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For a long time, school children have
learned that King John had to approve Magna Carta by attaching his
seal to it because he could not sign it, lacking the ability to read
or write.
King John had a large library he
treasured until the end of his life, this textbook inaccuracy
resembled that of textbooks which claimed that Christopher Columbus
wanted to prove the earth was round. Whether the original authors of
these errors knew better and oversimplified because they wrote for
children, or whether they had been misinformed themselves, is
unknown.
As a result of these writings,
generations of adults remembered mainly two things about "wicked
King John," both of them wrong. The other "fact" was that, if Robin
Hood had not stepped in, Prince John would have embezzled the money
raised to ransom King Richard.
The fact is that John did embezzle the
ransom money, by creating forged seals, and Robin Hood may or may
not have actually existed. In any case, the real life source for the
legend lived at least half a century before Richard was king.
King John
Magna Carter Born
Family Tree Reign
Illiteracy
Ireland Betrayal
Opposition
Excommunicate
Death
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