18/10/2026
From Magna Carta to Muddy Karma - King John's final misstep and Newark's unexpected starring role in British history
It's a long read, but, Its Sunday Morning, so grab a cuppa, some biscuits, pop up your trotters and join me on one of the more remarkable journeys in our towns history. (a hearty Yorkshire tea with a few [3-4] milk choc hob-nobs is just the ticket 😊)
Today we're winding the clock back 810 years (ish), to a time of civil war, lost treasure, questionable dietary choices, and one very unpopular king whose final journey ended right here in Newark-on-Trent.
What happened, helped shape the future of England and turned Newark Castle into the setting for one of the most significant moments in our nation's story.
And that event…… was King John famously popping his clogs at our very own Newark Castle , back in October 1216
"Foul as it is, Hell itself is made fouler by the presence of John." - Matthew Paris
Years of military defeats, disputes with the Church, heavy taxation and increasingly unpopular rule had turned many of England's powerful barons against John. Although he had been forced to seal Magna Carta in 1215, he quickly sought to overturn it (cheers for that John Boy!), sparking a civil war that plunged the kingdom into chaos. To make matters worse, rebellious barons had invited Prince Louis of France to seize the English crown, and by 1216 much of southern England was under French control or allied to the rebels.
Absolute scenes.
John was fighting to keep his throne.
By the autumn of 1216, King John was on the run.
Fleeing north, he and his posse were transporting what contemporary sources described as his "treasure" from Norfolk towards the relative safety of the Midlands.
Then he reached The Wash and....well....things went to sh*t.
In his haste, John took the safer route around the marshes, while his baggage train attempted what seemed to be a quicker crossing through the mudflats.
They misjudged the tide.
The incoming waters turned the quicksand into a watery trap.
Carts overturned.
Horses vanished.
Men disappeared.
Much of the King's baggage train was swallowed by the mud.
Whoops.
Now, when most people hear treasure, they picture glittering piles of gold, crowns, emeralds and priceless jewels. And for centuries that's pretty much how the story has been told.
However, there is thought that a significant portion of John's lost "treasure" may actually have consisted of the things a travelling king needed to maintain a royal household on the move. Rich tapestries, furniture, clothing, silverware, records, air fryer (probably not that) personal possessions and all the luxury items required to turn whatever castle he happened to be staying in into a suitably regal residence.
Which might help explain one rather awkward fact.
Nobody has ever found it.
Well……Tapestries, fabrics, leather goods and wooden furnishings don't spend eight centuries sitting in salt marshes and then emerge in particularly good condition, I suppose.
The King, watching the disaster from higher ground, carried on, but the shock, stress and financial loss can hardly have helped.
Already suffering from what historians now believe was severe dysentery, the increasingly miserable monarch sought refuge at Swineshead Abbey near Spalding.
It is here that the most bizarre rumour surrounding his death was born……The idea that he died from a surfeit of peaches and new c***r.
While modern historians suggest his final days were characterised by agonising fever and gastrointestinal misery, the legend of death-by-fruit-binge proved irresistible. The idea that a cruel and unpopular king was struck down not by his enemies but by his own appetite was exactly the sort of story medieval chroniclers loved.
Suffering horrifically, John was moved to Sleaford Castle and then, on 18 October 1216, was brought into the grand Bishop's Palace that you now know our very own Newark Castle.
He was carried into the great fortified building, a desperate king seeking shelter in one of his last loyal strongholds.
Historians generally believe that he spent his final hours in a chamber above the castle gatehouse (The same gatehouse that’s current undergoing a major conservation and restoration project.)
Imagine that for a moment.
One of England's most infamous kings, sick, exhausted, defeated and dying, lying in a room overlooking what was then the principal entrance to Newark Castle.
The journey, he reportedly moaned, was killing him.
Spoiler alert......it was.
He dictated his will, confessed his sins and received the Eucharist.
Then, during the night of 18th into the 19th October, amid a violent thunderstorm that many contemporaries claimed signalled the very Gates of Hell opening...
King John died.
See ya JP.
That messy, miserable death in Newark changed the course of English history.
With the hated king gone, support for Prince Louis's attempt to take the English throne soon began to unravel. The rebels suddenly had a nine-year-old boy to deal with instead.
Enter Henry III.
Of course, a nine-year-old king wasn't about to run a kingdom in the middle of a civil war, that would be insane. The fate of England was instead placed in the hands of William Marshal, arguably one of the greatest knights and statesmen England has ever produced. As regent for the young king, Marshal helped steer the kingdom through its crisis and is closely linked to another famous local historical event, the Battle of Lincoln Fair on 20 May 1217 (more on that another day)
Marshal quickly re-issued Magna Carta on behalf of the young king, helping restore stability and laying the foundations for the charter's long-term survival.
John's death at Newark helped bring an end to the conflict, prevented the French-backed claim to the English throne from succeeding, and played a crucial role in preserving the constitutional principles that would shape England for centuries to come.
After his death, John's body was transported to Worcester Cathedral, where he remains buried today.
His tomb is remarkable.
The stone effigy, completed around 1232, is considered the oldest surviving royal effigy in England. Unlike many later royal tombs that portray kings as idealised heroic figures, John's likeness appears strikingly realistic, giving us one of the closest glimpses we have of what the man may actually have looked like at the time of his death.
Whilst we may sometimes take our castle for granted, remember that these ruins witnessed the final chapter of one of the most consequential road trips in English history.
A journey involving a lost treasure, a tidal disaster, a dying king in a room above a gatehouse, and the accidental rescue of a kingdom.
And it ended……. right here in Newark-on-Trent.
Int' history brilliant.
And before anyone dives into the comments section armed with a calculator and a calendar, yes, the dates are correct, but "810 years ago today" isn't necessarily quite as straightforward as it sounds.(England was still using the Julian Calendar in 1216, and it wasn't until the Calendar Act of 1751, implemented in 1752, that Britain adopted the Gregorian Calendar and adjusted its dates accordingly. So while John's death absolutely happened in October 1216, lining it up exactly day-for-day with a modern date is a little more complicated than simply counting back 810 years.)
(And as the old saying goes, history is usually written by the victors. Much of what we 'know' about King John comes from chroniclers who despised him, but many modern historians argue he wasn't purely the villain he's made out to be, just a ruler operating in extraordinarily turbulent times(