The Threat of France

The excommunication of King John and the Interdict of England by Pope Innocent III was not creating enough pressure on John to allow Stephen Langton to take his rightful place as Archbishop of Canterbury. Innocent prepared letters that are evidence that he might have been asking King Philip II of France to depose John.Perhaps John knew of this threat. Perhaps it was internal political pressure from the barons of England, but eventually John realized he needed to reconcile with the pope and lift the Interdict and excommunication. This meant, of course, accepting Langton as archbishop.In May 1213, John accepted the terms of reconciliation with the papal legate Pandulf Verraccio. It was Verraccio who had formally declared the writ of excommunication in John's presence. Now, in 1213, John formally handed all of England to the pope, and the pope returned it to John as a papal fief. (The illustration is by William Blake in 1797, showing John humbling himself before Pandulf.)There was more,…

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