The Life and Death of King John Quiz

Answer: Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor makes this statement as she offers the bastard Philip Faulconbridge a knighthood and change of name, recognizing the family resemblance to one of her sons (1.1.150). The historical Eleanor was first married to Louis VII of France, but he divorced her after disastrous events in war and on a crusade to the Holy Land drove him away from his powerful, vital wife into the arms of the church, especially since they had produced two daughters but no male heir. Eight weeks after her divorce thirty-year-old Eleanor married nineteen-year-old Henry of Anjou, who would become Henry II of England. With Henry, Eleanor gave birth to eight children, including Richard I and John, who became kings of England.

Another son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, was the father of Arthur, who appears as a character in Shakespeare's "The Life and Death of King John"; one of her daughters, Queen Eleanor of Castile, was the mother of Blanche, another character in the play.

Answer: "Sir Richard, and Plantagenet"

The "Bastard" is confirmed by his mother to be the child of Eleanor's son and John's older brother Richard I, Coeur de Lion (Richard the Lion-hearted). Eleanor is quick to accept him, saying, "I am thy grandam, Richard. Call me so" (1.1.168). Because he is not a legitimate son, the "Bastard" poses no danger to John's claim to the throne of England.

A character seemingly invented by Shakespeare, Philip/Richard is free to speak his mind and to act the fool, while serving as a character with whom the audience can identify (like a cross between Horatio in "Hamlet" and Falstaff in the "Henry IV" plays).

While scholarship since the middle of the 20th century has speculated that Richard preferred men to women sexually, it has been pointed out in recent biographies that he actually had a reputation as a womanizer and had at least one acknowledged son outside of marriage, although he left no legal heir.

Answer: Arthur of Brittany

Richard I had named Arthur of Brittany, son of his dead brother Geoffrey, as his heir several times during his reign, but on his deathbed, Richard changed his will in favor of his youngest and only surviving brother John, perhaps at the urging of their mother Eleanor of Aquitaine.

The historical Arthur comes across as bolder and more belligerent and independent than the sweet, self-effacing Arthur in Shakespeare's play. Because Geoffrey was older than John, the rules of primogeniture would have dictated that Geoffrey's son Arthur be next in line for the throne, but customs of succession were still unclear in 1199, when Richard died.

Answer: Constance

The name "Constance" comes from the same Latin roots as the adjective "constant" - a synonym of "steadfast" or even of "faithful and true" (the name of one of the best little teams on Fun Trivia). Constance is distraught because her son has been treated badly by his family, although she may be using him as a pawn herself, forging an alliance with the rulers of France and Austria to wrest lands and titles away from Arthur's uncle. Eleanor (since it takes one to know one) accuses Constance of seeking power through her son. (Eleanor and Constance also accuse each other of being the mothers of bastard children.) While her speeches may have been too melodramatic and "hysterical" for 20th century tastes (explaining why most of us have never read this play or seen it performed), the role of Constance was considered a plum for 19th century actresses, and "King John" may be coming back into popularity in the 21st century.

Answer: Lewis the Dauphin and Blanche of Spain

Shakespeare spells the name of the Dauphin (heir to the French throne) in the English fashion - "Lewis" rather than the French "Louis" - and calls King John's niece "Blanche of Spain" rather than "Blanche of Castile" as she would have been known in her time. Blanche was the daughter of John's sister Eleanor (named for her mother, Eleanor of Aquitane, also John's mother, who is the Eleanor in this play). Got that? Blanche's father was Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, a region of Spain by Shakespeare's time. Shakespeare has compressed many events that actually occurred over a longer period of time.

In reality, Eleanor of Aquitane made a special trip to Spain to accompany one of her granddaughters to marry Louis; nobody really cared which girl was chosen, and at first it was supposed to be Blanche's older sister Urraca.

But "Grandam" Eleanor liked eleven-year-old Blanche's personality better and said that Urraca's name was unpronounceable, so she wouldn't do. The young Dauphin, the grandson of Eleanor's first husband but no close relation to her, was only twelve. (Both characters are portrayed as older in Shakespeare's play.) The marriage was not consummated for a few years. Eleanor was right about Blanche, though.

She was a dynamic, devout, capable, and sometimes overbearing woman both as consort to Louis VIII and queen mother to their son Louis IX, who became king at age twelve.

Answer: A lion skin

The Bastard, originally Philip Faulconbridge, is now called Richard, because he is the illegitimate son of King Richard I of England, called "Coeur de Lion" in French or "Lion-Hearted" in English. When he sees the lion skin being worn by his father's enemy, the Bastard takes it as an insult and singles out the Duke for ridicule. Lady Constance also taunts the Duke of Austria about the lion skin, saying he should be wearing a calfskin, instead (3.1.128-29), and the Bastard keeps it going.

The image of the lion symbolizes Richard and the ideal courage of the Plantagenets throughout the play, as in life, and the Bastard identifies with it from the beginning, excusing his mother's adultery by saying, "He that perforce robs lions of their hearts / May easily win a woman's" (1.1.268-69).

It is John's fatal flaw that he is unable to live up to this legendary ideal.

Answer: King John

Historically, Arthur's fate is unknown, but tales of evil King John embellished whatever did happen, one story being that John ordered that Arthur be blinded and castrated so that he could neither lead knights in battle nor sire a rival heir. The story that John's nobles refused to carry out the act is also in the folklore, and it was said that John became frustrated and killed the boy himself. Shakespeare modifies the story somewhat and depicts a King John who is ambivalent about doing harm to Arthur and is relieved when Hubert tells him he couldn't go through with it.

But by then Arthur is conveniently dead.

Answer: Pope Innocent III

While the Papal Legate Cardinal Pandulph may be a fictional character, the excommunication and the warrant for the dethronement and death of King John is historical, happening for the reasons given in the play (3.1.141-179). John had appointed his own choice for Archbishop of Canterbury, counter to the person elected by the monks at Canterbury; Pope Innocent III exercised his considerable power to reject both of their candidates, insisting on his own man, Stephen Langton, whom John in turn refused to allow into England. Like his father Henry II in his dealings with Thomas a Becket, John locked horns with the church about the limits of authority between church and state, and the actions on both sides escalated. Pope Innocent not only put a curse on John but claimed that John's lands now belonged to the Church, and that the pope was now John's feudal lord.

As in the play, the historical John was forced to bend to the Pope's spiritual and political authority. So in Act 5 of Shakespeare's play we see John humbly turning his crown over to the papal legate so that he can receive it again in a second coronation.

Answer: King John

The full title of the play "The Life and Death of King John" is appropriate, since it ends with John's death. Most historians do not think that John was poisoned by a monk, as Shakespeare has it in the play, but that he was already ill, then consumed too much of the fruit and cider the monks of the Cistercian Abbey at Swineshead served him. John didn't die in the orchard of the abbey but in Newark Castle.

A BBC article relates that in Norfolk "a local Robin Hood story has Friar Tuck poisoning King John for the murder of Maid Marian"; other stories implicate Pope Innocent III or the Knights Templar, the darlings of medieval conspiracy theorists. King John's death in October 1216 is connected also to the loss of his crown jewels and other belongings (along with around 3,000 men) somewhere in or near the Wash, an inlet of the sea on the northeast coast of England between Norfolk and Lincolnshire, an event that has led to 700 years of speculation, folklore, and treasure hunting.

There are hints of this event at the end of Act 5, scene 6, when the Bastard laments, "half my power this night...are taken by the tide.

These Lincoln Washes have devoured them. Myself, well mounted, hardly have escaped." It is also noted that the Dauphin has lost a supply ship "on Goodwin Sands" (5.3.11), shoals which lie off the coast of Kent in the southeast part of England. The 1984 BBC production of "King John" catches the mood of the play's final scenes by showing the characters slogging miserably through pouring rain and mud.

Answer: Henry III

John's father and Prince Henry's grandfather was Henry II, and there have been eight kings of England named Henry. King John's death and Prince Henry's presence in England in 1216 may be the only reasons that the Dauphin, the future Louis VIII of France, did not become king of England.

As Shakespeare shows in his play, many of the most powerful barons had joined France against John, and the people were angry about John's high taxes and his feud with the pope that had taken away from them the solace and the rites of the church, consequently condemning them and their loved ones to hell. Cities and castles had opened their gates to the French Dauphin, and many English men and women welcomed him as a savior.

But young Henry represented new hope, especially with the backing of the barons, who thought they would be able to control him. (The signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 at the insistence of some of the same barons, arguably the most important event of King John's reign, doesn't even get a mention by Shakespeare in his play!) Eventually, Henry III came into conflict with the nobles, too, but limits on monarchy continued to be defined.

While representative government had been developing for centuries, the world "parliament" first appeared in writing in 1236, in a document signed by Henry III.