His father jokingly called him Lackland, then John inherited everything and lost much of it
As Henry II's youngest son, John seemed destined for no real inheritance, so his father teased him with the nickname Lackland. Then his brothers died one after another, and in 1199 he became King of England. Within five years he had lost Normandy, and his barons would force Magna Carta upon him.
John was born around Christmas 1166 or 1167 to Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose combined lands, the Angevin Empire, stretched from England down the Atlantic coast of France. It was a fragile patchwork, much of it held as a vassal of the French king. As a baby he was sent with his sister Joan to Fontevrault Abbey, perhaps to steer him toward the Church, while his mother plotted against his father. Neither parent featured much in his early years.
When his older brothers rebelled with Eleanor's backing in 1173, John rode beside his father and became his favourite. Henry hunted down lands for him, often at others' expense, and made him Lord of Ireland at ten. Family feuding never stopped: in 1183, told to seize Aquitaine from his brother Richard, John marched south with Geoffrey in a war that ended in stalemate. While Richard was away on the Third Crusade, John tried and failed to rebel against his administrators, yet he still succeeded Richard in 1199.
Contemporaries described a short, barrel-chested man with dark red hair who loved backgammon, hunting, jewels and fine clothes, and unusually kept a travelling library. He could be witty and generous, or jealous and furious, gnawing his fingers in rage. As king he lost most French lands to Philip II by 1204 and spent a decade raising money to win them back, a hope that died at Bouvines in 1214. A quarrel with Pope Innocent III brought his excommunication and a ban on church services across England. Magna Carta in 1215 was meant as a peace deal; neither side honoured it, and civil war followed until he died of dysentery in 1216.
Chroniclers condemned him and Victorian novelists cast him as the villain of Robin Hood tales. Modern historians paint a more mixed picture: a hard-working administrator and capable general whose legal reforms shaped English common law, but also a petty, spiteful and sometimes cruel ruler.
Source: John, King of England
