John was born in in Oxford, the fourth son of King Henry ll. As a fourth son, he could not expect to inherit any lands, which gave rise to his nickname Lackland. Much of what has been written about King John stems from the work done by Victorian historians, the consensus of which is that he was a total disaster.
However, more recent studies portray John in a rather different light. Certainly, as far as Lancaster Castle and the North West in general are concerned, John was responsible for a great deal of good. Most of his work at Lancaster was carried out between and , and the total expenditure was the third highest in the country, with first place going, rather surprisingly, to Scarborough. At Lancaster, he had a ditch dug on the south and west sides, and replaced the wooden palisade with a stone curtain wall.
(mh=KBgK1JcId_Qh-1Yw)0.jpg "SEX AGENCY Sinop")
We do not know the height of this wall but, as a small fragment has survived, a depth of 3 metres can be seen on tours of the castle. It was thought for a long time that this tower was Roman, hence the name. Tourists will not see the tower as John built it, with three stories, as the ceilings and roof were removed in the late 18th Century and a new roof incorporating a glass skylight was added.
Nowadays the castle museum is housed here. John actually owned the castle in , when he was Earl of Mortain. It was a present from his brother, Richard l, but improvements had to wait until after his accession in At the same time, the burgesses of Lancaster were confirmed in their rights as laid out in the charter issued previously.
Every time King John paid the castle a visit, he spent several weeks there, held court and even received ambassadors! Consequently, he left the Treasury rather depleted. When John succeeded in , he had to be prudent. Making peace in France cost 20, marks and a heavy tax in England, but it was still cheaper than waging war. He was later attacked by the French King, Philip ll, and in the space of a few years lost all the Plantagenet possessions in France, except Gascony.
