Although Shakespeare was a genius, perhaps the greatest writer the world has ever seen, not everything he wrote was of equal value or quality. This is particularly true of the history play King John, which historically had quite a high reputation but has subsequently become almost completely ignored by stage producers and even Shakespeare aficionados rarely get around actually to reading it all the way through. This is partly because of the language and structure of the play and partly because of the somewhat unfortunate reputation of King John himself. John has become one of the undisputed villains of English history and is remembered, if at all, as the bad king who persecutes Robin Hood and his merry men and who lost the Crown in the Wash – literally, in fact, since the Wash is a stretch of the North Sea off the coast of Lincolnshire in which the ship carrying the Crown Jewels was lost. That was reputedly the last time the Crown of the land has ever travelled by sea.

John’s poor reputation is not entirely fair, even if it has not been helped by the widespread belief (among royalists, anyway) that the name is cursed and so there has never been and presumably never will be a John II. In truth, he suffers in comparison with his brother, Richard I or Richard Lionheart, who was a great military hero and conqueror of the Holy Land (not everybody sees it that way, of course) and remained in Central Europe as a hostage for a number of years. It is certainly possible to argue that Richard’s overseas adventures were not helpful to his country and required his brother John to collect unpopular taxes to support the military effort.

The play itself seems to reflect the situation in which the eponymous king found himself. The action concerns the machinations between the ruling elites of England and France, with other powers also represented, including the Pope (bearing in mind that England was a Catholic country prior to Henry VIII’s split from the papacy). John is challenged by the Bastard, Philip who turns out to be a son of the Lionheart. Allies are sought, wooed and lost and the principals are killed in the action – Philip falls off a castle (which has an obvious symbolism), while John is murdered by a disgruntled monk (likewise). The action, with its pageantry and intrigue among the great powers of the time, was popular in the centuries after it was written but the taste among more modern audiences has changed. Consequently, the play is regarded, if at all, as a fairly pointless exploration of the non-productive squabbling of aristocratic elites. Of course, this being Shakespeare, much of the language employed nevertheless rewards consideration but there are greater rewards to be had in the other plays.