King John - Marc Morris
Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta
KORTE INHOUD
The brilliantly compelling new biography of the treacherous and tyrannical King John, published to coincide with the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. King John is familiar to everyone as the villain from the tales of Robin Hood âe" greedy, cowardly, despicable and cruel. But who was the man behind the legend? Was he truly a monster, or a capable ruler cursed by ill luck? In this book, bestselling historian Marc Morris draws on contemporary chronicles and the king's own letters to bring the real John vividly to life. John was dynamic, inventive and relentless, but also a figure with terrible flaws. In two interwoven stories, we see how he went from being a youngest son with limited prospects to the ruler of the greatest dominion in Europe, an empire that stretched from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees. We discover how, having lost most of his lands in France, he battled for the rest of his life to win them back. His rise to power involved treachery, rebellion and murder. His reign saw oppression on an almo...
