ABSTRACT
Few monarchs have been so reviled as John – the first, and the last, of that most common Christian name to rule England. John was born on Christmas Eve 1166, a hundred years, less a day, after his great-great-grandfather William the Conqueror had been crowned in Westminster Abbey. Perhaps the difference of their ages, or else the clash of two strong personalities, destroyed Henry and Eleanor’s marriage. It is one of the ironies of Anglo-Irish history that England’s involvement with Ireland began with a grant from the pope, albeit an English pope, Adrian IV. John sealed the charter neither because he recognized its constitutional significance, nor because he intended keeping its terms, but in order to avoid a confrontation. John’s reluctance to face problems appeared – particularly to those he let down – as untrustworthiness.
