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The Life and Death of King John (alsoKing John), byWilliam Shakespeare, is ahistory play about the reign ofJohn, King of England (r. 1199–1216), the son ofHenry II andEleanor of Aquitaine, and the father ofHenry III.King John was written in the mid-1590s but published in 1623 in theFirst Folio of Shakespeare's works.[1]
| PLANTAGENET | CAPET | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Henry II K.England 1154–89 | Eleanor of Aquitaine | Louis VII K.France 1137–80 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Richard I K.England 1189–99 | Geoffrey | Lady Constance | KING JOHN K.England 1199–1216 | Eleanor Queen of Castile | Philip II K.France 1180–1223 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Philip Faulconbridge (‘The Bastard’) | Arthur | Henry III (‘Prince Henry’) K.England 1216–72 | Blanche of Castile | Louis VIII (‘The Dauphin’) K.France 1223–26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
King John receives an ambassador from France who demands with a threat of war that he renounce his throne in favour of his nephew, Arthur, whom the French King Philip believes to be the rightful heir to the throne underprimogeniture.
John adjudicates an inheritance dispute between Robert Faulconbridge and his older brotherPhilip, whom Robert accuses ofillegitimacy. QueenEleanor of Aquitaine, the mother to King John, notes that Philip looks very similar to her late son KingRichard the Lionheart. Queen Eleanor accordingly suggests that Philip renounce his claim to the Faulconbridge estates in exchange for a non-inheriting position within theHouse of Plantagenet and aknighthood. After mocking Robert Faulconbridge's ugliness at length, Philip enthusiastically agrees and Queen Eleanor praises Philip as possessing "the very spirit of Plantagenet". King John knights Philip as Sir Richard the Plantagenet. Afterwards, learning Philip has renounced his inheritance, Lady Faulconbridge reluctantly confirms Queen Eleanor's suspicions about her son's secret parentage to him.
As part of his efforts to backregime change in theAngevin Empire, King Philip and his forces besiege the Angevin walled city ofAngers, threatening to put them to the sack unless the citizens accept Prince Arthur as their King. Philip is supported by the Duke of Austria, who is alleged to have killed Richard the Lionheart. The English Army arrives. Queen Eleanor then trades insults with Constance, Arthur's mother. Kings Philip and John argue their claims in front of Angers' citizens, but to no avail: their representative says that they will support the rightful king, whoever that turns out to be upon the battlefield.
The French and English armies clash, but no clear victor emerges. Each army dispatches a herald claiming victory, but Angers' citizens continue to refuse to recognize either claimant because neither army has proven victorious.
Philip the Bastard proposes that the armies of England and France unite against Angers. The citizens suggest an alternative proposal: that Philip's son, Louis the Lion, marry John's niece Blanche of Castile. The proposal would give John a stronger claim to the throne while Louis would gain territory for France. Though a furious Constance denounces King Philip for abandoning the claims of Prince Arthur, Louis and Blanche are married offstage.
Cardinal Pandolf arrives fromPope Innocent III bearing a formal accusation. As the latest salvo of theInvestiture Controversy, King John is blocking the Pope's chosen Archbishop,Stephen Langton, from theDiocese of Canterbury and has further imposedCaesaropapism upon theCatholic Church in England. John defies theHoly See and vows that "No Italian priest shall tithe or toll in our dominions", whereupon the Cardinal declares himexcommunicated and invokes thePapal deposing power to remove him as King. Pandolf demands that the French king renounce the new treaty, though Philip is hesitant, having just established familial ties to King John. Cardinal Pandolf points out that Philip's links to the Vatican are older and firmer.
Battle breaks out; the Duke of Austria is slain and beheaded by the Bastard in revenge for his father's death; and both Angers and Prince Arthur are captured by John's army. Queen Eleanor is left in charge of theAngevin Empire in France, while the Bastard is sent toextort funds from English monasteries. John secretly orders Hubert to kill Arthur. Pandolf informs Louis that he now has as strong a claim to the English throne as Arthur or John, and Louis agrees to invade England.
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Hubert is reluctant to blind and kill Prince Arthur and spares him in secret. TheEnglish nobility demand Arthur's release. John agrees, but Hubert then tells him that Arthur is dead. The nobles, believing the Prince was murdered by his own uncle, defect to Louis' side. Equally upsetting, and more heartbreaking to John, is the news of his mother's death, along with that of Lady Constance. The Bastard reports that the monasteries are unhappy about John's attempt to steal their lands and gold. Hubert has a furious argument with John, during which he reveals that Arthur is still alive. John, delighted, sends him to report the news to the nobles.
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Arthur dies after jumping from a castle wall during an escape attempt. The nobles find his body, believe he was murdered by John, and refuse to believe Hubert's entreaties. A defeated John surrenders his crown to Pandolf, who reverses John's excommunication and gives the crown back in return for the restored independence of the English Church from control by the State. John orders the Bastard, one of his few remaining loyal subjects, to lead the English army against the invading forces from France.
While the English nobility swears allegiance to Louis, Pandolf arrives and explains that John has renounced his claims of supreme authority over the English Church, but Prince Louis vows to continue his invasion anyway and seize the Crown of England for himself. Pandolf excommunicates the Prince and the Bastard arrives with an English army and also threatens Louis, but to no avail. TheFirst Barons' War breaks out with substantial losses on each side, including Louis' reinforcements, who are shipwrecked and drowned during the sea crossing. Many English nobles return to John's side after a dying French nobleman, Melun, warns them that Louis plans to kill them in apolitical purge after his victory.
John is poisoned offstage by a monk, whose loyalties and motivations are left unexplained. His nobles gather around him as he dies. The Bastard plans a second assault on Louis' forces, until he learns that Cardinal Pandolf has ended the invasion by forcing Louis to sign theTreaty of Lambeth. Starting with his cousin, Philip the Bastard, theEnglish nobility all swear allegiance to John's sonPrince Henry, who decrees that his father shall be buried inWorcester, as he himself had wished. Before the curtain falls, Philip the Bastard reflects:
King John is closely related to an anonymous history play,The Troublesome Reign of King John (c. 1589), the "masterly construction"[9] the infelicitous expression of which ledPeter Alexander to argue that Shakespeare's was the earlier play.[13]E. A. J. Honigmann elaborated these arguments, both in his preface to the secondArden edition ofKing John,[14] and in his 1982 monograph on Shakespeare's influence on his contemporaries.[15] The majority view, however, first advanced in a rebuttal of Honigmann's views byKenneth Muir,[16] holds that theTroublesome Reign antedatesKing John by a period of several years; and that the skilful plotting of theTroublesome Reign is neither unparalleled in the period, nor proof of Shakespeare's involvement.[17]
Shakespeare derived fromHolinshed's Chronicles certain verbal collocations and points of action.[e] Honigmann discerned in the play the influence ofJohn Foxe'sActs and Monuments,Matthew Paris'Historia Maior, and the LatinWakefield Chronicle,[19] but Muir demonstrated that this apparent influence could be explained by the priority of theTroublesome Reign, which contains similar or identical matter.[f]
The date of composition is unknown, but must lie somewhere between 1587, the year of publication of the second, revised edition ofHolinshed's Chronicles, upon which Shakespeare drew for this and other plays, and 1598, whenKing John was mentioned among Shakespeare's plays in thePalladis Tamia ofFrancis Meres.[21] The editors of the Oxford Shakespeare conclude from the play's incidence of rare vocabulary,[22] use of colloquialisms in verse,[23] pause patterns,[24] and infrequent rhyming that the play was composed in 1596, afterRichard II but beforeHenry IV, Part I.[25]
King John was first printed in 1623 as part of theFirst Folio. A play titledThe Troublesome Reign of King John attributed to Shakespeare first printed in 1591 exists, but modern scholars dismiss the attribution as extremely unlikely to be legitimate.[26]
King John is one of only two plays by Shakespeare that are entirely written in verse, the other beingRichard II.
The earliest documented performance dates from 1737, whenJohn Rich staged a production at theTheatre Royal, Drury Lane. In 1745, the year of theJacobite rebellion, competing productions were staged byColley Cibber atCovent Garden andDavid Garrick at Drury Lane.Charles Kemble's 1823 production made a serious effort at historical accuracy, inaugurating the 19th century tradition of striving for historical accuracy inShakespearean production. Other successful productions of the play were staged byWilliam Charles Macready (1842) andCharles Kean (1846). Twentieth century revivals includeRobert B. Mantell's 1915 production (the last production to be staged onBroadway) andPeter Brook's 1945 staging, featuringPaul Scofield as the Bastard.
In theVictorian era,King John was one of Shakespeare's most frequently staged plays, in part because its spectacle and pageantry were congenial to Victorian audiences.King John, however, has decreased in popularity: it is now one of Shakespeare's least-known plays and stagings of it are very rare.[27] It has been staged four times on Broadway, the last time in 1915.[28] It has also been staged five times from 1953 to 2014 at theStratford Shakespeare Festival.[29]
Herbert Beerbohm Tree made asilent film version in 1899 entitledKing John. It is a short film consisting of the King's death throes in Act V, Scene vii and is the earliest surviving film adaptation of a Shakespearean play.King John has been produced for television twice: in 1951 withDonald Wolfit and in 1984 withLeonard Rossiter as part of theBBC Television Shakespeare series of adaptations.[30]
George Orwell specifically praised the play in 1942 for its view of politics: "When I had read it as a boy it seemed to me archaic, something dug out of a history book and not having anything to do with our own time. Well, when I saw it acted, what with its intrigues and doublecrossings,non-aggression pacts,quislings, people changing sides in the middle of a battle, and what-not, it seemed to me extraordinarily up to date."
TheRoyal Shakespeare Company's 1974–5 production was heavily rewritten by directorJohn Barton, who included material fromThe Troublesome Reign of King John,John Bale'sKing Johan (thought to be Shakespeare's own sources) and other works.[31][32] It has also presented three productions ofKing John this century: in 2006 directed by Josie Rourke as part of their Complete Works Festival,[33] in 2012 directed by Maria Aberg who cast a woman, Pippa Nixon, in the role of the Bastard,[34].
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has staged the play several times, most recently in 2022 in a production with a cast including non-binary actors.[35][36]
TheChicago Shakespeare Theater onNavy Pier presented the play in its 1990-1991 season and again in 2003-2004.[37]
In 2008, theHudson Shakespeare Company of New Jersey producedKing John as part of their annualShakespeare in the Parks series. Director Tony White set the action in the medieval era but used a multi-ethnic and gender swapping cast.[38]
New York's Theater for a New Audience presented a "remarkable"in-the-round production in 2000, emphasising Faulconbridge's introduction to courtrealpolitik to develop the audience's own awareness of the characters' motives. The director wasKarin Coonrod.[39][40]
In 2012,Bard on the Beach[41] in Vancouver, British Columbia put on a production. It was also performed as part of the 2013 season at theUtah Shakespeare Festival, recipient of America's Outstanding Regional Theatre Tony Award (2000), presented by theAmerican Theatre Wing and theLeague of American Theatres and Producers.
The play was presented atShakespeare's Globe, directed byJames Dacre, as part of the summer season 2015 in the 800th anniversary year ofMagna Carta.[42] A co-production withRoyal & Derngate, this production also played inSalisbury Cathedral,Temple Church andThe Holy Sepulchre, Northampton.
TheRose Theatre,Kingston upon Thames, Surrey hostedSir Trevor Nunn's direction of the play during May and June 2016, in the quatercentenary year of Shakespeare's death and the 800th anniversary year of King John's death.
TheWorcester Repertory Company staged a production of the play (directed byBen Humphrey) in 2016 around the tomb of King John inWorcester Cathedral on the 800th anniversary of the king's death.[43] King John was played by Phil Leach.[43][failed verification]
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