John Lackland

CHAPTER I

JOHN LACKLAND

1167–1189

.... Johan sanz Terre, Por qui il[1] ot tant noise e guere.

_Estoire de la Guerre Sainte_, vv. 101, 102.

[Sidenote: 1167]

The fifth son, the eighth and last child, of Henry II. of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine was born at Oxford, in the “King’s manor”--that is, the palace of Beaumont--on Christmas Eve 1167.[2] Of the...