King John (play)
Queen Eleanor accordingly suggests that Philip renounce his claim to the Faulconbridge estates in exchange for a non-inheriting position within the House of Plantagenet and a knighthood.
Afterwards, learning Philip has renounced his inheritance, Lady Faulconbridge reluctantly confirms Queen Eleanor's suspicions about her son's secret parentage to him.
The citizens suggest an alternative proposal: that Philip's son, Louis the Lion, marry John's niece Blanche of Castile.
Though a furious Constance denounces King Philip for abandoning the claims of Prince Arthur, Louis and Blanche are married offstage.
As the latest salvo of the Investiture Controversy, King John is blocking the Pope's chosen Archbishop, Stephen Langton, from the Diocese of Canterbury and has further imposed Caesaropapism upon the Catholic Church in England.
John defies the Holy See and vows that "No Italian priest shall tithe or toll in our dominions", whereupon the Cardinal declares him excommunicated and invokes the Papal deposing power to remove him as King.
Battle breaks out; the Duke of Austria is slain and beheaded by the Bastard in revenge for his father's death; and both Angers and Prince Arthur are captured by John's army.
The First Barons' War breaks out with substantial losses on each side, including Louis' reinforcements, who are shipwrecked and drowned during the sea crossing.
Many English nobles return to John's side after a dying French nobleman, Melun, warns them that Louis plans to kill them in a political purge after his victory.
Starting with his cousin, Philip the Bastard, the English nobility all swear allegiance to John's son Prince Henry, who decrees that his father shall be buried in Worcester, as he himself had wished.
[13] E. A. J. Honigmann elaborated these arguments, both in his preface to the second Arden edition of King John,[14] and in his 1982 monograph on Shakespeare's influence on his contemporaries.
The earliest documented performance dates from 1737, when John Rich staged a production at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
In 1745, the year of the Jacobite rebellion, competing productions were staged by Colley Cibber at Covent Garden and David Garrick at Drury Lane.
[30] George Orwell specifically praised the play in 1942 for its view of politics: "When I had read it as a boy it seemed to me archaic, something dug out of a history book and not having anything to do with our own time.
Well, when I saw it acted, what with its intrigues and doublecrossings, non-aggression pacts, quislings, people changing sides in the middle of a battle, and what-not, it seemed to me extraordinarily up to date."
[33][34] The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has staged the play several times, most recently in 2022 in a production with a cast of women and non-binary actors.
The play was presented at Shakespeare's Globe, directed by James Dacre, as part of the summer season 2015 in the 800th anniversary year of Magna Carta.
