John, pronounced the sentence of deposition against him.[1] In the face of this, John exacted of all the religious houses a declaration that what he had extorted from them by violence had been given by them freely. In 1213, the archbishop and bishops, with the concurrence of barons and people, promulgated the sentence of deposition, and the king of France was charged with its execution. Great military preparations were made for the purpose in France. John likewise collected numerous forces in Kent. Nevertheless he knew himself to be excommunicated and deposed, detested by his people, forsaken by his barons, except a few partisans, and threatened with invasion by a powerful enemy. In this strait two Templars found him at Dover, and told him that a way of escape was yet open; that they were sent by Pandulph, who was on the coast of France, to propose an interview; that if he would submit and obey the Church, all might yet be averted. If not, they said the king of France was at hand, with the exiled bishops and laymen of England; and that the king of France had letters from nearly all of the nobles of England, binding themselves by fidelity to him.[2]
Matthew Paris gives the following account of these events: —
- When the king had heard these things he was humbled, though against his will, and perturbed in mind, seeing that the peril of confusion hung over him on every side. Sunk therefore in despair, he acquiesced, whether he would or no, in the persuasions of Pandulph, and made his peace in a form shameful to himself. ... The sum of which is that the king, laying aside rancour against every one, would recall all whom he had proscribed, and gave indemnity for all offences and losses.[3]
At another interview at Dover, on May 15, 1213, John resigned his crown to the pontiff, as a feudatory to the Holy See. At Michaelmas following, in the cathedral church of St. Paul, London, John renewed his submission to Nicholas, cardinal bishop of Tusculum. The words in which this act was done are as follows: —
- We will that it be known, that since we have in many things offended God, and our Holy Mother the Church, and therefore have great need of divine mercy, and have nothing that we can worthily offer in satisfaction to God and the Church, but ourselves and our kingdom:
- We therefore being willing to humble ourselves for His sake (who for us humbled Himself even unto death), the grace of the Holy Ghost moving us, being neither led by force, nor constrained by fear, but by our free good will, and by the common counsel of our barons, we offer, and freely grant, to God, and the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to the Holy Roman Church ... the kingdom of England and Ireland, etc.[4]
Lingard not unreasonably calls this "a disgraceful act." [5] It was certainly disgraceful to John, for in doing it he was insincere. It was a bid for the help of the pope against the barons. They had invoked the authority of the pope against him; but he, by making the pope his feudal suzerain, endeavoured to protect himself against them. By the same act he thought to defeat also the hopes of the king of France. It was an act of cunning, simply out of interest and fear. In this sense it may well be called a disgraceful act. But was vassalage or feudal dependence upon the head of the Christian world a disgrace to kings? If so, John was not alone in his shame. It was the condition of most of the princes of Christendom. Nay, they were vassals one to another. The king of Scotland was vassal to the king of England; and the king of England was vassal to the king of France. Both were often seen in public on their knees, swearing fealty, and doing homage to their feudal lord. John was present when William of Scotland subjected his crown to the king of England; and nine years before, Peter of Arragon voluntarily made himself vassal of Innocent III., binding himself to pay yearly 250 ounces of gold to the Holy See. John's own father, Henry, was feudatory of Pope Alexander III. Henry II. acknowledges this in a letter written to the pope, preserved by Peter of Blois, his own secretary. In the year after his absolution, he wrote thus: — "Vestræ jurisdictionis est regnum Angliæ, et quantum ad feudatarii juris obligationem vobis duntaxat obnoxius teneor et astringor."[6] Richard, John's brother, resigned his crown to the emperor of Germany, and held it on the payment of a yearly rent. John simply did what all these had done before him. But the sting to Englishmen is that the king of England became vassal to an Italian priest. And the nursery tales which pass for history in England have concealed the fact that the whole of the Christian empire of Europe was
