John

The youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, John was nicknamed "Lackland" in his youth because, unlike his brothers, he received no continental inheritance. His father made him Lord of Ireland, and during Richard I's captivity in Germany he conspired unsuccessfully with Philip II of France. He nevertheless succeeded Richard in 1199, his claim preferred over that of his nephew Arthur of Brittany, whom Philip II initially supported.

John's second marriage, to Isabella of Angoulême in 1200, antagonised the Lusignan family, whose appeal to Philip II as overlord gave the French king grounds to declare John's continental fiefs forfeit. In the war that followed, Normandy, Anjou, and most of the other Angevin lands fell to Philip by 1204, a loss that reshaped the English monarchy and dominated John's policy thereafter. His efforts to fund their recovery through heavy taxation and exploitation of feudal rights generated lasting resentment among the barons.

A disputed election to the see of Canterbury brought John into conflict with Pope Innocent III, who placed England under interdict in 1208 and excommunicated the king. John submitted in 1213, accepting Stephen Langton as archbishop and surrendering the kingdom to the papacy to receive it back as a fief. His great continental coalition against Philip II collapsed when his allies were defeated at Bouvines in 1214, ending hopes of recovering Normandy.

Baronial opposition then turned to open revolt, and in June 1215 John sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede, a charter limiting arbitrary royal action. The pope annulled the charter at John's request, and civil war resumed; the rebels offered the throne to Prince Louis of France, son of Philip II, whose wife Blanche of Castile was John's niece, a granddaughter of Henry II through Eleanor, queen of Castile. With Louis holding London and much of the south-east, John died at Newark in October 1216. The throne passed to his nine-year-old son Henry III, under whose regents the reissued Magna Carta and victory over Louis's party ended the war. John's daughter Joan later married Alexander II of Scotland, continuing the dynasty's ties to its northern neighbour.