Loss of King Johann Ohneland's treasure
The loss of King Johann Ohneland's treasure was a misfortune in which part or allegedly even the entire entourage of the English King Johann Ohneland was probably lost on October 12, 1216 while crossing the Wash . The exact place and the course of the accident are still unknown today; The number of victims of the accident and the amount of loss are also little known. So far, no remains of the king's treasure have been found.
background
During the First War of the Barons , King John undertook a campaign through eastern England in October 1216. From there he wanted to move with his army to Lincolnshire to relieve the beleaguered Lincoln Castle . With the king, who is said to have been a lover and collector of jewelry and jewels, his war chest and baggage train moved too. According to the medieval Patent Rolls , in 1216 the king carried gold and silver tableware, candlesticks, his crown jewels including the royal crown as well as the imperial insignia of his grandmother Matilda . So far the king had kept these treasures safely in English monasteries, but due to the rebellion of the barons he had them collected and from then on he carried them with him. On October 9th or 11th the King arrived at King's Lynn . From there he moved north-west and reached Swineshead Abbey on the evening of October 12th . Contemporary chroniclers Ralph von Coggeshall and Roger von Wendover, as well as chronicler Matthew Paris , who wrote his chronicle a generation later, report an accident in which the baggage train sank in the sea. The reports sometimes differ considerably from one another. The king survived the accident, but fell ill with dysentery . From Swineshead he moved on to Newark , where he died on the night of October 18-19, 1216. For the coronation of his son Heinrich III. only a few insignia were used in Westminster Abbey in 1220, which Johann still carried with him in 1216. Matilda's imperial insignia was never mentioned again.
Aftermath
The lost treasure of King John became a legend that was passed down orally in various versions for centuries, especially in eastern England. The alleged loss of his crown further contributed to the negative image that King John still has today. In the drama King John of Shakespeare , the king in Swineshead is poisoned by a monk. To this day, the English pun King John lost his cloth in the wash (in German: King John lost his clothes in the laundry (or in the wash)) has been preserved. American treasure hunters were still looking for the treasure in the 1930s.
Theses of modern historians
Since the medieval chronicles are contradicting itself, modern historians rely on guesswork about the course of the accident. To make matters worse, the scene of the accident, The Wash, has changed significantly as a result of drainage and coastal shifting. The possible accident site today is certainly inland.
- According to the theses of William Henry St John Hope published in 1906 , the king moved with his army from King's Lynn via Wisbech , where he crossed the Wellstream , to Swineshead. The presence of the king in Wisbech is documented for October 12th. The slow baggage train, on the other hand, crossed the confluence funnel between Cross Keys and Long Sutton , which fell dry at low tide using an abbreviation that was common at the time . On the 7 km long crossing, one of the front cars got stuck in quicksand , blocking the way. In addition, fog, which is not uncommon in the region in October, could have made orientation difficult, so that the baggage carts were lost in the rising tide. This version of the accident has long been considered the most likely.
- Gordon Fowler drafted another thesis in 1952. In his opinion, the mouth of the Wellstream north of Wisbech was not passable by land in the 13th century, so that the king and his train had to cross the 400 m wide Wellstream between Walsoken and Wisbech, in which there was never any mention of quicksand. The train must have been surprised by a tide shift, which is unusual but has been handed down in several cases and which also occurred during the flood disaster of 1953 . Although this thesis is conclusive, it has the weakness that nowhere else is a flood disaster reported on October 12, 1216.
- The historian JC Holt therefore suspected that the baggage train was lost when crossing further north, as St John Hope has already described. After losing wagons or pack horses , the king reached Wisbech, where he hired seamen according to the Patent Rolls, who took him and his luggage to Grimbsby. From there he moved to Swineshead.
- Historian WL Warren suspected that Johann moved over Wisbech. The baggage train, on the other hand, wanted to cross the Wellstream at Cross Keys or Walpole, but the crossing began too early and some packhorses got lost in the quicksand and the falling tide. Most of the baggage train, on the other hand, was able to cross the river. It is uncertain whether his treasures or even the imperial insignia were lost. Johann could have used parts of his treasure to pay his mercenaries, or they were stolen when the king unexpectedly died a little later.
literature
- Wilfred L. Warren: The Accident to King John's Baggage. In: King John. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , pp. 278-285.
Individual evidence
- ↑ John T. Appleby: John "Ohneland" King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1958, p. 5.
- ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley, 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 280.