You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [9]
The two brothers quarreled much in the same manner that they had with their now-deceased father, and their aforementioned proclivities (Richard’s love of war abroad and John’s selfishness) loosened the controls that the throne had over the royals. Moreover, neither brother had acquired any skill at politics or negotiation and often fell back on military might rather than actually solving the problem at hand. This situation was further aggravated after Richard’s death when John ascended to the throne and immediately ran afoul of Richard’s greatest ally, Phillip of France, the pope and his own royal court. He lost most of the family lands in France and then tried to raise the money to wage a war to reclaim them by raising taxes, while groveling back to Rome to regain papal favor.
The capital was raised, much to the nobles’ chagrin, and the war was waged, but the outcome was far from successful, leaving England defeated and disheartened. Moreover, the now nonvictorious King John was facing a rebellion at home by the very same nobles he had taxed and neglected, and as a result he was forced to sign the Magna Carta, which basically reinstated the anarchic rights of the nobles that had been put under control by Henry II.
Thus in less than a generation all of the great strides that Henry II had accomplished for England were undone by his sons. Had the first Plantagenet spent as much time and attention on his heirs as he had on his job as king, his success might have been longer lasting.
You Arrested Whom?
Hundreds of years ago two very different men rose to power in what was the primary arena of strength in their time, the arena of faith and religion.
POPE NICHOLAS III
ROME, A.D. 1244
Edward E. Kramer
The Magna Carta is often thought of as the cornerstone of liberty and the chief defense against arbitrary and unjust rule in England. Signed by King John in 1215, it also limited the claims of Jewish moneylenders, protecting the English barons, who had never intended to repay the loans. Pope Innocent III also issued a decree that forced Jews to wear a badge or a hat as a means of segregating them from other peoples in the land. Jews who did not cooperate were subjected to fines and incarceration — every aspect of their lives was controlled.
It was also the year that Giovanni Gaetano Orsini was born to Perna Gaetana Gaetani, the newest member of one of the oldest famililes in the history of Rome. Giovanni’s father was Senator Matteo Rosso Orsini, of the historic Roman family of Popes Paul I and Eugenius II. In his elected role, Matteo had opposed Emperor Frederick II, siding with Pope Gregory IX, saving the city of Rome for the Guelfic cause. He became good friends with St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans, whose favor from the Order was later rewarded by Matteo’s son, Giovanni, in his position as both cardinal and pope.
In 1240 C.E., the king of France ordered that a public disputation take place between Nicholas Donin, a Christian apologist, and Rabbi Yehiel of Paris; the public debate was held for the purpose of degrading Jewish religion and converting Jews. In the end, Pope Gregory IX declared the Christian theologian the winner, and the Jewish Talmud was declared an evil work. As a result, the pope issued a bull for the burning of the Talmud everywhere, and to establish inquisitions and censors over other Jewish writings.
Abulafia was also born in 1240 in Saragossa, Spain. His father, an eccentric adventurer from Saragossa, taught him the Torah and Talmud at a very early age. When Abulafia was eighteen years old, his father died. Like his late father, he immediately set off on a career of travel and learning. Abulafia studied the sciences, philosophy, logic, medicine, and many other subjects. He went to the Holy Land but could get no farther than Acre due to the Crusades.
Pope Innocent IV, grateful for the services rendered by Rosso, promoted Giovanni Orsini to cardinal-deacon in 1244, with the title of St. Nicholas, in Carcere