Why was the death of King John so gruesome, not to mention smelly and what was found in King John’s coffin when it was opened in 1529 and 1797? In this Plantagenet documentary from History Calling, we look at the death of King John in 1216, at why many medieval chroniclers thought that he got what was coming to him, at what was buried in King John’s coffin along with him and what the inside of King John’s coffin looked like when he was disinterred in 1529 and 1797.
King John was the villain of the Robin Hood stories and has gone down in history as one of England’s worst Kings, a man hated during his lifetime and despised after his death, but what killed King John and was it truly a terrible death? In this video I use original sources including Roger of Wendover, Ralph Coggeshall, Matthew Paris and Valentine Green to reveal the misery of King John’s final days.
By 1216 King John had already been forced by his nobles to sign Magna Carta and was facing an invasion from the French Prince Louis who had been offered the throne of England by the English nobles after John failed to abide by the Great Charter’s clauses. In the course of fighting to regain control of his kingdom, he fell ill with dysentery on the night of 9-10 October 1216 in the town of King’s Lynn, possibly because of greed at the dinner table. What is dysentery though, I hear you ask and how could it kill a King? Put simply, it’s an infection in your bowels which causes diarrhoea with blood in it. Nowadays it can be treated, but in the 13th century it could and did kill. John’s final days were miserable. He lost his baggage train in the Wash including the English Crown Jewels before struggling on to Newark where he died on the night of 18-19 October aged about 49. You may also be wondering, where was King John buried? The answer is at Worcester Cathedral, as per his final instructions and in this video I’ll also reveal what he was wearing in his coffin and at what was found when he was dug up (twice).
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