As the last play in our series, Power, Legitimacy, and the Silenced Woman, we’ll dive into The Life and Death of King John (also known simply as King John) by William Shakespeare — a rarely performed yet thrilling history play. We’ll journey into a treacherous landscape of ambition, betrayal, and bloodshed, where questions of rightful rule and national identity collide. Set amid the turbulent reign of King John of England (r. 1199–1216) — son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, father of Henry III — the play draws us into a world where crowns are won and lost through cunning, conflict, and the haunting silence of those left unheard. Hope you can make it!
Maryama Antoine
Synopsis
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 under primogeniture. John adjudicates an inheritance dispute between Robert Faulconbridge and his older brother Philip, whom Robert accuses of illegitimacy. Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, the mother to King John, notes that Philip looks very similar to her late son King Richard the Lionheart. Queen Eleanor accordingly suggests that Philip renounce his claim to the Faulconbridge estates in exchange for a non-inheriting position within the House of Plantagenet and a knighthood. 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. A 19th century drawing by Thomas Nast As part of his efforts to back regime change in the Angevin Empire, King Philip and his forces besiege the Angevin walled city of Angers, 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...
Sources:
King John is closely related to an anonymous history play, The Troublesome Reign of King John (c. 1589), the "masterly construction" the infelicitous expression of which led Peter Alexander to argue that Shakespeare's was the earlier play.
E. A. J. Honigmann elaborated these arguments, both in his preface to the second Arden edition of King John and in his 1982 monograph on Shakespeare's influence on his contemporaries.
The majority view, however, first advanced in a rebuttal of Honigmann's views by Kenneth Muir holds that the Troublesome Reign antedates King John by a period of several years; and that the skilful plotting of the Troublesome Reign is neither unparalleled in the period, nor proof of Shakespeare's involvement.
Shakespeare derived from Holinshed's Chronicles certain verbal collocations and points of action.
