Why Did the Baron Rebel Against King John

Why did the Barons rebel against King John?


In this essay I will clarify why I think the Barons rebelled against King John. First of all what does rebel mean? I think rebel means to have a strong protest that you believe in. Some of the causes go right back to the beginning of John’s reign and had been building up. However there were some other causes that essentially triggered the rebellion. I will consider both and give details why I think that King John ignoring the rules of the Magna Carta was the most important cause.
The most important reason why I think that the Barons rebelled was that King John didn’t follow the rules documented in the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was the first formal document stating that the King had to follow the laws of the land, and was not allowed to take people’s possessions or imprison people unfairly. Also individuals would be tried by a jury. I think the Barons rebelled because they had put a lot of effort in to writing the Magna Carta and tried to compromise with the king. Yet King John only sealed the Magna Carta to keep the peace between him and the Barons. The Magna Carta only lasted three months .The Baron were furious and this is why I think this was a short term and the trigger cause.
The second major reason the Barons rebelled against King John was because he raised taxes unreasonably. He charged widows £3000 for the right to stay unmarried and taxed one baron £6000 for land that was only earning £550 per year. The Barons were unhappy and angry as by 1213 he collected so many taxes that almost half of all the coins were his. This was a long term cause.
Another major reason was that John only listened to advice from a few favourite advisors. This showed that John was an arrogant leader as he was only willing to listen to people who agreed with him. Most of his advisors were not British, but instead foreign mercenaries. This would anger the Barons as the King would not be prepared to accept their ideas when making...