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King John is the sovereign ruler of England and the play’s titular character. John doesn’t change much in this play. Instead, his importance stems from the fact that he stands at the center of a major point of conflict related to the legitimacy of his claim to the throne. According to the rules of succession, John shouldn’t be king. Traditionally, the sons of a king are first in line for the throne, followed by the king’s next-oldest brother and his sons, followed by his second-oldest brother and his sons, and so on. When the previous king died, he entailed the throne to John, skipping over his middle brother, Geoffrey. Essentially, John has cut the line, which makes him vulnerable to the competing—and legally stronger—claim of Arthur, who is Geoffrey’s son. But though legal precedent gives Arthur the edge, there is also a question of overall fitness to rule. Arthur is depicted in this play as a young and inexperienced boy. Despite his sweet disposition and his “pretty” features, Arthur’s emotional immaturity and ignorance of politics clearly makes him unfit to rule. John, by contrast, is a resolute ruler with a strong grip on the scepter of power.
As with other self-interested kings who seem primarily interested in maintaining their power, John gets caught up in and ultimately brought down by his desire to stay on the throne. This desire leads to a series of mutually complicating events that unfold in a haphazard way and lead to his death. After engaging in battle with French forces to defend his claim, he forges an alliance with King Philip to establish peace between their kingdoms. But this peace is almost immediately dissolved when John, insisting on his sovereignty as king, rebukes an emissary from the pope. The emissary excommunicates him and pressures Philip into resuming his war on England. This is the first complicating event. The next one comes when the English forces capture Arthur, and John orders his execution. The events surrounding this plot point are complicated, but essentially John’s order to kill Arthur alienates his courtiers, who turn coat and pledge allegiance to the French. Meanwhile, John has also ransacked the coffers of England’s monasteries to pay for the war, which eventually inspires a vengeful monk to poison him. Though John’s death may be symbolically related to his own self-interest, he isn’t necessarily a bad king. Rather, historical events have simply conspired to lay him low.
