The Life and Death of King John

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1. ACT I.

   France demands John yield the crown to Arthur, and John defies the threat. A Faulconbridge inheritance quarrel ends with Philip choosing to be acknowledged as the bastard son of Richard the Lionheart.

   1. Scene 1 — Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace.

      At court, the French ambassador Chatillon demands that John surrender his crown to his nephew Arthur or face war, and John defies him. Then two brothers bring an inheritance dispute: Philip Faulconbridge gladly gives up his land to be acknowledged the natural son of Richard Coeur-de-lion, is knighted, and his mother confirms his royal paternity.

2. ACT II.

   Before the walls of Angiers the rival kings confront each other; the town refuses to choose between them; and a sudden marriage of the Dauphin to John's niece Blanch makes a peace that betrays Arthur's cause.

   1. Scene 1 — France. Before the walls of Angiers.

      The armies of England and France meet before Angiers, each backing its claimant while Constance pleads for her son Arthur and the Bastard taunts Austria. The citizens refuse to open their gates until the true king is known, so — at the Bastard's mocking suggestion and the townsmen's proposal — the kings make peace instead by marrying the Dauphin Louis to John's niece Blanch, abandoning Arthur.

3. ACT III.

   Constance rages at the betrayal; the Pope's legate excommunicates John and forces France to break the new peace; war resumes; the Bastard kills Austria; John takes Arthur prisoner and gives him to Hubert.

   1. Scene 1 — France. The FRENCH KING'S tent.

      Constance denounces France's broken faith. Cardinal Pandulph arrives from Rome, demands John accept the Pope's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury, and — when John defies the Pope as an 'Italian priest' — excommunicates him and pressures King Philip to break his fresh oath of peace and fight.

   2. Scene 2 — The same. Plains near Angiers

      In the renewed battle the Bastard kills the Archduke of Austria and takes his lion-skin, avenging his father, while King John captures the young Arthur.

   3. Scene 3 — The same.

      John sends the Bastard back to England to ransack the abbeys for money, and quietly hands the captive Arthur over to Hubert, hinting heavily that he wants the boy dead.

   4. Scene 4 — The same. The FRENCH KING's tent.

      Defeated, the French rage; Constance, half-mad with grief for her lost son, laments that 'grief fills the room up of my absent child.' Pandulph coolly predicts John will murder Arthur and persuades the Dauphin to invade England, claiming the throne through his new wife Blanch.

4. ACT IV.

   Hubert relents from blinding Arthur; the lords recoil at news of the boy's reported death and revolt; Arthur dies leaping from the wall; and the discovery of his body drives John's nobles to the French.

   1. Scene 1 — Northampton. A Room in the Castle.

      Hubert, ordered to burn out Arthur's eyes with hot irons, is talked out of it by the boy's innocent pleading and hides him alive, resolving to report him dead.

   2. Scene 2 — The same. A Room of State in the Palace.

      At his second coronation John faces his lords' demand that Arthur be freed; Hubert's report that the boy is dead horrifies them and they storm out. News floods in of his mother's and Constance's deaths and a French invasion; a prophet foretells John's downfall. John blames Hubert, who reveals that Arthur still lives.

   3. Scene 3 — The same. Before the castle.

      Arthur leaps from the castle wall to escape and is killed by the fall. Salisbury, Pembroke, and Bigot find the body, believe him murdered on John's order, and defect to the invading Dauphin; the Bastard, finding Hubert with the corpse, is left torn between suspicion and loyalty.

5. ACT V.

   John submits to Rome to call off the war, but the Dauphin presses on; a dying French lord turns the English rebels back; the invasion founders; and John, poisoned by a monk, dies as his son succeeds and the realm reunites.

   1. Scene 1 — Northampton. A Room in the Palace.

      To stop the war John submits to the Pope, surrendering and receiving back his crown from Pandulph, who promises to call off the French. The Bastard urges defiance of the invaders and is given command of England's defense.

   2. Scene 2 — Near Saint Edmunds-bury. The French Camp.

      In the Dauphin's camp the rebel English lords lament their treason; Pandulph tries to halt the invasion now that John has submitted, but Louis refuses to be cheated of his prize, and the Bastard arrives to defy him.

   3. Scene 3 — The same. The Field of Battle.

      The battle goes hard; King John, fallen sick, withdraws toward Swinstead Abbey.

   4. Scene 4 — The same. Another part of the same.

      The French lord Melun, mortally wounded, warns Salisbury and the English defectors that the Dauphin means to behead them after victory; horrified, they resolve to return to King John.

   5. Scene 5 — The same. The French camp.

      The Dauphin, expecting victory, learns that his supply fleet has been wrecked on the Goodwin Sands and that the English rebels have deserted him.

   6. Scene 6 — An open place in the neighborhood of Swinstead Abbey.

      In the dark the Bastard meets Hubert, who tells him that the king has been poisoned by a monk and that the returning lords now attend the dying John.

   7. Scene 7 — The orchard of Swinstead Abbey.

      In the abbey orchard John dies in agony of the poison; his son Prince Henry is hailed king. The Bastard learns half his force drowned in the tidal flats, but Pandulph has brokered peace and the lords have returned, and he closes the play declaring that England, true to itself, can never lie at a conqueror's feet.

Characters

• King John protagonist

  John, King of England, who holds the crown his young nephew Arthur claims by right. Defiant of the Pope, he is excommunicated, secretly orders Arthur's death, and dies poisoned by a monk as French invaders and his own rebel lords close in. A king whose title is strong in possession but weak in right.

• Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge) deuteragonist

  Philip Faulconbridge, acknowledged bastard son of Richard Coeur-de-lion, knighted as Sir Richard Plantagenet. Blunt, witty, and fiercely loyal, he is the play's choric conscience: his speeches on 'commodity' (self-interest) and his closing vow that England 'never did, nor never shall' lie at a conqueror's feet give the play its moral center.

• Constance major

  Mother of Arthur and widow of John's elder brother Geffrey, who presses her son's claim to the throne. Betrayed when France and England make peace at her expense, her towering grief ('Grief fills the room up of my absent child') is the emotional summit of the play.

• Arthur, Duke of Bretagne major

  John's young nephew, son of his elder brother Geffrey, and by primogeniture the rightful king. A gentle boy used as a pawn by the great powers; captured by John, he pleads Hubert out of blinding him, then dies leaping from the castle wall in a bid to escape.

• Hubert de Burgh major

  Chamberlain to King John, charged with putting out Arthur's eyes (later, his life). He relents at the boy's pleading and hides him alive, but is blamed when Arthur dies by accident. (Some editions identify him with the Citizen who speaks for Angiers from the walls; this text keeps them separate.)

• King Philip of France major

  Philip II, King of France, who champions Arthur's claim against John, then abandons it to make a marriage-peace, then breaks the peace under the Pope's pressure. Embodies the play's cynicism about royal 'commodity' over principle.

• Louis the Dauphin major

  The Dauphin (Lewis), son of King Philip, married to John's niece Blanch for the peace. Encouraged by Pandulph to invade England on a claim through his wife, he presses the war even after the Pope reverses course, until his supply fleet is wrecked and he sues for peace.

• Cardinal Pandulph major

  The Pope's legate, who excommunicates John for defying Rome over the see of Canterbury, presses France to break faith and make war, then — once John submits to the Pope — tries to call the invasion off. The play's master of casuistry, untangling and re-tying oaths to serve the Church.

• Queen Elinor supporting

  Eleanor of Aquitaine, John's formidable mother, who backs his title and despises Constance. Her death midway through the play removes John's strongest prop and hastens his decline.

• Earl of Salisbury supporting

  William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, an English lord who revolts against John over Arthur's death and joins the French invasion, then returns to his allegiance when Melun reveals the Dauphin's treachery.

• Earl of Pembroke supporting

  William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, an English noble who presses John to free Arthur and, on the boy's death, defects to the French before rejoining the king's party.

• Archduke of Austria supporting

  Limoges, Archduke of Austria, who killed Richard Coeur-de-lion and wears his lion-skin; ally of France and Arthur. Taunted throughout by the Bastard, he is killed by him, who takes back his father's spoil.

• Blanch of Spain supporting

  Blanch of Castile, John's niece, married to the Dauphin to seal the Anglo-French peace. On her wedding day the war reignites, and she is left torn between husband and kin.

• Prince Henry minor

  John's son, who attends his father's death and is hailed as King Henry III in the play's closing lines.

• Lord Bigot minor

  Robert Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, one of the English lords who revolts with Salisbury and Pembroke over Arthur's death.

• Chatillon minor

  Ambassador from France to King John, who delivers Philip's demand that John yield the crown to Arthur.

• Melun minor

  A French lord who, mortally wounded, warns the English defectors that the Dauphin means to have them killed after victory, turning them back to King John.

• Peter of Pomfret minor

  A prophet who foretells that John will give up his crown before the next Ascension Day; John has him hanged.

• Robert Faulconbridge minor

  The legitimate younger son of Sir Robert Faulconbridge, who disputes the Bastard's inheritance, claiming his elder brother is the bastard son of King Richard.

• Earl of Essex minor

  Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, Earl of Essex and Chief Justiciary, who brings the Faulconbridge inheritance dispute before the king.

• James Gurney minor

  Servant to Lady Faulconbridge.

• Lady Faulconbridge minor

  Mother of the Bastard and of Robert Faulconbridge, who confirms that the Bastard was indeed fathered by King Richard Coeur-de-lion.

• Citizen of Angiers minor

  A citizen who speaks for the besieged town of Angiers from its walls, refusing to open its gates until it knows which claimant is the true king, and proposing the marriage that briefly unites the crowns.

• French Herald minor

  Herald who summons Angiers to admit the French king as victor.

• English Herald minor

  Herald who summons Angiers to admit the English king as victor.

• Messenger minor

  Messengers who bring news of armies, deaths, and the French invasion.

• Attendant minor

  An attendant at court.

Cross-references

• Folger Shakespeare
• MIT plain text
• Wikipedia