THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN by William Shakespeare Contents ACT I Scene I. Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace. ACT II Scene I. France. Before the walls of Angiers. ACT III Scene I. France. The French King’s tent. Scene II. The same. Plains near Angiers Scene III. The same. Scene IV. The same. The French King’s tent. ACT IV Scene I. Northampton. A Room in the Castle. Scene II. The same. A Room of State in the Palace. Scene III. The same. Before the castle. ACT V Scene I. Northampton. A Room in the Palace. Scene II. Near Saint Edmundsbury. The French Camp. Scene III. The same. The Field of Battle. Scene IV. The same. Another part of the same. Scene V. The same. The French camp. Scene VI. An open place in the neighborhood of Swinstead Abbey. Scene VII. The orchard of Swinstead Abbey. Dramatis Personæ KING JOHN. PRINCE HENRY, son to King John; afterwards KING HENRY III. ARTHUR, Duke of Brittany, nephew to King John. EARL OF PEMBROKE. EARL OF ESSEX. EARL OF SALISBURY. ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk. HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the King. ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, son to Sir Robert Faulconbridge. The BASTARD, PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his half-brother, bastard son to King Richard I. JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge. PETER OF POMFRET, a prophet KING PHILIP II., King of France. LOUIS, the Dauphin; son to King Philip II. DUKE OF AUSTRIA, also called Limoges. MELUN, a French lord. CHATILLION, Ambassador from France to King John. CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope’s legate. QUEEN ELEANOR, Mother to King John and Widow of King Henry II. CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur. BLANCHE OF SPAIN, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile, and Niece to King John. LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard and Robert Faulconbridge. Lords, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Executioners, Messengers and other Attendants. SCENE: Sometimes in England, and sometimes in France. ACT I SCENE I. Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter King John, Queen Eleanor, Pembroke, Essex, Salisbury and others with Chatillion. KING JOHN. Now, say, Chatillion, what would France with us? CHATILLION. Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France In my behaviour to the majesty, The borrow’d majesty, of England here. QUEEN ELEANOR. A strange beginning: “borrow’d majesty”! KING JOHN. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy. CHATILLION. Philip of France, in right and true behalf Of thy deceased brother Geoffrey’s son, Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim To this fair island and the territories, To Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Desiring thee to lay aside the sword Which sways usurpingly these several titles, And put the same into young Arthur’s hand, Thy nephew and right royal sovereign. KING JOHN. What follows if we disallow of this? CHATILLION. The proud control of fierce and bloody war, To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.