he's going to have to

12:13

protect himself some other way. And

12:17

he only has until Easter to figure

12:19

out what that might be. Which

12:22

is why John decides to make those crusading

12:25

vows. It's an attempt

12:27

to get Pope Innocent on his side. At

12:31

the same time, he's also got builders

12:33

and engineers working on his most

12:36

important castles, improving

12:38

their defences. Down

12:40

at Cawth in Dorset, they're enlarging

12:43

the moat. In the Tower of London,

12:45

new defences are being erected. And

12:49

John's trying to use what little cash

12:51

is in his exhausted treasury to

12:53

hire foreign mercenaries to come to

12:56

England, in case he really does

12:58

need an army to save his bacon. None

13:03

of this looks like the actions of a king who's

13:05

really sorry for what he's done, ready

13:07

to own his mistakes and hoping

13:09

to turn over a new leaf. It

13:13

looks much more like a king who's going

13:15

to dig in his heels, throw up

13:17

the barricades and show his enemies

13:19

he isn't going down

13:21

without a feet.

13:34

This is a paid advertisement for better help

13:36

therapy. Do you ever feel

13:38

like your own mind is working against you?

13:41

Like you just need a good night's sleep

13:43

to be your best self the next day, and that's

13:46

when your brain decides to run through every

13:48

worry you've ever had. Or for

13:50

me, I know I feel better after

13:52

an hour in the gym, but getting the motivation

13:55

beforehand can feel impossible.

13:57

For those moments, therapy can help.

14:00

helps find out what's holding you back so

14:02

you can work with your brain instead of

14:04

against it.

14:05

If therapy sounds right for you, give

14:08

BetterHelp a try. It's entirely

14:10

online, designed to be convenient, flexible

14:13

and suited to your schedule. Just

14:15

fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with

14:17

a licensed therapist and switch therapists

14:20

any time for no additional charge. Make

14:23

your brain your friend with BetterHelp.

14:25

Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dan Zones

14:27

today to get 10% off your first month.

14:30

That's BetterHelpHELP.com

14:32

slash Dan Zones.

14:35

At Kroger, everyone wins when

14:37

it comes to saving big. Because

14:39

when you order online through the Kroger app,

14:41

you get the same great prices, deals

14:44

and rewards on pickup or delivery

14:47

that you do in store with no hidden

14:49

fees or markups. Best of all, you'll

14:51

know when items in your cart have a coupon, so

14:53

you never miss a deal. So whether you're a

14:55

delivery lover, maker, upper, or

14:58

you shop in store, no matter how you

15:00

shop, you'll always

15:01

save big at Kroger. Kroger,

15:03

fresh for everyone. Good

15:05

evening. This is Jonathan Van Ness

15:08

and this is Justin. I'm launching

15:10

a new series called Curious Now. Every

15:13

other week on Curious Now, we're covering

15:15

major news stories or stories that should

15:18

be major. Election, climate

15:20

change, LGBTQI plus rates.

15:23

I'm so excited to be bringing you my journalist

15:25

adjacent best. And best of all, getting

15:28

curious isn't going anywhere. Listen

15:30

to Curious Now every other Monday wherever

15:33

you get your podcast. And getting

15:35

curious every Wednesday as usual.

15:43

In the last

15:45

days of April 1215, William

15:48

Marshall rides to a tournament field

15:50

near Northampton. This

15:53

is a lovely time of year. Spring

15:55

has sprung. The countryside is

15:57

bursting into life. But

16:01

Marshall hasn't come to admire the scenery.

16:04

He certainly hasn't come to partake in any tournaments.

16:07

He's in his sixties now and those days

16:09

are behind him. He's

16:12

here with Stephen Langton, Archbishop

16:15

of Canterbury, to meet dozens

16:17

of barons and many more knights,

16:19

gathered in full armour. None

16:22

of them are exactly happy to see

16:24

him. Marshall

16:26

is here representing John, and

16:29

that's a problem in itself. Because

16:32

John was supposed to be here in person

16:35

a week ago to meet his angry

16:37

barons, but he never showed

16:39

up. He actually

16:42

received some good news. Innocent

16:45

III heard about his crusading

16:47

vow and sent letters telling

16:49

him that he's got his back 100% in

16:53

any argument John has with his subject.

16:57

If they give him any grief at all, they

16:59

can expect to be excommunicated by

17:02

the church. John

17:04

was pleased as punch with this. So

17:07

instead of travelling to Northampton, like

17:09

he promised, he's lying low at

17:12

Corth Castle, protected by

17:14

the newly deepened moat. He

17:17

sent Marshall to ask why the rebels don't

17:19

chill out a bit and think about whether they

17:21

really want not only to break the

17:23

law, but to have their souls condemned

17:26

to hell along the way. Now

17:29

the fact that Marshall is here representing

17:31

John, not teaming up with his

17:34

unhappy barons, might seem

17:36

surprising given their history. After

17:39

all, Marshall's spent much of John's

17:41

reign in self-imposed exile

17:43

in Ireland. But

17:46

night that he is, Marshall can never

17:48

stay away from the action for long. He

17:51

also can't, or won't, duck

17:54

what he considers his chivalrous duty.

17:58

Marshall reckons loyalty. is the

18:00

highest virtue a man can have. So

18:03

he's agreed to represent John no

18:05

matter how difficult the task. At

18:13

the tournament field, Marshall sees

18:15

for himself just how fed

18:17

up John's less than loyal subjects

18:20

have become. In response

18:22

to John taking his Crusader vows,

18:25

they've set themselves up as a sort of rival

18:27

Crusader organisation. They've

18:30

adopted the name the Army of God,

18:33

and they've elected as their leader the

18:35

mega-wealthy, extremely belligerent

18:37

Baron Robert Fitzwalter. Now

18:40

we've heard that name before. Fitzwalter

18:44

is one of the two barons who fled the

18:46

country when word spread of the

18:48

plot against John. He's

18:51

super aggressive. His official seal

18:53

shows him in full armour on horseback

18:56

about to slay a dragon with his sword. He's

18:59

also fed up with John for

19:01

his arbitrary taxation, his

19:04

tyrannical treatment of other barons, and,

19:07

if the rumour mill has it right, for

19:09

John's gross attempts to seduce

19:11

Fitzwalter's daughter. Marshall

19:14

isn't the kind to be scared of Fitzwalter.

19:17

He's gone toe to toe with plenty of guys

19:19

like this in his career and usually

19:21

come out on top. All

19:24

the same, he's got to be worried

19:26

on John's behalf when Fitzwalter

19:28

tells him what the Army of God wants.

19:32

They've drawn up a draft charter

19:35

which they want John to agree to.

19:37

Historians call it, fairly

19:39

unsexily, the Unknown Charter.

19:42

It's based on the old Coronation

19:45

Charter of Henry I, but it goes way,

19:47

way beyond that. It has

19:50

dozens of conditions. The

19:52

barons want John to swear to protect

19:55

the church, to limit by law the taxes

19:57

he can impose, and to cut down the

19:59

church. the limits of lands defined

20:01

as royal forest, where a special,

20:04

often very harsh code of so-called

20:06

forest law applies. I'll

20:09

tell you what that means in this week's subscriber

20:12

episode. They

20:14

also want John to promise he won't

20:16

make Englishmen fight anywhere overseas,

20:19

except Normandy and Brittany, and

20:22

to swear he won't arrest anyone without

20:24

due process of law, or commit

20:27

any unjust act. That

20:29

last line is almost hilarious.

20:31

John without the unjust act isn't

20:34

really John at all.

20:37

But the Barons are deadly serious. Fitzwalter

20:40

tells Marshall that if John doesn't agree

20:42

to all of this, or something very

20:44

much like it, then they're going to start

20:46

seizing his castles until he does.

20:49

In other words, give

20:51

Fitzwalter and his rebel allies

20:53

complete control of government policy

20:57

or its war. Marshall

21:00

and Langton listen to all this and take

21:02

several deep breaths. Then

21:04

they leave Fitzwalter and the army of God,

21:07

and travel back to Dorset to give

21:09

John the bad news. Not

21:12

surprisingly, John flies

21:15

into a rage.

21:16

Why among these unjust demands did the Barons

21:18

not ask for my kingdom too?

21:20

He rants. Their demands are vain

21:23

and visionary, and are unsupported

21:25

by any plea of reason whatever.

21:28

After quite a lot more neshing of his teeth,

21:31

he says that he will never grant

21:33

such liberties as would render me their

21:35

slave. After

21:37

a while, though, he calms down, and

21:39

says that maybe he'll agree to abolish

21:42

a few evil customs on the advice

21:44

of faithful men. In

21:46

other words, no one involved at the tournament field.

21:50

But that's a very long way from what

21:52

anyone needs to hear. And

21:55

in the end, events overtake John's

21:57

ranting and raving. On

22:01

May 5th, 1215, with John

22:04

still nowhere near Northampton, the

22:06

rebel barons in the army of God lose

22:08

their patience. They

22:11

meet again on the tournament field and

22:13

agree to renounce their obedience to the

22:15

king. They've

22:18

finally gone rogue. Fitzwalter

22:22

sends a messenger to find John and

22:25

tell him what they've decided. But

22:27

if anyone thinks it's going to shock John

22:29

into submission, they're all wrong.

22:33

When he gets the message from the army of God,

22:36

John takes stock for a moment. Then,

22:39

he issues two orders.

22:42

One is

22:45

basically a press relief. A public statement, saying

22:47

how sad he is that things have come to this. That

22:50

this is something the law will have

22:52

to deal with, and that the proper person to accept is wrong.

22:55

The proper person to oversee negotiations

22:58

is the pope.

23:00

The second, far less weaselly

23:02

in its words, is an order to the royal

23:04

sheriffs across the country. He

23:07

commands them to start confiscating all

23:09

the lands, castles and property

23:12

belonging to members of the army of

23:14

God. John's

23:17

talking peace, but in reality,

23:20

England is now at war. It's

23:24

a war that will cost some of its leading

23:27

figures their lives, bring the

23:29

country to the brink of collapse and foreign

23:31

conquest, and

23:34

produce one of the most famous documents

23:36

in world history. Magna

23:39

Carta Find

23:44

out how, next time, on

23:46

This is History. you