Instead of keeping the promises he had made to William of Les Roches, John inflicted on his prisoners every humiliation he could think of. The noblest lords were packed ‘as though they were calves’ into ox carts and chained together, their faces to the beasts’ tails as an added refinement, and dragged in triumph through their own domains; to ride in a cart was the ultimate disgrace for any knight.
Hugh the Brown was confined in a prison in Normandy, but most of his companions were shipped to England to await ransom, where some are said to have been blinded. Probably at least twenty were deliberately starved to death at Corfe castle because they could not find the money to buy their freedom. But the one man whom the king should have kept in prison – Hugh the Brown, the leader of the Lusignan party – was allowed to ransom himself.
Beyond question, king John was fiendishly cruel and blood-thirsty. Quite apart from the prisoners of Cofre, he was to have all too many murders to his discredit. The barbarous massacre of 300 captives at Evreux has already been mentioned.
There is little evidence for the popular tale that in order to make a Jew of Bristol disgorge his gold he tortured him by pulling out several teeth a day, but the story has the stamp of John’s peculiar sense of humour. Half a dozen chroniclers bear witness to a much more horrifying crime. The wife of William of Braose – a once loyal supporter who eventually turned against the king – refused to hand over her children to John as hostages; when he caught Matilda of Braose, he deliberately starved her to death at Windsor with her elder son; their corpses were found after eleven days without food and it was seen that in her agony the mother had gnawed her own child’s cheeks.
John hanged twenty-eight Welsh boys who were hostages for their chieftain fathers’ good behaviour. He also hanged a man and his son for prophesying (wrongly) the date when the king’s reign would end. Many others met a violent death in his dungeons or simply disappeared.
Source:
Seward, Desmond. “The Murder of Arthur.” Eleanor of Aquitaine. New York: Times , 1979. 244-45. Print.
Further Reading:
John, King of England / Johan sanz Terre (John Lackland)
William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber
Maud de Braose, Lady of Bramber / Matilda de Braose / Moll Wallbee / Lady of La Haie
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