King John in history

King John is one of England's most maligned kings and hated historical figures of all time. This perception has persevered nearly eight hundred years since the medieval king's death in 1216, with only a slight positive shift during the English Reformation. The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine exactly how John has been portrayed in those eight hundred years, the shifts his image and historical figure has made, and what type of person history has made John in the present day. Historical theory is then applied to these shifts to see why they occurred. Were they part of general historical trends in their respective periods or was John created in a unique set of circumstances during the historical process. Additionally, beyond examining historical sources, dramatic plays, novels, poetry, movies, and other fictional accounts that depict King John were reviewed for their own representations of John, showing them in comparison to the historical accounts. In the end, a conclusion is made that King John is an ambiguous historical figure at best, vile moral corrupter at worst, and remains one of history's most mysterious figures because of the controversy that surrounds nearly all the significant events of his life. Who John was is not the same as who John is, and in order to move forward in the construction of John's (or anyone else's) historical being, the researcher must be aware of all of his manifestations.