JOHN, King of England, surnamed Sansterre, or Lackland, common appellation of younger sons whose age prevented them from holding fiefs, was the youngest of the five sons of Henry II. by his queen Eleanor of Guienne, and was born in the King's Manor House at Oxford, 24th of December 1166. In his youth he was created by his father Earl of Montague in Normandy; and in 1176 he was contracted in marriage to Johanna, or Hadwisa, the youogcet daughter of William earl of Gloucester (son of the great Earl Robert, natural son of Henry L), who thereupon made Johanna his sole heir. The marriage was actually celebrated on the 29th of August 1189. Henry, having after his conquest of Ireland obtained a bull from the pope authorising him to invest any ono of his eons with the lordship of that country, conferred the dignity upon John in a great council held at Oxford in 1178. In March 1185 John went over to take into his own hands the government of his dominions ; but the insolent demeanour of the prince and his attendants so disgusted and irritated the Irish of all classes, that his father found it necessary to recal him in the following Decem ber. John however was his father's favourite son, in part perhaps from the circumstance that his youth had prevented him from joining in any of the repeated rebellions of his brothers ; and it is said, that a suspicion began to be at last entertained by Richard, when, of the five brothers, he and John alone survived, that Henry intended to settle the crown of England upon the latter. According to this story, it was chiefly to prevent such an arrangement that Richard, joining Philip of France, flew to arms in January 1189 ; but if so, it is difficult to account for the fact that John himself was found to be upon this occasion In confederacy with his elder brother, a discovery which was only made by their heart- broken father upon his deathbed. [HENRY II.] No opposition was offered by John to the accession of Richard, who endeavoured to attach him by the gift of such honours and possessions as amounted almost to sharing the kingdom with him. In addition to his Norman earldom of Montague, and that of Gloucester, which he acquired by his marriage, those of Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Not tingham, Derby, and Lancaster were bestowed upon him, so that there was thus placed under his immediate jurisdiction nearly a third of England. Richard however had not been long absent when his ambi
tious brother proceeded to take his measures for at least securing the crown to himself in case of the king's death, if not for an earlier seizure of it. The person next in the regular line of succession was Arthur, duke of Brittany, the son of John's elder brother Geoffrey, au infant of little more than two years old at the accession of Richard, who however recognised him as his heir, and had desired that his rights should be maintained by William de Longeharnp, the bishop of Ely, whom during his absence he left in charge of the government. John accordingly directed his first efforts to the removal of the bishop, which, having obtained the co-operation of a strong party of the barons, he at length accomplished by actual force, in October 1191. When the intelligence of Richard's captivity arrived in 1193, John at once openly took steps for the immediate usurpation of the throne. Repairing in haste to Paris, he secured the aid of Philip Augustus by the surrender of part of Normandy, and then, returning to England, proceeded to collect an army for the maintenance of his pretensions. In this attempt however he was successfully resisted by the loyal part of the nobility ; and he also failed in his endeavours to induce the emperor, by the promise of a large bribe, to retain his brother in prison. On the return of Richard to England, in March 1194, John's castles and estates were seized by the crown, and he aud his chief adviser, Hugh, bishop of Coventry, were charged with high treason. John fled to Normandy, whither he was followed by the king at the head of an army ; but the traitor made his peace by an abject submission, and, his mother seconding his supplications for pardon, he was allowed to retain his life and his liberty, and even restored to some measure of favour, though the restitution of his castles and territorial possessions was for a timo firmly refused. Even that however was at length granted to his importunities and those of his mother; and it is further said, that Richard, when on his deathbed, was induced to declare John his successor.