The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The king who came a cropper in The Wash
On the 800th anniversary of King John’s death, Chris Leadbeater visits the final refuges of a flawed English monarch
It had not been going well. In truth, it had been a dreadful 16-year reign, defined by the loss of Normandy and other English possessions on (what is now) French soil – and by the total collapse of relations between monarch and nobility. Even Magna Carta – since saluted as a fine achievement of the age, a first fire of democracy – was little more than a sticking plaster meant to keep throne and aristocracy from hacking at each other’s throats.
But even by the low standards of the medieval era, King John’s final days were tawdry. At civil war with the lords of his realm, desperately ill, and in financial woe, the ruler who had succeeded the iconic Richard the Lionheart would leave the stage in pain and shame.
And yet, this month, as these events reach their 800th anniversaries, they are being revisited. Opinion has relegated John (not without justification) to a villainous figure on the fringes of the Robin Hood legends. But his demise is a tale worth retelling. And it can make for a journey through some of the most pristine areas of England’s landscape.
Which is why I find myself in King’s Lynn on a rainy autumn morning. Eight centuries ago, John was here, too. By October 1216, he was beset by enemies in Lincolnshire and Norfolk, but had paused in a place where he was enduringly popular. In 1204, he had granted this town on the River Great Ouse a charter which would Essentials Visit Stories of Lynn (01553 774 297; kingslynn townhall.com/ stories oflynn). Daily 10am-4pm; £5. Newark Castle (01636 655755; palacenewark. com). Tours on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 11am; £5. King John exhibition same days, 10am2pm; free. Worcester Cathedral (01905 732900; worcester cathedral.co.uk). Daily 7.30am6pm; free. Tickets for King John from £12.50 (01905 611427; worcester live. co.uk).
Stay at Bank House Hotel, King’s Staithe Square, King’s Lynn (01553 660492; telegraph.co.uk/ tt-bankhousehotel). Double rooms from £110. Huntlands Farm bed & breakfast, Whitbourne near Worcester (01886 821955; telegraph.co.uk/ tt-huntlandsfarm). Double rooms from £70.
Useful websites visitwestnorfolk. com; experience nottinghamshire. com; visit worcestershire. org; visitengland. com