John's Loss Of Normandy

When John came to power in 1199, he was in control of a significant amount of land in France. Only five years later, in 1204, French King Philip Augustus had seized control of huge amounts of land, and John was now the first monarch in many years to have control of only England and Ireland. This huge change came about for many reasons and was influenced by a huge number of factors, but even today there is still much debate over how much responsibility can actually be placed on John.
One possible reason for John 's loss of Normandy was his lack of sufficient funds to fight effectively against Philip Augustus of France. In many ways, Philip Augustus was in a much superior financial position, giving John an obvious disadvantage; it has since been

One hugely important event that led to a huge loss of support from many of John 's important allies in Normandy was his marriage to Isabella of Angoulême in 1200. Isabelle was originally betrothed to be married to Hugh le Brun, who was a member of the prominent Lusignan family. Upon his marriage to Isabella, John upset much of the Lusigninan family, who complained that John had deprived them of the land that they would have obtained, had Hugh le Brun married Isabella of Angoulême. This was deemed unacceptable, and the Lusignans appealed to Philip Augustus, who ordered that John attend his court to discuss the situation. John refused and in April 1204, Philip Augustus began to prepare for more attacks on John 's land; it was decreed that John had defied a feudal superior, so was no longer entitled to his lands. John 's marriage to Isabella was highly controversial, and made John a great deal of enemies in France. For this reason, it could be argued that John was to blame for the loss of Normandy, due to the fact that he would have been fully aware of Isabella 's betrothal to Hugh le Brun, and had the chance, which he did not take, to resolve matters with Hugh by meeting with Philip Augustus. In fact, many historians may hold the view that John 's stubbornness and undiplomatic nature had a huge part to play in the loss of Normandy, and that 'John made errors in refusing to attend Philip 's court. ' (Dicken, Holland &

' (Warren 1997 pg 88).
Another event that could be seen to have weakened support for John was the death of his nephew Arthur. The cause of his nephew 's death in 1203 at the age of sixteen is still unknown, but it is sometimes believed that the responsibility for the death lies with John. There is evidence to suggest that Arthur 's death was linked to John, and it is plausible to consider John to be the at least in some way involved with his death. John and Arthur both had a claim to the throne, so it would have been advantageous for John to have his nephew killed. For this reason, many people, both at the time and in the present day, suspected that John was in some way responsible with the death of Arthur. As a result of this, many of John 's important allies became angry with John, and he lost vital support in France, especially amongst the Bretons. This could certainly be considered a reason for John 's loss of Normandy, and if it is the case that John was actually responsible for Arthur 's death, it could be argued that John was in some way to blame for the loss of Normandy. It has been suggested by modern historians that 'John 's biggest mistake was what he did with Arthur of