laim to independent rights; events
now happened that roused it into full life.

King John incurred the suspicion of having murdered Arthur, who had
fallen into his hands, to rid himself of his claims; he was accused of
it by the peers of France, and pronounced guilty; on which the
Plantagenet provinces which were fiefs of the French crown went over
to the King of France at the first attack. The English nobility would
at least not fight for a sovereign on whom such a heinous suspicion
lay: on another pretence it abandoned him.

But then broke out a new quarrel with the Church. The most powerful
pontiff that ever sat in the Roman See, Innocent III, thought good to
decide a disputed election at Canterbury by passing over both
candidates, including the King's, and caused the election of, or
rather himself named, one of his friends from the great school at
Paris, Stephen Langton. As King John did not acknowledge him, Innocent
laid England under an Interdict.

Alike careless and cruel, naturally hasty and untrustworthy, of
doubtful birthright, and now rejected by the Church, John must have
rather expected resistance than support from the great men of the
realm. He tried to assure himself of those he suspected by taking
hostages from their families; he confiscated the property of the
ecclesiastics who complied with the Pope's orders, and took it under
his own management; he employed every means which the still unlimited
extent of the supreme authority allowed, to obtain money and men;
powerfully and successfully he used the sword. But in the long run he
could not maintain himself by these means. When a revolt broke out in
Wales at the open instigation of the Pope, and the King's vassals were
summoned to put it down, even among them a general discontent was
perceptible; John had reason to dread that if he came near the enemy
with such an army he might be delivered into their hands or killed: he
did not venture to carry out the campaign. And meanwhile he saw
himself threatened from abroad also. King Philip Augustus of France
armed, to attack his old opponent at home (whom he had already driven
from in those provinces over which he himself was feudal sovereign),
and to carry out the Pope's excommunication against him. He boasted,
probably with good grounds, of having the English barons' letters and
seals, promising that they would join him. He would have restored all
the fugitives and exiles; the Church element would have rais