In the late 13th century, a rumor swept Britain that, according to historical records, showed that King John was killed not by his dysentery but by the poison of an assassin. Why did this alternate version of the king's death attract so much attention? How did King John die?
The king had a bad habit of demanding hostages from his nobility as a guarantee of their loyalty.In 1208, a noblewoman, Matilda de Briouze, refused to surrender her eldest son for fear that he would share the same fate as Arthur.Within two years, the family was completely destroyed.Matilda's husband was outlawed and sent into exile at the place of death.John arrested and imprisoned Matilda and her son and starved them to death.
Sitting over dinner at Swineshead Abbey, John asked a cautious monk for the price of a loaf of bread.More than half a penny was spoken, and the king smiled cheerfully."What a good value," she muttered."But if I live, in six months this same loaf will be 20 shillings. I swear.The monk was scared.John's words made no sense - or so, famine and hunger, the ruin of his people, the automobile was coming.He looked at the king and thought he would rather die than witness John's threat come true.The monk went to the high priest and confessed his sins.Then he went to the monastery garden and found the frog, the only source of poison he could think of.He dipped a brooch pin into the frog and collected the white liquid that oozed from his skin into a cup.Then he filled the glass with strong beer and took it to the king and presented him the old English toast: "sail!"John, suspicious of the usual, told the monk to drink first and did. This poison bufotoxin, produced by frogs without a known antidote, can either stop the heart or speed it up.It causes nausea, vomiting, seizures, pain and hallucinations, and death.The monk abandoned the king and went directly to the monastic infirmary.In great pain, John wanted to know where he was and received news that the monk had died.The king panicked and asked them to bind his swollen stomach.Hours later, he too died.The story of King John's untimely death was written towards the end of the 13th century, as described in the Brut Chronicle of British history.
As Brut's pages tell us, the king was remembered as a hated figure, a tyrant, a man who was made to seal the Magna Carta and then tried to cancel it, rejecting the British rights to old justice and law.
"King John was remembered as a hated figure, a tyrant, the man who had been made to seal Magna Carta and then tried to annul it"
But John's sudden death marked a turning point that made a dramatic change in the course of the civil war between the rebel barons and the king's supporters. Despaired by John, the men wanted to support the cause of their nine-year-old son Henry. And when Prince Louis's forces were defeated in the battle of Lincoln in 1217, Louis was paid to give up his claim and return to France.
The rebels pled allegiance to Henry III and were pardoned. Magna Carta was republished under the name of the new king and became an icon in British politics, republished many times by rebellious barons by Henry III and subsequent kings. It was a powerful symbol of the limits of royal power, the refusal of the English people to submit to tyranny.
Everything would have been different had it not been for John's death. The unnamed monk killed his king, saving England from the clutches of a tyrant and paving the way for a new settlement, a permanent letter in the balance of power between the king and his people. It was the act of a hero: boldly undertaken for greater good.
But John was not killed. It is true that he visited Swineshead Abbey on his last journey. However, he suffered from dysentery and fought until Newark, where he died on the night of October 18/19 after making a will and appointing a council to support his son Henry's claims. A historian writing at the time said that John made himself sick with his "pernicious gluttony". Others, writing in the next decade, declared John's death to be God's inevitable judgment over his sins. But they all agreed on one thing: King John died of dysentery in Newark.
And yet when the vivid story of John’s murder at the hands of the Swineshead monk appeared in the chronicles, perhaps 50 years later, it was suddenly everywhere - in histories written in Latin, French and English; in popular stories, poems and songs. One learned Latin historian in the 14th century said that, while John had died at Newark, “popular rumour” believed otherwise, and then he told the whole tale in detail. Even the historian who knew it to be false couldn’t resist it - and many others simply presented it as fact.
"When the vivid story of John’s murder at the hands of the Swineshead monk appeared in the chronicles, perhaps 50 years later, it was suddenly everywhere."
A sumptuously illustrated manuscript created towards the end of the 13th century, now in the British Library, depicts the kings of England from Edward the Confessor to Edward I. In its picture of John, the king stares suspiciously at the poisoned cup proffered by a nervous monk.
The murder of John became the defining event of his reign, which turned into an act of national liberation carried out by the just punishment of a tyrant and a patriotic subject.