The Threat of France

The excommunication of King John and the Interdict of England by Pope Innocent III was not creating enough pressure on John to allow Stephen Langton to take his rightful place as Archbishop of Canterbury. Innocent prepared letters that are evidence that he might have been asking King Philip II of France to depose John.

Perhaps John knew of this threat. Perhaps it was internal political pressure from the barons of England, but eventually John realized he needed to reconcile with the pope and lift the Interdict and excommunication. This meant, of course, accepting Langton as archbishop.

In May 1213, John accepted the terms of reconciliation with the papal legate Pandulf Verraccio. It was Verraccio who had formally declared the writ of excommunication in John's presence. Now, in 1213, John formally handed all of England to the pope, and the pope returned it to John as a papal fief. (The illustration is by William Blake in 1797, showing John humbling himself before Pandulf.)

There was more, and the arrangement is recorded as the Bulla Aurea ("Golden Bull"; there is more than one agreement referred to by this title). It included annual tribute to the papacy from England of £700 (£500 from England, £200 from Ireland). He also had to compensate the Church for the revenues he had confiscated during the Interdict.

This meant that the pope was John's liege lord to whom he owed obedience. John went further than was probably necessary, but it would benefit him in the future. Now he had the pope behind him to prevent France from attacking. The pope would not allow another country to try to take over a country that was his. John had the pope's support for the rest of his reign (although that did not prevent the Barons' Wars).

But Langton was finally seated. Let's loom at the rest of his career, and whether he and John were able to put aside the past and work together for the good of England. Short answer to that question: yes. Longer answer: well, they may have had different ideas of what "good" for England meant.