Why Was Rochester Castle under Siege in 1215?

Daniel Nuttall 10NO

Why Was Rochester Castle under Siege in 1215

When king John first became king in 1199 he owned nearly as much land in France as he did in England. By 1204 john had lost much of his French territory, including Normandy. This was partly the fault of Richard the lionheart, who was the king before John. Richard had made his nobles in France angry because he took so much money from them and many of them were tired of being ruled by an English king. Some of these nobles thought that a man called Arthur of Brittany would be a better ruler or them than john.

The people in France who did not like the idea of john as their new ruler soon went to war against him. At first things went well for john in the struggle and he captured many of his enemies, including Arthur of Brittany. After the death of Arthur the war began to go badly for john. By 1204 he had abandoned Normandy and he was forced to flee back to England.

Like his father, Henry II, john spent a lot of his time arguing with the church leaders about how far the king should be able to tell the church what to do. It was unfortunate for john that the pope of the time, innocent III, was very strong-minded and thought that kings should do as he told them. When the archbishop Canterbury died in 1205, king john and the pop argued about who should get the job next. Both men were stubborn, and neither would give way. After three years of angry disagreement the pope decided to take action. In 1208 he ordered all the clergymen in England to stop work. The church strike went on from 1208 to 1213. In an age when nearly everybody believed in Christianity, and usually went to church, it was very upsetting for most people and that the churches were shut for over five years. John was not very religious and does not seem to have been very bothered about the closed churches. In the end he decided to make his peace with the pope only because he thought the pope might be able to help him in his fight with the barons.

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King john never really got over losing Normandy. He tried very hard to get back his lands, but by doing so he annoyed his great nobles or ‘barons’ back in England. He wanted to get more money from them to cross over the channel and help him personally in his wars. Most of the barons had no wish to part with more money or to fight in France but John raised the taxes so that John would get more money off them and in some cases if John didn’t like a certain baron he would tax him more for no reason. In 1205 john met with his barons and tried to get them to come and fight with him to regain his lands in France. After losing Normandy, john began to distrust his barons. He gave more and more important jobs to poor foreigners because he thought that they would be grateful to him and not let him down. The barons expected to get the best jobs, so this made them even more unhappy with john.

King john was blamed for the loss of land in France even though it was mainly Richard the lionhearts fault and he was made unpopular for this. When a war aroused between France and England he was made more unpopular because people had to go and fight in France. By now people didn’t like john so when the churches closed and john didn’t even try and get them open again people were furious at john. This was already enough and lots of people wanted john off the throne. The barons didn’t like him because they weren’t getting good jobs and poor foreigners were, the public didn’t like him because he lost a lot of land in France and because he at war with France.

John kept on trying to get back his lands in France all though his life. He tried o get as much money as possible from people in England, including the barons, to pay for armies. He charged heavy taxes. If he did not like a baron he would fine him, even if the baron had not broken any laws. When a baron took over from his father, he had to pay a special tax, called a ‘relief’. As a result of all these payments, many barons were in debt.

In 1215 many of the English barons rebelled against john. The king refused to pay, and they formed an army to fight the king. The rebel barons captured London and forced king john to sign a treaty in which he agreed to lots of their demands. This agreement was known as the Magna Carta. The agreement didn’t bring permanent peace. John was fighting again with the barons in 12216 when he died. John only signed the Magna Carta to give him a little space from the barons and time to think. He did not take the matter seriously.

The last two paragraphs really sum up why the barons hated john so much and why they rebelled against him until he died in 1216.

Because king john upset many people during his reign the custody of Rochester castle once more became a political issue when king john refused to accept the pope’s nomination of Simon Langton as archbishop. This was because Langton was not a royal supporter so he wouldn’t have supported the king, he also supported the barons and the king didn’t like the barons. This meant that the king didn’t like Langton either. John need the pope because this period of time was very religious so to be popular he needed to be on the pops side so eventually the king gave in and Langton was appointed and it is believed that he took custody of Rochester castle. King John didn’t like Langton taking Rochester castle because he was on the side of the barons who had already rebelled. As Rochester castle was a strategic position he didn’t want this to be a baron stronghold.

Before king john signed the Magna Carta there was a great unrest in the country. Many people did not believe that john could run the country. On the 25th of May 1215 king john asked that the castle be handed over to a royal constable and be returned to the archbishop only when the country was at peace again. On the 15th of June 1215, soon after the signing of the Magna Carta the castle was restored to Langton. But when the civil war broke out again the king told Langton to return to the original agreement and to transfer the castle to the bishop of Westminster, royal supporter. This time Langton refused to move out of the castle. Then the 2nd civil war started.

Why Was Rochester Castle under Siege in 1215?