He went down in history - perhaps unfairly - as England’s most hated king, but now a historian from the University of Bristol has made an astonishing discovery about King John.
Dr Benjamin Pohl has left academics stunned by discovering a rare, original royal charter from the first few months of King John’s reign.
Everyone thought the document had been lost or destroyed centuries ago, but there it was, in the archives of the Ushaw College Library, which is managed by Durham University.
It had been there all this time, but it took the historian from Bristol to spot it, during his time as a Lendrum Visiting Fellow at the Residential Research Library.
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The document itself is a fairly mundane charter bestowing a couple of villages in East Anglia from one aristocrat to another.
But it’s what the list of witnesses to the charter tells historians which has got them so excited.
There had been a copy of the charter which was made centuries later - without this list - but the original was thought to be lost.
And the uncovered list shows that, on March 26 1200, as King John begins his first year as King of England, the rich and powerful barons from the north of England were falling over themselves to do business with him.
King John was in York holding court, and the charter reveals what historians are describing as a ‘who’s who’ of the people in charge at the time - and who had come along to declare loyalty to the new king.
“Discovering the original charter at Ushaw is extremely exciting, not least because it allows us to develop a fuller picture of the people who were present at York on 26 March 1200 and eager to do business with the new king,” said Dr Pohl.
“Medieval charters are important not just because of the legal acts they contain, but also for what they can tell us about the society and political culture at the time. Indeed, their issuing authorities, beneficiaries and witnesses provide a cross section of medieval England’s ruling elites,” he added.
“Our charter might best be described, therefore, as a kind of ‘who’s who’ of Northern England (and beyond) at the turn of the thirteenth century,” he added.
Professor David Cowling from Durham University, said the find was a ‘wonderful example’ of the benefits of getting visiting fellows in.
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“Discovering ancient documents like this gives us a fascinating new glimpse into the past,” he said.
“For one of our visiting fellows to identify an item from the collection as a previously-uncatalogued medieval royal charter is a wonderful example of the benefits and advances that can be made by working and exploring our archives together,” he added.
