Explanation: King John of England lost a vast amount of land in France that was owned by the royal family with a less-than-stellar military performance. This led to a steady demand of more and more money in order to fund this shoddily-run war, which the English nobility were not happy about. For this reason, King John would become known by the epithets “Softsword” and “Lackland”. Tensions with the English nobility would eventually lead to outright civil war, and King John signing the Magna Carta as a concession to the nobility.

King John is probably best known nowadays as the ‘bad’ royal in Robin Hood stories.