King John

King John is perhaps the most notorious monarch in English history—the "bad king" of Robin Hood lore and the man forced to sign away his absolute power at Runnymede. In this definitive biography, acclaimed historian Marc Morris strips away the legend to reveal the man behind the myth.

John was a ruler of extraordinary complexity: hardworking and administratively brilliant, yet pathologically suspicious and prone to fits of lethal cruelty. Morris meticulously traces John’s reign through his bitter struggles with the Church, his disastrous loss of the Angevin Empire in France, and the simmering baronial rebellion that eventually birthed the Magna Carta.

This isn't just a dry historical record; it’s a gripping narrative of a kingdom pushed to its breaking point by a man who was his own worst enemy.