Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, Newark on Trent, North-Central England, British Isles [Map]

Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris. [15th October 1216] Nevertheless, at dawn he departed from there with difficulty, and went to lodge at the castle of Sleaford. There, being overcome by great bodily weakness, he came on the next day, carried on horseback, to the castle of Newark [Map].

Veruntamen summo inde diluculo, licet cum labore recedens, ad castellum de Laford hospitaturus perrexit. Ubi maxima corporis prægravatus molestia, in crastino vis ad castellum de Newerc equo vehente pervenit.

Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum. The King to the constable of Hertford, etc., greetings. We order you to cause Walter de Mungumi, knight of the Earl of Ferrers, to have seisin of his land in Hoddesdon, such as he held it before the war was begun between us, from which he was disseised on account of that war. Witness myself at Newark [Map], on the 17th day of October.

Rex Constabulo de Hertford tc. Mandam vob qd tale saisina hre faciatis Walto de Mungumi militi Comitis de Ferar de tra sua in Houdesdoni qualé inde huit ante guerram mota int nos [t unde occoe guerre fuit] disseisit. T. me ipo apd Newerk, xvij. die Oct.

Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum. The King to William, nephew of Warin, etc., greetings. We order you that you make yourself surety for one hundred pounds' worth of cloths, which our beloved and faithful Walter de Lacy will take on credit in the town of Lincoln, until the octave of Saint Andrew next to come, when he will pay his creditors for them. And if by that term he shall not have paid those one hundred pounds to them, then we will repay you from our merchandise which we are sending from Lynn to your town. Witness myself at Newark [Map], on the 17th day of October[1216].

Rex Witto nepoti Warin tc. Mandam vob qd centulib^atas pannoz quas dilcus t fidet nr Walter de Lascy capiet ad credencia in villa Linc manucapiatis usq, ad Octab SCi Andr instantis qui [tuc illas creditoribz suis psolvet t nisi ad] tminu illu illas centu lib^as eis solvit illas tuc vob reddem de mcandisa nra qua mittim de Lennia usq, villa vram. T. me ipo apd Newerk, xvij. die Oct.

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. The king, learning that the barons had ceased from pursuing him, turned his reins and returned to Lynn, and there he placed Savaric de Mauleon, a Poitevin, in charge, and began to strengthen the town of Lynn¹. But there, as it is said, through excessive gluttony, for his belly was ever insatiable, having gorged himself to the point of surfeit², he was released by indigestion of the stomach into dysentery. Afterwards, when the flux had somewhat abated, he was blood-let at a village in Lindsey which is called Laxton. Then, when messengers came from those shut up in the castle of Dover and explained the cause of their coming, the sickness flared up again from the grief he conceived. Moreover, he was sorely afflicted with great distress because, on that journey, he had lost his chapel with its relics, and some of his sumpter-horses with various furnishings, near Wellstream [the Wash], and many of his household were drowned in the sea-waters and swallowed up in the quicksands there, because they had rashly and hastily pressed forward before the tide of the sea had receded. But his illness, increasing over a few days, carried him off intestate at Newark Castle [Map] on the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist [18th October 1216]. His body, disembowelled, was brought to Worcester and there buried in the church. But his household plundered everything he had with him, and fled from him in headlong flight, leaving nothing with the corpse from which the body could be decently covered; but the castellan of the place, so far as he could, took care of the exenterated and naked body.

But around the middle of the night, at the very hour when he died, such a crash of wind and storm resounded in the city alone that the citizens feared for the overthrow of their houses, as Lord John of Savigny told us he had heard from the townsmen. He, going out to the town at dawn of that night, met the household of the dead king, who would tell him nothing of his death. Then, being asked by the constable, he lingered for some time beside the disembowelled body, and there celebrated Mass for his soul. Many dreadful and fantastic visions concerning him were afterwards recounted by many, the tenor of which we here refrain from describing. He reigned, with much toil as is clear from what has been said, seventeen years and five months.

De morte regis Johannes.

Rex, comperto quod barones cessassent ab ejus insecutione, conversis habenis, reversus est ad Len, et præfecto ibidem Savarico de Malo-leone, Pictavino, cœpit firmare Len. Sed ibidem, ut dicitur, ex nimia voracitate qua semper insatiabilis erat venter ejus, ingurgitatus usque ad crapulam, ex ventris indigerie solutus est in dysenteriam. Postea vero cum paululum cessasset fluxus, phlebotomatus est apud villam in Lindessi, quæ dicitur Lacford. Huc ergo cum venissent nuncii inclusorum castri Doveræ, et intimassent causam adventus sui, morbus ex dolore concepto recruduit. Præterea maximus dolor eum angebat, quod capellam suam cum suis reliquiis, et quosdam summarios suos cum varia supellectili, in itinere illo amiserat apud Wellestrem, et multi de familia ejus submersi sunt in aquis marinis, et in vivo sabulone ibidem absorpti, quia incaute et præcipitanter se ingesserant, æstu maris nondum recedente. Ægritudo autem ejus per dies paucos invalescens, apud castellum de Neuwerc intestatus decessit, in festo Sancti Lucæ evangelistæ, cujus corpus exenteratum delatum est Wigorniam, ibique in ecclesia sepultum. Familia autem ejus, omnia quæ secum habuerat, diripuerunt, et concito cursu ab eo diffugerunt, nihil cum corpore relinquentes unde cadaver honeste operiri posset; sed castellanus ejusdem, in quantum potuit, de corpore exenterato et nudo procuravit.

Circa vero mediam noctem, hora scilicet qua decessit, tantus fragor venti et turbinis in urbe sola insonuit, quod cives timerent de subversione domorum suarum, sicut domnus Johannes Saviniensis a civibus se audisse nobis. narravit: qui, ad urbem in aurora illius noctis progrediens, obviam habuit regis defuncti familiam, qui nihil de ejus morte ei referre voluerunt; qui a constabulario rogatus, circa corpus extenteratum per aliquam horam moratus, missam pro anima ejus ibidem celebravit. Multæ autem horribiles et phantasticæ visiones a multis de eo postmodum narratæ sunt, quarum tenorem hic describere supersedimus. Regnavit autem satis laboriose, ut ex præmissis patet, decem ac septem annis ac quinque mensibus, cui successit Henricus filius ejus, decennis puer;

Note 1. On Sunday, 9th October 1216, the king arrived at King's Lynn from Spalding, and remained until the following Wednesday, when, having passed through Wisbeach, he reached Swineshead. He spent Thursday in the same place, and Friday and Saturday at Sleaford. On Sunday, 16th, we find him at Newark, where he spent the following two days, and there died on St Luke's day, 18th October 1216.

Note 2. Roger of Wendover: "But the severity of his sickness was increased by his harmful gluttony, for on that night he had gorged himself excessively on peaches and on new ale made from fresh beans, and so greatly inflamed and intensified the feverish heat within him. Nevertheless, at dawn he departed from there with difficulty, and went to lodge at the castle of Sleaford. There, being overcome by great bodily weakness, he came on the next day, carried on horseback, to the castle of Newark."

Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris. And in that place [Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire [Map]], as his illness grew worse, he received the counsel of confession and the Eucharist from the abbot of Croxton. Then he appointed his eldest son Henry as heir to his kingdom, and caused the kingdom of England to swear fealty to him. He also sent letters sealed with his own seal to all the sheriffs and castellans of the realm, commanding that each of them should henceforth be obedient to him. And when these things had been done, the abbot of Croxton asked him, since it was clear he must die, where he would choose to be buried. To whom the king, replying, said: "To God and Saint Wulfstan I commend my body and my soul." And afterwards, in the night [18th October 1216] which followed the day of Saint Luke the Evangelist, he departed from this life.

Quo in loco invalescente morbo, ab abbate de Crocstuna consilium confessionis et Eucbaristiam suscepit. Deinde Henricum filium suum primogenitum regni sui hæredem constituit, regnumque Angliæ illi jiu'are fecit. Litteras etiam sigillo suo munitas ad omnes vicecomites regni et castellanos direxit, præscipiens ut ei essent singuli intendentes. Et his ita gestis, sciscitavit ab eo abbas de Crocstuna, si ipsum mori contiugeret, ubi vellet eligere sepulturam. Cui rex respondens dixit, "Deo et sancto Wlstano corpus et animam nieam commendo." Qui postea, in nocte quæ diem sancti Lucæ Evaugelistæ proximo secuta est, ex hac vita migravit.

Note 1. The Feast Day of St Luke the Evangelist is the 18th October.

Annals of Margam. 1216. King John died at Newark [Map]; he was succeeded by his son Henry III, who was crowned at Gloucester by the legate¹ of the Apostolic See, Walonem.

MCCXVI. Obiit Johannes rex Angliæ apud Newerke; cui successit Henricus tertius filius suus, coronatus Gloucestriæ per Walonem legatum sedis Apostolicæ.

Note 1. The exact date of John's death is cited by the Annals of Waverley as 19th October 1216, the Annals of Tewkesbury as the 16th October 1216 and the Chronicle of Ralph of Coggeshall as the 18th October 1216.

Note 2. Cardinal Guala Bicchieri [aged 66].

Annals of Waverley. In the month of October, namely on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of November [19th October 1216], King John, because things had by no means turned out according to his wishes, after being ill for only three or four days, died on the morrow of Saint Luke¹, at the castle of Newark [Map], and was buried at Worcester. He reigned in England seventeen years, five months, and five days.

Mense Octobri, scilicet xiv. kal. Novembris, rex Johannes, quia res ei minime cesserant ad votum, non plus quam iii. aut iv. diebus infirmatus, in crastino Sancti Lucæ in fata discessit apud castrum de Newerc, et Wigornia sepultus est. Regnavit autem in Anglia xvii. annis, mensibus v., et diebus v.

Note 1. The Feast Day of Saint Luke is the 18th of October.