Peace with the Church, War with France

Throughout the period of interdict, although in theory an excommunicate, John was in regular contact with other European powers – the counts of Flanders and Toulouse, the kings of Aragon and Navarre, even the Almohad rulers of North Africa – bent upon launching a multi-pronged attack against Philip Augustus for the reconquest of the Plantagenet lands north of the Loire. In 1213, in what deserves to be remembered as the first great naval victory in English history, John’s galleys launched a lightening raid on the French fleet stationed off Damme, the port of the city of Bruges, putting paid to what were said to have been plans by Philip for an invasion of England. In the same year, John made his peace with the Church, recognizing Langton as archbishop, allowing the return of the exiled bishops and sending for a papal legate to assist in the settlement of differences. Financial compensation and a lifting of the Interdict were not forthcoming even then, and, in the final analysis, John repaid only a fraction of the money that he had milked from the Church. Nonetheless, with a papal legate to support him in England, John was now able to embark upon his long-anticipated campaign of reconquest in France. Two great armies were launched against Philip, one commanded by John moving northwards from Poitou, the other commanded by the German emperor and John’s illegitimate half-brother, William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, moving southwards from Flanders. The result was a catastrophe for King John. On Sunday, 27 July 1214, the northern army was destroyed by Philip at the Battle of Bouvines, as significant a date in the history of France as the day of Hastings had proved in England. John himself was brought to a stand-still in Poitou, from where he was forced to slink back ignominiously into England.

John already had an evil reputation as an adulterer, a murderer, a liar and a malicious persecutor of his foes. His murder of Arthur of Brittany and his supposed condemnation of women and children to death by starvation were now matched by failure in war as the very gravest of his crimes. In an age in which people believed that God’s support alone could secure military victory, failure in war could only be accounted a sign that a king had been abandoned by God. If God had abandoned him, then might not King John’s barons make common cause with the Almighty?