Predecessor Richard I Successor Henry III

Father Henry II Mother Eleanor of Aquitaine Royal house House of Plantagenet

John deer hunting, from a manuscript in the British Library .

1215 – signed the Magna Carta

October, 19 1215 – died John's tomb effigy King John's tomb in Worcester Cathedral.

King John's reign has been traditionally characterised as one of the most disastrous in English history: it began with defeats—he lost Normandy to Philip Augustus of France in his first five years on the throne—and ended with England torn by civil war (The First Barons' War), the Crown Jewels lost and himself on the verge of being forced out of power.