Was King John A Tyrant

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King John is the dissolute ruler of medieval England in the year of 1215. He has proved to be one of the most troublesome kings, for he made many costly mistakes and used his royal power cruelly to take advantage of his leading barons. An unrelenting sexual predator for strategic ends, he targeted the wives and daughters of his leading barons. He had his nephew Arthur blinded, castrated and killed . King John was not also a successful tyrant, and he lost a lot of the Angevin land his father, Henry II, owned in France. John was able to repair his relationship with the Pope in 1213 from being excommunicated, his failed attempt to defeat Phillip II of France in 1214 and his unpopular fiscal strategies led to a baron’s rebellion in 1215. John had to raise taxes in result of his expensive foreign wars, but the rebel barons had enough and continued to scheme alongside with France to kill him. King John was forced agree with the Magna Carta, a document, that then became the Great Charter of Liberties. The Magna Carta allowed freemen to be equal under law. …show more content…
King John could no longer imprison his people without going through the legal process. All of the power is due rightfully to the state and not only to the King as described in the excerpt from the Magna Carta, “No freeman shall be taken or [and] imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we [attack] him nor send [people] to attack him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or [and] by the law of the land,”. This was fundamental in order to limit the King's control over the barons because the accused can now have a chance to go to trial. People could not be held imprisoned by the King without being judged by the accused’s peers or going against the