John’s Final Campaign

THE Plantagenet Dynasty, which ruled England from 1154 to 1485, produced many great soldier kings, such as Richard I, Edward’s I and III and Henry’s IV and V.  John deserves to be included in this dazzling array of martial talent.  His misrepresentation in history is due to him displeasing those medieval spin-doctors, the monks.

John attempted to enforce his rule by negotiation, believing this to be less expensive than outright war.  His final campaign of 1215/16 proved him to the be military equal of all and superior to most Plantagenet kings, whose main hobbies were hunting and war.  John was an Angevin, that family that was traditional descended from the Devil, and show that he possessed that family’s demonic temper

and energy in a mid-winter campaign that carried him from one end of the country and back again.

He had negotiated with his barons for eighteen months. These lords were intent on preserving their own prerogatives against king, church and people.  Earlier kings, such as William I or Henry II would have crushed them at once.  John attempted to mediate, but had Magna Carta forced onto him.  This was not a Bill of Rights, but the Barons’ license to retain their own rights and privileges at all costs.

Eventually John’s patience snapped and he hit back.  He invested Rochester Castle, which fell on December 12, 1215.  Quickly converting his siege force into a field army, he north towards the heartland of the rebels, who had sworn allegiance to Alexander, King of Scotland.  John arrived at Durham on January 8, 1216, where he received intelligence that Alexander, having failed to take Norham Castle, had marched through Northumberland and was laying siege to Newcastle.  The King forced marched his army up the North Road towards a column of smoke as the rebels burnt the loyalist town of Newcastle.

Alexander withdrew and John, swearing that he would “ run that little sandy fox cub to earth” pursued him through Bedlington shire, capturing Mitford Castle, which had been alerted by the village church bells. Morpeth Castle immediately surrendered and John stormed Alnwick Castle on January 11.  The Scots and Northern Rebels adopted a scorched earth policy, which the king countered by driving cattle with his army and foraging widely.  Richard would not have thought of using this tactic.  The Royal Army took Berwick by storm on January 15 after a two-day siege.  John’s reestablishment of English Law was marred by the indiscipline of his mercenaries, who run amuck and slaughtered many of Berwick’s inhabitants after the fall of the town.

John used Berwick as a base and sent raiding parties deep into the Lothians.  Alexander stayed cowering in his bolthole as the king’s forces swept through the Lammermuir hills to burn Haddington and Dunbar and strike as north as the Firth of Fourth.  Deciding that he had avenged Newcastle sufficiently, John burnt Berwick on January 23 and marched south with a victorious but exhausted army.  He allowed his troops to rest for two days in Newcastle while he organised its rebuilding and presented the town with a Royal Charter.

Alexander’s attempt to add Northumberland to his kingdom and the Northern Barons’ dreams of semi-independence had been smashed in two weeks by this bustling little man.

Reaching St Albans at the end of February, John had led his army in a mid-winter campaign that had covered 700 miles, excluding diversions and raids. He had planned sieges and assaults, rewarded supporters, tried and punished rebels, granted charters and set up the machinery of government.  All this in the space of eleven weeks.

This campaign demonstrated all the Plantagenet’s fabled energy and stamped John’s military ability onto history’s pages.