King John was again at Bridgnorth, two months after the memorable event of his signing _Magna Charta_. This great constitutional charter of England’s liberties the Barons had compelled the King to grant; but the faithless monarch no sooner thought that he could do so with impunity, than he revoked it; the Pope acting as an accomplice of his perfidy, by absolving him from his oath. This threw the kingdom into a state of universal confusion, and civil war raged from one end of it to the other. It was about this time that the Burgesses of Bridgnorth began to fortify their town with a wooden rampart, (a caution suggested no doubt by the troubles of the time) and a large allowance of timber from the Forest of Morfe was made to them for that purpose.[16] Historians give a dreadful picture of the state of the nation at this period. The King having levied a band of mercenaries, commenced hostilities against his own subjects, and marching through the whole extent of his kingdom laid waste the provinces on each side of him, and by fire and sword made as wide a devastation in England as if it had been an enemy’s country. It was towards the close of this destructive progress, and about two months before his death, that King John visited Bridgnorth for the last time. During his short stay of two days he issued several charters, and then proceeded to Worcester, afterwards to Gloucester, and from thence to Newark; where—either from the pressure of extreme fatigue, or great anxiety of mind, or as some naturally enough suppose, from the effects of poison—this unhappy monarch died, and “freed his kingdom,” as the historian well observes, “from the dangers to which it was equally exposed, by his success, or by his misfortune.” [_Hume, Vol. 2, p. 92._] [16] Appendix C.