KING JOHN

in full The Life And Death Of King John, chronicle play in five acts by William Shakespeare, produced in 159697 and published in the First Folio of 1623 from an authorial fair copy. The source of the play is a two-part drama generally known as The Troublesome Raigne of John King of England. This earlier play, first printed in 1591, was based on the chronicles of Raphael Holinshed and Edward Hall. Shakespeare made few changes to the plot in his version, but the dialogue and insights about the characters are all his own. The title figure provides the central focus of the play and is surrounded by many contrasting characterseach able to influence him, each bringing irresolvable and individual problems into dramatic focus. Chief among these characters are John's domineering mother, Queen Eleanor (formerly Eleanor of Aquitaine), and the Bastard, who supports the king and yet mocks all political and moral pretensions. As the play begins, King John, with the aid of his mother, has usurped the royal title of his nephew Arthur; the king of France, on threat of war, has demanded that Arthur be placed on the throne. Two brothers, Philip and Robert Faulconbridge, enter arguing over their inheritance. Eleanor recognizes the resemblance between Philip and her late son King Richard Coeur-de-lion. After Philip agrees to drop all claim to the Faulconbridge lands, his mother admits that he is, indeed, Richard's son. Thereafter, the Bastard, newly knighted as Sir Richard Plantagenet, becomes John's staunchest military commander in the war against France. As the fighting rages on, a compromise is arranged in which Lewis, the dauphin, heir to the French throne, marries John's niece Blanche. This expediency fails to end the war, however, with armies led by Eleanor and Arthur's combatant mother, Constance, at the forefront. Hubert de Burgh, ordered to kill the captive Arthur, spares the child, who dies in a tragic fall while trying to escape. With the deaths of Arthur, Eleanor, and Constance, the war becomes an exercise in futility, and John, increasingly weak and uncertain, grows ill. Only the Bastard fights on until news comes that John has been poisoned by a traitorous monk. After Prince Henry arrives to care for his dying father and accept his imminent accession to the throne, the Bastard at last accepts that peace is at hand and pledges fealty to the new king. king of England, Ireland, and various territories in France in Shakespeare's King John. At first John appears to be a vigorous ruler, but he soon proves to be unable to handle the political and military challenges he faces, and eventually he loses heart. Historically, King John lost most of England's lands in France and was later compelled by rebellious nobles to sign Magna Carta.