with the Pope. But although the English King's reign had
been full of unfortunate events, the last and most grievous
of his trials still awaited him, and "he was destined to
pass through a series of more humiliating circumstances than
had ever yet fallen to the lot of any other monarch."

Under the feudal law of William the Conqueror, the ancient
liberties of the Anglo-Saxons were greatly curtailed; in
fact, the whole English people were reduced to a state of
vassalage, which for the majority closely bordered upon
actual slavery. Even the proud Norman barons themselves
submitted to a kingly prerogative more absolute than was
usual in feudal governments. A charter of comparative
liberality had been granted by Henry I, renewed by Stephen,
and confirmed by Henry II, but had never, either in letter
or spirit, been made effective. And now came the great
crisis in which the matters at issue--first between the King
and his barons, but ultimately between the Grown and the
subjects at large--were to be adjusted. The event was
hastened by the exactions and impositions of John himself,
and by personal as well as official conduct which rendered
him odious to his people--these causes at length producing a
general combination against him.

The effect of John's lawless practices had already appeared in the
general demand made by the barons of a restoration of their
privileges; and after he had reconciled himself to the Pope, by
abandoning the independence of the kingdom, he appeared to all his
subjects in so mean a light that they universally thought they might
with safety and honor insist upon their pretensions.