When and how did King John get the name ‘Lackland’?
Elaine Pottie, by email
A As well as having a terrible reputation both for tyranny and extortion, King John ‘Lackland’ (reigned 1199–1216) has been denounced for military ineptitude: during his reign John lost Normandy to King Philip of France.
But the nickname ‘Lackland’ was not attached to John because of the lands he lost as king, but dated from his boyhood, and came from his closest family. The 12th-century chronicler William of Newburgh tells us that when John’s father, King Henry II (reigned 1154– 89), made his older sons, Geoffrey and Richard, dukes of Brittany and Aquitaine, he commented that his youngest son John would have to stay as Johannes sine terra, or ‘John lack-land’. Henry later tried to improve matters by making John Lord of Ireland, but the conquest of the island was piecemeal and vulnerable, and the unflattering soubriquet stuck.
French chroniclers took great pleasure in mocking Jean sans terre, and when his older brother Richard I, ‘the Lionheart’ was on the throne (1189–99), he famously damned John’s reputation by saying: “My brother is not a man to win land for himself if there is anyone to put up the merest show of resistance.”
As king, John gained an even worse nickname – Mollegladius, or ‘Softsword’, for his failures in fighting Philip of France. But ‘Lackland’ dogged him for most of his life.
Laura Ashe is associate professor of English at Worcester College, Oxford, and the author of Richard II (Allen Lane, 2016)