
King John
Treachery and Tyranny in Medieval England: The Road to Magna Carta
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Narrated by:
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Ralph Lister
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By:
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Marc Morris
King John is familiar to everyone as the villain from the tales of Robin Hood - greedy, cowardly, despicable, and cruel. But who was the man behind the legend? Was he a monster or a capable ruler cursed by bad luck? In this new book, best-selling historian Marc Morris draws on contemporary chronicles and the king's own letters to bring the real King 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. His rise to power involved treachery, rebellion, and murder. His reign saw oppression on an almost unprecedented scale: former friends hounded into exile and oblivion; Wales, Scotland, and Ireland invaded; and the greatest level of financial exploitation since the Norman Conquest. John's tyrannical rule climaxed in conspiracy and revolt, and his leading subjects famously forced him to issue Magna Carta, a document binding him and his successors to behave better in future.
©2015 Marc Morris (P)2015 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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Very good indeed.
Not The King John from Robin Hood
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Informative, not entertaining
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Outstanding narration makes it compelling
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Loved it
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A solid account.
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Excellent book
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The biased King John
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Illuminating and intelligent
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How did this happen in only 17 years? Personality and character played a great deal in this decline. John was devious, but not so devious as to be cleaver to overcome the obstacles he faced. He was also easily manipulated by the vastly smarter foreign rival Philip Augustus, who whittled away at the empire that John was ultimately unable to hold onto. Some things never change! In the end, John’s profound cruelty and lack of impulse control were his undoing, with Magna Carta, intended to limit tyranny by the monarch, his signature accomplishment.
Marc Morris has done an exceptional job in reproducing the actions of a really evil man and monarch. I had a low opinion of John before I read this book, if anything reality was even more so.
A Medieval Narcissist
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Great Overview of King John
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