Description
Book SynopsisA study of the personal religion of King John, presenting a more complex picture of his actions and attitude. King John has been perceived as one of England's most notorious monarchs. Medieval writers and later historians condemn him as a tyrant, seeing his long-running dispute with the church as evidence of a king who showed little regard for his faith. This book takes issue with orthodox opinion, arguing that in matters of religion, the critique obscures the evidence for a ruler who realized that outward manifestations of faith were an important part of kingship. It demonstrates that John maintained chapels and chaplains, prayed at shrines of the saints, kept his own collection of holy relics, endowed masses, founded and supported religious houses, and fed the poor - providing for his soul and emphasising his aura of authority. In these areas, he ranks alongside many other medieval rulers. The book also presents a major reassessment of the king's dispute with the church, when England was subject to a generalinterdict, and the king was excommunicate, the severest sanctions the medieval church could impose. It reveals the lasting damage to the king's reputation, but also shows how royal religious activity continued whilst king and pope were at loggerheads. Furthermore, despite his vilification since his death, there were those prepared to honour John's memory, during the medieval period and beyond.
Trade ReviewWhen one digs deeper the caricature of John the Monster dissolves into a much more nuanced picture of John the human. * HISTORY *
This is an excellent book. It makes an important contribution to a dynamic field of research and is both scholarly and accessible. Happily, the book is also well written and readable, and is to be thoroughly recommended. * NOTTINGHAM MEDIEVAL STUDIES *
Will indeed prove useful to those studying the Angevin kings. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *
Webster's thorough, judicious, and carefully argued study does a fine job of looking past the intensely negative spin of John's contemporaries and showing us a man who, whatever his unknowable internal beliefs may have been, conformed far more closely than previously appreciated to the expected religious practices of his day. * PARERGON *
Webster's book is likely to be the definitive work on King John's religion or irreligion for many years. His bibliography testifies to his knowledge of both primary and secondary sources, and his impressive notes refer to every charitable act of John. Anyone working on aspects of John's relations with the church will turn first to this book. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *
Never before has the evidence for John's relationship with the church and religion been so comprehensively mined, and the case for his defence so extensively put. * SEHEPUNKTE *
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Mass The Saints Powerhouses of Prayer Family Charity and Almsgiving Religion, Politics, and Reputation: The Interdict and King John's Excommunication Peace with the Pope: Diplomacy, Personal Religion, and Civil War King John's Deathbed and Beyond Conclusion Bibliography
