title: Mission: Impossible – Fallout

text: " Variety"'s Peter Debruge called the film "the series' most exciting installment yet," saying, "McQuarrie clearly believes in creating coherent set pieces: His combat scenes are tense, muscular, and clean, shot and edited in such a way that the spatial geography makes sense." David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of "A" and called it one of the best action films ever, writing "He's only Tom Cruise because nobody else is willing to be—or maybe he's only Tom Cruise so that nobody else has to be. Either way, "Fallout" is the film he's always promised us, and it is worth the wait." "Entertainment Weekly" Chris Nashawaty also gave the film an "A" grade, commenting on Cruise that "He's still Hollywood's hungriest movie star", with the series getting "better, twistier and more deliriously fun with each installment". George Simpson of "The Express" complimented "the action is brutal and gut-punching, the pacing heart-pumping and the stakes so high it's gasp-inducing at times," adding, ""Fallout" is an improvement on all the previous films' failings, drawing together all the best aspects of them; simultaneously giving off that classic vibe of the original while never being afraid to continually evolve;" he gave the film five out of five stars. "The Telegraph"'s Tim Robey summed up the film as "spectacular and eye-popping," deeming it "the blockbuster of the summer" with "a pleasingly sinuous plot," and calling the film and its series a "Bond-like franchise"; he also rated the film five out of five stars.


title: Mission: Impossible – Fallout

text: Robert Abele of "TheWrap" described Cruise as an "evergreen movie star with the daredevil heart of a stuntman" and that he "puts every ounce of effort he can into the long, hard work of maintaining a blockbuster franchise." "The Hollywood Reporter" Todd McCarthy praised director Christopher McQuarrie, saying that with "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" he "tops what he did with Cruise three years ago," and also singled out Vanessa Kirby for playing her character with "a mix of elegance and frisky abandon." J.R. Kinnard of "PopMatters" wrote, "Though it lacks the gritty humanity of something like George Miller's "" (2015), "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" is no less impressive in its dedication to character-driven action and practical special effects. It's a dazzling, non-stop thriller that's sure to become an instant action classic." "Screen Daily" Tim Grierson wrote, "Tom Cruise is on fighting form in this thrilling franchise topper... [he is] ageless, riveting and seemingly unstoppable," further adding that "the sixth film in the series is among the most outstanding, delivering a near-exhausting amount of stupendous action sequences paired with deft character drama and the requisite life-or-death stakes." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film three out of five stars, saying "there isn't as much [humor] in the dialogue as before," but added, "Crashes and petrolhead spills are what this franchise is reasonably expected to deliver. And this is what it cheerfully does."


title: Mission: Impossible – Fallout

text: "Sight & Sound" Nick Pinkerton wrote, "A strong contender for the most consistently cinematic franchise of the last 25 years, the "Mission: Impossible" films also offer a case study in the idea of the actor as auteur, with Tom Cruise continuing to present himself as a fearless screen immortal in "Fallout"."


title: Mission: Impossible – Fallout

text: A sequel, "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One", is scheduled to be released on July 14, 2023, after being delayed three times by the COVID-19 pandemic. Announced in January 2019, it will be filmed back-to-back with "". It was also announced that both films will be a send-off to Ethan Hunt.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Jack Michael Antonoff (born March 31, 1984) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. Antonoff is the lead singer of rock band Bleachers, and is the guitarist and drummer in the pop rock band Fun. He was previously the lead singer of the indie rock band Steel Train. Aside from his work with Bleachers and Fun, Antonoff has worked as a songwriter and record producer with various artists, including Taylor Swift, the 1975, Lorde, St. Vincent, Florence and the Machine, Lana Del Rey, Fifth Harmony, Kevin Abstract, Carly Rae Jepsen, the Chicks, Tegan and Sara and Clairo. Antonoff has often been credited with having a significant impact on the sound of contemporary popular music.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won seven Grammy Awards, including the 2022 Grammy for Producer of the Year. He has also won Grammy Awards for his work with Fun, for production on Swift's albums "1989" and "Folklore", for production on St. Vincent's album "Daddy’s Home", and for co-writing the title track on St. Vincent's "Masseduction".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff was born on March 31, 1984, in Bergenfield, New Jersey. He is the second of three children of Shira (Wall) and Rick Antonoff. He is the younger brother of fashion designer Rachel Antonoff. His younger sister, Sarah, died of brain cancer at the age of 13 when Antonoff was a senior in high school. The event had a profound effect on Jack who has said "... my whole career has been revisiting that through a different lens."


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff is Jewish. He grew up in New Milford, New Jersey, and Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, and attended elementary school at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County. For high school, he and his sister commuted to Manhattan to attend the Professional Children's School.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: During his sophomore year of high school, in November 1998, he and several friends from elementary school formed a punk rock band called Outline. They released a self-titled EP through Lifetime Records, a friend's record label, in January 2000. Antonoff initially sang in the group until early 2000 when Eddie Wright took over on vocals. With the addition of Wright, they recorded six songs which were later released as "6 Song Demo" in the summer. They released an album, "A Boy Can Dream", in July 2001 through Triple Crown Records. When they were 15, Antonoff and his Outline bandmate used a DIY guide to book shows in numerous states, including Florida and Texas, and borrowed Antonoff's parents' minivan to travel in. During the tour, Outline played in venues such as anarchist bookstores, while the oldest member of the band drove because he was 18 years old. Antonoff explained in 2014: "Half the time no one would show up or the equipment would be too fucked up to play ... but that's when I fell in love with touring." The band lasted until 2002.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2002, Antonoff and friend, Scott Irby-Ranniar, formed the band Steel Train—Antonoff was the lead singer, and they recruited drummer Matthias Gruber. The band then convinced two of their friends from the band Random Task, Evan Winiker and Matthew Goldman, to drop out of college to join the new band. Steel Train secured a recording deal with Drive-Thru Records. The group was popular on the jamband festival circuit and Antonoff has said he has applied that grassroots mentality to his future projects.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2008, Nate Ruess (formerly the frontman of the Format) asked Antonoff to join him and Andrew Dost (formerly of Anathallo) in a new band, which became fun. Antonoff was already well acquainted with Ruess and Dost, as their former bands had all toured together. The new band released its debut album, "Aim and Ignite", in 2009. Fun's second album, "Some Nights" (2012), produced the band's first number-one hit single, "We Are Young" (featuring Janelle Monae). The song was co-written by Antonoff with Ruess, Dost, and Jeff Bhasker. Fun then played with their musical heroes Queen in September 2013 at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, which was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Antonoff played Brian May's guitar during the rehearsal, which he described as the "most surreal experience ever." The band then released a free six-song EP in December 2013, titled "Before Shane Went to Bangkok: Fun Live in the USA".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff announced a solo project called Bleachers in February 2014. Antonoff stated in June 2014 that the project had been a consideration for around 10 years, and the name was inspired by the "disconnected, darker side" of suburban youth and John Hughes movies, which were "tied to a time when big songs were great songs." The songs for the debut Bleachers album were mostly written on Antonoff's laptop computer in hotel rooms during a Fun. world tour.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: "The Huffington Post" published a positive review of Bleachers' first single, "I Wanna Get Better"—released on February 18—calling it the "catchiest song of 2014," while "Time" proclaimed, "[Bleachers] is more fun than Fun." Antonoff revealed the intent behind the debut single in a "Rolling Stone" interview:


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff explained to "Rolling Stone" that, while the song might sound joyous, "it's very desperate" and, like many of the other songs on the album is about loss. Antonoff worked with producers John Hill and Vince Clarke on the Bleachers studio album, as he sought to create "massive, beautiful pop songs that sound fuckin' cool." The completed album, "Strange Desire", was released in July 2014, and "I Wanna Get Better" peaked at number one on the U.S. Alternative charts during the same week. In regard to "Strange Desire", Antonoff said:


title: Jack Antonoff

text: "I Wanna Get Better" was eventually named number 18 in "Rolling Stone"s 50 Best Songs of 2014, with the publication describing the song as "therapy rock" that is "as fun as it is cathartic". Antonoff released Bleachers' second album "Gone Now" on June 2, 2017. Its lead single "Don't Take the Money" peaked at number 2 on Alternative Radio.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2013, Antonoff wrote and produced the song "Sweeter than Fiction" with American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, for the film "One Chance". The song was written in Antonoff's New York City apartment after he and Swift shared a love of a particular snare drum sound from a Fine Young Cannibals song. They brainstormed ideas by email before starting the songwriting process.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Swift and Antonoff wrote and produced three songs together on Swift's fifth studio album, "1989", including the singles "Out of the Woods", "I Wish You Would", and the bonus track "You Are in Love". "1989" was released in October 2014 and became the biggest-selling album in the U.S. that year. On the deluxe version of the album, Swift explains in a voice memo that the song "I Wish You Would" originated from a guitar track that Antonoff had recorded on his smartphone. After Swift first heard it, she asked Antonoff if she could develop the idea further, and it eventually became an album track. The album won Antonoff a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2016.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2016, Swift, Antonoff, and Sam Dew wrote Swift and Zayn's song "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", with Antonoff producing, for the film "Fifty Shades Darker". The track appears on the "". The duo wrote and produced the number-one single "Look What You Made Me Do" as well, which was released on August 25, 2017. Antonoff was a key contributor to Swift's sixth studio album, "Reputation". Aside from "Look What You Made Me Do", Swift and Antonoff also co-wrote and co-produced five other songs on "Reputation"—"Getaway Car", "Dress", "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things", "Call It What You Want", and "New Year's Day".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2019, Swift and Antonoff wrote eight songs and produced eleven tracks together for Swift's seventh studio album, "Lover", including the promotional single "The Archer" and the title track, which served as the album's third single.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2020, Swift and Antonoff worked together on Swift's eighth studio album, "Folklore". Along with Aaron Dessner and Swift, Antonoff serves as one of the songwriters and producers for the record, with Antonoff helping to co-produce six songs and co-write four, including the third single, "Betty". Antonoff continued to collaborate with Swift on "Folklore" "sister record" and Swift's ninth studio album, "Evermore", in which he co-wrote the tracks "Gold Rush" and "Ivy", and co-produced the former.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff went on working on Swift's re-recordings. In 2021, the duo produced four tracks on "Fearless (Taylor's Version)": "Mr. Perfectly Fine", "That's When", "Don't You", and "Bye Bye Baby". Swift and Antonoff also co-produced three tracks on "Red (Taylor's Version)": "Babe (Taylor's Version)", "Forever Winter", and "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff co-produced Swift's 2022 album, "Midnights" and co-wrote eleven of the thirteen tracks. He appeared in the music video for the ninth track, "Bejeweled".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2017, Antonoff co-wrote and produced Lorde's "Melodrama" which was released in June. "USAToday" described it as "the best pop album of 2017 so far". "Rolling Stone"s praises Jack's production specifically, noting that he uses "empty space to spectacular effect, [as] the arrangements veer from stark clarity to delirium." In support of the album, Antonoff appeared in the music video for its lead single, "Green Light". He then performed "Liability" alongside Lorde on "Saturday Night Live". The album also received a nomination for the 2018 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Beginning from 2018 until 2021, Antonoff co-wrote, produced, and performed on Lorde's third album "Solar Power".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2018, Antonoff produced the soundtrack for the 20th Century Fox romantic comedy-drama film "Love, Simon". Bleachers also contributed four songs. On working on the ground-breaking film, the first major studio picture to focus on a gay teenager, Antonoff said "I believe "Love, Simon" is pivotal, a major step for a new generation" and added that he was "honored" that "genius" director Greg Berlanti asked him to work on the soundtrack. He also said he was "very lucky to be a part of ["Love, Simon"]" and "loved every moment of making this soundtrack" after stating he was "beyond blown away" by the response to the film and soundtrack.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: On June 26, 2019, Antonoff previewed a new musical project with Sam Dew and Sounwave called Red Hearse. The project was teased with the release of two singles, "Red Hearse" and "Honey". On July 22, 2019, Red Hearse made their television debut on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", performing "Half Love". Their debut self-titled studio album was released on August 16, 2019, via RCA Records.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: He co-produced Lana Del Rey's sixth studio album "Norman Fucking Rockwell!", which was released on August 30, 2019. He also co-wrote a majority of the songs on the album including the singles "Mariners Apartment Complex" and "Venice Bitch". The album received critical praise with NME's Rhian Daly noting that the "bohemian folk" sound of the record was a departure from Antonoff's "brand of crystalline euphoria." Other critics noted the album's 60s inspired, psychedelic rock sound. The album was nominated for Grammy Album of the Year and won NME Album of the Year in 2020. He also produced her seventh studio album "Chemtrails Over the Country Club", released on March 19, 2021.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2015, Antonoff started his own music festival called Shadow of the City. The festival takes place annually at The Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Shadow of the City is a one-day festival with only one stage, making it different from other music festivals. Money from each ticket sold is donated to The Ally Coalition, an organization founded by Antonoff and his sister Rachel. The 2018 and most recent lineup included Antonoff and his band Bleachers, Hayley Kiyoko, Julien Baker, Turnover, Beach Slang, Clams Casino, and Ex Reyes. Other past performers include Charli XCX, the 1975, Khalid, Carly Rae Jepsen, Bishop Briggs, BØRNS and more. In addition to musical performances, the festival conducts dunk tank and Mario Kart tournaments to benefit The Ally Coalition.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff co-wrote the 2013 song "Brave" with Sara Bareilles after the two were introduced by Sara Quin of the band Tegan and Sara. Bareilles said to "Billboard": "We met for breakfast one day, and I was just so enamored with him and his personality ... The first day we sat down together was the day we wrote 'Brave.'" Antonoff wrote the song about a friend's struggle to speak openly about his sexuality. The quickly written song was released on April 23, and by the end of June, "Brave" had sold 160,000 digital copies and peaked at number 61 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. The music video for the song was viewed 1.1 million times on YouTube within a month of its release in May 2013, and by the start of 2015, had received nearly 39 million views. "Brave" was used by Microsoft to advertise its Windows tablet technology device.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2015, he created a Google Play docuseries titled "Thank You and Sorry," which combined scripted scenes and footage from Bleachers shows. It was released in six 15-minute episodes and included cameos from Lena Dunham, Rosie Perez, Olivia Wilde, Colin Quinn, and Jason Mantzoukas. Also in 2015, Antonoff portrayed the character Baby Goya in the comedy-drama film "Hello, My Name Is Doris".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2017, he also contributed to the production of Pink's seventh studio album, "Beautiful Trauma", and produced St. Vincent's fifth studio album, "Masseduction".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In early 2019, he handled production on Brockhampton frontman Kevin Abstract's solo album, "Arizona Baby".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff appeared as himself in the 2021 Edgar Wright-directed film "The Sparks Brothers", talking about his admiration for the band Sparks. That same year he contributed to St. Vincent's sixth studio album, "Daddy's Home", and Clairo's sophomore record, "Sling". He produced eight tracks off Florence and the Machine's fifth studio album, "Dance Fever", released in 2022. His credits on the album include the singles "King" and "Free."


title: Jack Antonoff

text: In 2022, Antonoff went on to collaborate with English alternative band the 1975 to co-produce their fifth studio album, "Being Funny in a Foreign Language".


title: Jack Antonoff

text: The Golden Globe Awards are awarded annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to celebrate the best in film and television. Antonoff has been nominated once.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States. Antonoff has earned seven Grammys out of nineteen nominations, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2022.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: The Satellite Awards are annual awards given by the International Press Academy that are commonly noted in entertainment industry journals and blogs. Antonoff has been nominated twice.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: When Antonoff first moved out of the family home near the end of 2012, he lived with his sister, Rachel, on the Upper West Side of New York City. Afterward, he relocated to Brooklyn Heights to live with Lena Dunham, whom he was dating at the time. The couple separated in January 2018. As of December 2019, he resides in the Brooklyn Heights apartment he shared with Dunham, containing his home music studio. Antonoff is engaged to actress Margaret Qualley.


title: Jack Antonoff

text: Antonoff has spoken publicly about his struggles with depression, anxiety and obsessive–compulsive disorder. He claims that hearing of others' battles with depression made him feel "not better, but not alone" and "way less scared." As of June 2014, Antonoff was seeing both a therapist and a psychopharmacologist, while also taking anti-anxiety medications. He has germophobia which was exacerbated by a bout of pneumonia that he suffered in 2011 while recording a studio album for his band Fun. His pulmonologist prescribed a daily run, but he explained that he hates it "more than anything" because it is "one of the most truly boring experiences on Earth."


title: Ayahuasca

text: Ayahuasca is a South American psychoactive and entheogenic brewed drink traditionally used both socially and as a ceremonial or shamanic spiritual medicine among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin, and more recently in Western society. The tea causes altered states of consciousness often known as "psychedelic experiences" which include visual hallucinations and altered perceptions of reality.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Ayahuasca is commonly made from the "Banisteriopsis caapi" vine, the "Psychotria viridis" shrub or a substitute, and other ingredients including "Justicia pectoralis", one of the "Brugmansia" (especially "Brugmansia insignis" and "Brugmansia versicolor", or a hybrid breed) or "Datura" species, and "mapacho" ("Nicotiana rustica").


title: Ayahuasca

text: A chemically similar preparation, sometimes called "pharmahuasca", can be prepared using "N","N"-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and a pharmaceutical monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), such as moclobemide or isocarboxazid.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Internationally, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances lists the active ingredient DMT as a schedule 1 drug, but does not control the cultivation of plants from which it can be derived, similarly to the "legal grey area" position of psychedelic plants like peyote and other mescaline-containing cacti.


title: Ayahuasca

text: "Ayahuasca" is the hispanicized (traditional) spelling of a word in the Quechuan languages, which are spoken in the Andean states of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia—speakers of Quechuan languages who use the modern Alvarado orthography spell it "ayawaska". This word refers both to the liana "Banisteriopsis caapi", and to the brew prepared from it. In the Quechua languages, "aya" means "spirit, soul", or "corpse, dead body", and "waska" means "rope" or "woody vine", "liana". The word "ayahuasca" has been variously translated as "liana of the soul", "liana of the dead", and "spirit liana". It is also referred to as "la purge" due to the belief that it cures the soul, offering a deep introspective journey that allows the user to examine their emotions and ways of thinking.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In Brazil, the brew and the liana are informally called either caapi or cipó; the latter is the Portuguese word for liana (or woody climbing vine). In the União do Vegetal of Brazil, an organised spiritual tradition in which people drink ayahuasca, the brew is prepared exclusively from "B. caapi" and "Psychotria viridis". Adherents of União do Vegetal call this brew hoasca or vegetal; Brazilian Yawanawa call the brew "uní".


title: Ayahuasca

text: The Achuar people and Shuar people of Ecuador and Peru call it natem, while the Sharanahua peoples of Peru call it shori.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Evidence of ayahuasca use dates back 1,000 years, as demonstrated by a bundle containing the residue of ayahuasca ingredients and various other preserved shamanic substances in a cave in southwestern Bolivia, discovered in 2010.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In the 16th century, Christian missionaries from Spain first encountered indigenous western Amazonian basin South Americans using ayahuasca; their earliest reports described it as "the work of the devil". In the 20th century, the active chemical constituent of "B. caapi" was named "telepathine", but it was found to be identical to a chemical already isolated from "Peganum harmala" and was given the name harmine. Beat writer William S. Burroughs read a paper by Richard Evans Schultes on the subject and while traveling through South America in the early 1950s sought out ayahuasca in the hopes that it could relieve or cure opiate addiction (see "The Yage Letters"). Ayahuasca became more widely known when the McKenna brothers published their experience in the Amazon in "True Hallucinations". Dennis McKenna later studied pharmacology, botany, and chemistry of ayahuasca and oo-koo-he, which became the subject of his master's thesis.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Richard Evans Schultes allowed Claudio Naranjo to make a special journey by canoe up the Amazon River to study ayahuasca with the South American Indians. He brought back samples of the beverage and published the first scientific description of the effects of its active alkaloids.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In Brazil, a number of modern religious movements based on the use of ayahuasca have emerged, the most famous being Santo Daime and the União do Vegetal (or UDV), usually in an animistic context that may be shamanistic or, more often (as with Santo Daime and the UDV), integrated with Christianity. Both Santo Daime and União do Vegetal now have members and churches throughout the world. Similarly, the US and Europe have started to see new religious groups develop in relation to increased ayahuasca use. Some Westerners have teamed up with shamans in the Amazon forest regions, forming ayahuasca healing retreats that claim to be able to cure mental and physical illness and allow communication with the spirit world.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In recent years, the brew has been popularized by Wade Davis ("One River)," English novelist Martin Goodman in "I Was Carlos Castaneda", Chilean novelist Isabel Allende, writer Kira Salak, author Jeremy Narby ("The Cosmic Serpent"), author Jay Griffiths ("Wild: An Elemental Journey"), American novelist Steven Peck, radio personality Robin Quivers, and writer Paul Theroux ("").


title: Ayahuasca

text: Sections of "Banisteriopsis caapi" vine are macerated and boiled alone or with leaves from any of a number of other plants, including "Psychotria viridis" ("chacruna"), "Diplopterys cabrerana" (also known as "chaliponga" and "chacropanga"), and "Mimosa tenuiflora", among other ingredients which can vary greatly from one shaman to the next. The resulting brew may contain the powerful psychedelic drug DMT and MAO inhibiting harmala alkaloids, which are necessary to make the DMT orally active. The traditional making of ayahuasca follows a ritual process that requires the user to pick the lower Chacruna leaf at sunrise, then say a prayer. The vine must be "cleaned meticulously with wooden spoons" and pounded "with wooden mallets until it's fibre."


title: Ayahuasca

text: Brews can also be made with plants that do not contain DMT, "Psychotria viridis" being replaced by plants such as "Justicia pectoralis", "Brugmansia", or sacred tobacco, also known as "mapacho" (Nicotiana rustica), or sometimes left out with no replacement. This brew varies radically from one batch to the next, both in potency and psychoactive effect, based mainly on the skill of the shaman or brewer, as well as other admixtures sometimes added and the intent of the ceremony. Natural variations in plant alkaloid content and profiles also affect the final concentration of alkaloids in the brew, and the physical act of cooking may also serve to modify the alkaloid profile of harmala alkaloids.


title: Ayahuasca

text: The actual preparation of the brew takes several hours, often taking place over the course of more than one day. After adding the plant material, each separately at this stage, to a large pot of water it is boiled until the water is reduced by half in volume. The individual brews are then added together and brewed until reduced significantly. This combined brew is what is taken by participants in ayahuasca ceremonies.


title: Ayahuasca

text: The uses of ayahuasca in traditional societies in South America vary greatly. Some cultures do use it for shamanic purposes, but in other cases, it is consumed socially among friends, in order to learn more about the natural environment, and even in order to visit friends and family who are far away.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Nonetheless, people who work with ayahuasca in non-traditional contexts often align themselves with the philosophies and cosmologies associated with ayahuasca shamanism, as practiced among indigenous peoples like the Urarina of the Peruvian Amazon. Dietary taboos are often associated with the use of ayahuasca, although these seem to be specific to the culture around Iquitos, Peru, a major center of ayahuasca tourism.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In the rainforest, these taboos tend towards the purification of one's self—abstaining from spicy and heavily seasoned foods, excess fat, salt, caffeine, acidic foods (such as citrus) and sex before, after, or during a ceremony. A diet low in foods containing tyramine has been recommended, as the speculative interaction of tyramine and MAOIs could lead to a hypertensive crisis; however, evidence indicates that harmala alkaloids act only on MAO-A, in a reversible way similar to moclobemide (an antidepressant that does not require dietary restrictions). Dietary restrictions are not used by the highly urban Brazilian ayahuasca church União do Vegetal, suggesting the risk is much lower than perceived and probably non-existent.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Shamans, curanderos and experienced users of ayahuasca advise against consuming ayahuasca when not in the presence of one or several well-trained shamans.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In some areas, there are purported "brujos" (Spanish for "witches") who masquerade as real shamans and who entice tourists to drink ayahuasca in their presence. Shamans believe one of the purposes for this is to steal one's energy and/or power, of which they believe every person has a limited stockpile.


title: Ayahuasca

text: The shamans lead the ceremonial consumption of the ayahuasca beverage, in a rite that typically takes place over the entire night. During the ceremony, the effect of the drink lasts for hours. Prior to the ceremony, participants are instructed to abstain from spicy foods, red meat and sex. The ceremony is usually accompanied with purging which include vomiting and diarrhea, which is believed to release built-up emotions and negative energy.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Traditional ayahuasca brews are usually made with "Banisteriopsis caapi" as an MAOI, while dimethyltryptamine sources and other admixtures vary from region to region. There are several varieties of caapi, often known as different "colors", with varying effects, potencies, and uses.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In the late 20th century, the practice of ayahuasca drinking began spreading to Europe, North America and elsewhere. The first ayahuasca churches, affiliated with the Brazilian Santo Daime, were established in the Netherlands. A legal case was filed against two of the Church's leaders, Hans Bogers (one of the original founders of the Dutch Santo Daime community) and Geraldine Fijneman (the head of the Amsterdam Santo Daime community). Bogers and Fijneman were charged with distributing a controlled substance (DMT); however, the prosecution was unable to prove that the use of ayahuasca by members of the Santo Daime constituted a sufficient threat to public health and order such that it warranted denying their rights to religious freedom under ECHR Article 9. The 2001 verdict of the Amsterdam district court is an important precedent. Since then groups that are not affiliated to the Santo Daime have used ayahuasca, and a number of different "styles" have been developed, including non-religious approaches.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In modern Europe and North America, ayahuasca analogs are often prepared using non-traditional plants which contain the same alkaloids. For example, seeds of the Syrian rue plant can be used as a substitute for the ayahuasca vine, and the DMT-rich "Mimosa hostilis" is used in place of "chacruna". Australia has several indigenous plants which are popular among modern "ayahuasqueros" there, such as various DMT-rich species of "Acacia".


title: Ayahuasca

text: The name "ayahuasca" specifically refers to a botanical decoction that contains "Banisteriopsis caapi". A synthetic version, known as pharmahuasca, is a combination of an appropriate MAOI and typically DMT. In this usage, the DMT is generally considered the main psychoactive active ingredient, while the MAOI merely preserves the psychoactivity of orally ingested DMT, which would otherwise be destroyed in the gut before it could be absorbed in the body. In contrast, traditionally among Amazonian tribes, the "B. Caapi" vine is considered to be the "spirit" of ayahuasca, the gatekeeper, and guide to the otherworldly realms.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Brews similar to ayahuasca may be prepared using several plants not traditionally used in South America:


title: Ayahuasca

text: People who have consumed ayahuasca report having mystical experiences and spiritual revelations regarding their purpose on earth, the true nature of the universe, and deep insight into how to be the best person they possibly can. Many people also report therapeutic effects, especially around depression and personal traumas.


title: Ayahuasca

text: This is viewed by many as a spiritual awakening and what is often described as a near-death experience or rebirth. It is often reported that individuals feel they gain access to higher spiritual dimensions and make contact with various spiritual or extra-dimensional beings who can act as guides or healers.


title: Ayahuasca

text: The experiences that people have while under the influence of ayahuasca are also culturally influenced. Westerners typically describe experiences with psychological terms like "ego death" and understand the hallucinations as repressed memories or metaphors of mental states. However, at least in Iquitos, Peru (a center of ayahuasca ceremonies), those from the area describe the experiences more in terms of the actions in the body and understand the visions as reflections of their environment, sometimes including the person who they believe caused their illness, as well as interactions with spirits.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Recently, ayahuasca has been found to interact specifically with the visual cortex of the brain. In one study, de Araujo et al. measured the activity in the visual cortex when they showed participants photographs. Then, they measured the activity when the individuals closed their eyes. In the control group, the cortex was activated when looking at the photos, and less active when the participant closed his eyes; however, under the influence of ayahuasca and DMT, even with closed eyes, the cortex was just as active as when looking at the photographs. This study suggests that ayahuasca activates a complicated network of vision and memory which heightens the internal reality of the participants.


title: Ayahuasca

text: It is claimed that people may experience profound positive life changes subsequent to consuming ayahuasca, by author Don Jose Campos and others.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Vomiting can follow ayahuasca ingestion; this is considered by many shamans and experienced users of ayahuasca to be a purging and an essential part of the experience, representing the release of negative energy and emotions built up over the course of one's life. Others report purging in the form of diarrhea and hot/cold flashes.


title: Ayahuasca

text: The ingestion of ayahuasca can also cause significant but temporary emotional and psychological distress. Excessive use could possibly lead to serotonin syndrome (although serotonin syndrome has never been specifically caused by ayahuasca except in conjunction with certain anti-depressants like SSRIs). Depending on dosage, the temporary non-entheogenic effects of ayahuasca can include tremors, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, autonomic instability, hyperthermia, sweating, motor function impairment, sedation, relaxation, vertigo, dizziness, and muscle spasms which are primarily caused by the harmala alkaloids in ayahuasca. Long-term negative effects are not known.


title: Ayahuasca

text: A few deaths linked to participation in the consumption of ayahuasca have been reported. Some of the deaths may have been due to unscreened preexisting heart conditions, interaction with drugs, such as antidepressants, recreational drugs, caffeine (due to the CYP1A2 inhibition of the harmala alkaloids), nicotine (from drinking tobacco tea for purging/cleansing), or from improper/irresponsible use due to behavioral risks or possible drug to drug interactions.


title: Ayahuasca

text: For example, in 2018 it was reported that a single dose of ayahuasca significantly reduced symptoms of treatment-resistant depression in a small placebo-controlled trial. More specifically, statistically significant reductions of up to 82% in depressive scores were observed between baseline and 1, 7 and 21 days after ayahuasca administration, as measured on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), and the Anxious-Depression subscale of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Other placebo-controlled research has provided evidence that ayahuasca can help improve self-perceptions in those with social anxiety disorder.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Ayahuasca has also been studied for the treatment of addictions and shown to be effective, with lower Addiction Severity Index scores seen in users of ayahuasca compared to controls. Ayahuasca users have also been seen to consume less alcohol.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Both in vitro and in vivo experiments have shown the DMT component of ayahuasca may induce the production of new neurons in the hippocampus. Murine test subjects performed better on memory tasks compared to a control group. Future research may lead to treatments for psychiatric and neurological disorders.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Ayahuasca has been reported to have been successfully used to treat SUNCT, an excruciating headache disorder, and relieve the symptoms for three weeks at a time.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Harmala alkaloids are MAO-inhibiting "beta"-carbolines. The three most studied harmala alkaloids in the "B. caapi" vine are harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine. Harmine and harmaline are selective and reversible inhibitors of monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), while tetrahydroharmine is a weak serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI).


title: Ayahuasca

text: This inhibition of MAO-A allows DMT to diffuse unmetabolized past the membranes in the stomach and small intestine, and eventually cross the blood–brain barrier (which, by itself, requires no MAO-A inhibition) to activate receptor sites in the brain. Without RIMAs or the non-selective, nonreversible monoamine oxidase inhibition by drugs like phenelzine and tranylcypromine, DMT would be oxidized (and thus rendered biologically inactive) by monoamine oxidase enzymes in the digestive tract.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Individual polymorphisms of the cytochrome P450-2D6 enzyme affect the ability of individuals to metabolize harmine. Some natural tolerance to habitual use of ayahuasca (roughly once weekly) may develop through upregulation of the serotonergic system. A phase 1 pharmacokinetic study on ayahuasca (as Hoasca) with 15 volunteers was conducted in 1993, during the Hoasca Project. A review of the Hoasca Project has been published.


title: Ayahuasca

text: The compound N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) found in ayahuasca has been shown to be immunoregulatory by preventing severe hypoxia and oxidative stress in in vitro macrophages, cortical neurons, and dendritic cells by binding to the Sigma-1 receptor. In vitro co-treatment of monocyte derived dendritic cells with DMT and 5-MeO-DMT inhibited the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα and the chemokine IL-8, while increased the secretion of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 by activating the Sigma-1 receptor.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Several studies have shown the alkaloids in the B. caapi vine promote neurogenesis. More specifically, in vitro studies showed that harmine, tetrahydroharmine and harmaline, stimulated neural stem cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation into adult neurons. In vivo studies conducted on the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus noted an increase in the proliferation of BrdU positive cells in response to 100 μg of 5-MeO-DMT injected intravenously in the adult mouse brain.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Internationally, DMT is a Schedule I drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The Commentary on the Convention on Psychotropic Substances notes, however, that the plants containing it are not subject to international control:


title: Ayahuasca

text: A fax from the Secretary of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) to the Netherlands Ministry of Public Health sent in 2001 goes on to state that "Consequently, preparations (e.g. decoctions) made of these plants, including ayahuasca, are not under international control and, therefore, not subject to any of the articles of the 1971 Convention."


title: Ayahuasca

text: Despite the INCB's 2001 affirmation that ayahuasca is not subject to drug control by international convention, in its 2010 Annual Report the Board recommended that governments consider controlling (i.e. criminalizing) ayahuasca at the national level. This recommendation by the INCB has been criticized as an attempt by the Board to overstep its legitimate mandate and as establishing a reason for governments to violate the human rights (i.e., religious freedom) of ceremonial ayahuasca drinkers.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Under American federal law, DMT is a Schedule I drug that is illegal to possess or consume; however, certain religious groups have been legally permitted to consume ayahuasca. A court case allowing the União do Vegetal to import and use the tea for religious purposes in the United States, "Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal", was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on November 1, 2005; the decision, released February 21, 2006, allows the UDV to use the tea in its ceremonies pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In a similar case an Ashland, Oregon-based Santo Daime church sued for their right to import and consume ayahuasca tea. In March 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Panner ruled in favor of the Santo Daime, acknowledging its protection from prosecution under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In 2017 the Santo Daime Church Céu do Montréal in Canada received religious exemption to use ayahuasca as a sacrament in their rituals.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Religious use in Brazil was legalized after two official inquiries into the tea in the mid-1980s, which concluded that ayahuasca is not a recreational drug and has valid spiritual uses.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In France, Santo Daime won a court case allowing them to use the tea in early 2005; however, they were not allowed an exception for religious purposes, but rather for the simple reason that they did not perform chemical extractions to end up with pure DMT and harmala and the plants used were not scheduled. Four months after the court victory, the common ingredients of ayahuasca as well as harmala were declared "stupéfiants", or narcotic schedule I substances, making the tea and its ingredients illegal to use or possess.


title: Ayahuasca

text: In June 2019, Oakland, California, decriminalized natural entheogens. The City Council passed the resolution in a unanimous vote, ending the investigation and imposition of criminal penalties for use and possession of entheogens derived from plants or fungi. The resolution states: "Practices with Entheogenic Plants have long existed and have been considered to be sacred to human cultures and human interrelationships with nature for thousands of years, and continue to be enhanced and improved to this day by religious and spiritual leaders, practicing professionals, mentors, and healers throughout the world, many of whom have been forced underground."


title: Ayahuasca

text: In January 2020, Santa Cruz, California, and in September 2020, Ann Arbor, Michigan, decriminalized natural entheogens.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Ayahuasca has stirred debate regarding intellectual property protection of traditional knowledge. In 1986 the US Patent and Trademarks Office (PTO) allowed the granting of a patent on the ayahuasca vine "B. caapi". It allowed this patent based on the assumption that ayahuasca's properties had not been previously described in writing. Several public interest groups, including the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and the Coalition for Amazonian Peoples and Their Environment (Amazon Coalition) objected. In 1999 they brought a legal challenge to this patent which had granted a private US citizen "ownership" of the knowledge of a plant that is well-known and sacred to many indigenous peoples of the Amazon, and used by them in religious and healing ceremonies.


title: Ayahuasca

text: Later that year the PTO issued a decision rejecting the patent, on the basis that the petitioners' arguments that the plant was not "distinctive or novel" were valid; however, the decision did not acknowledge the argument that the plant's religious or cultural values prohibited a patent. In 2001, after an appeal by the patent holder, the US Patent Office reinstated the patent, albeit to only a specific plant and its asexually reproduced offspring. The law at the time did not allow a third party such as COICA to participate in that part of the reexamination process. The patent, held by US entrepreneur Loren Miller, expired in 2003.


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: Brendan Gleeson (born 29 March 1955) is an Irish actor and film director. He is the recipient of three IFTA Awards, two British Independent Film Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award and has been nominated twice for a BAFTA Award and four times for a Golden Globe Award. In 2020, he was listed at number 18 on "The Irish Times" list of Ireland's greatest film actors. He is the father of actors Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson.


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: He is best known for his performance as Alastor Moody in the "Harry Potter" films (2005–2010). He is also known for his supporting roles in films such as "Braveheart" (1995), "Michael Collins" (1996)", 28 Days Later" (2002), "Gangs of New York" (2002), "Cold Mountain" (2003), "Troy" (2004), "Suffragette" (2015), "Paddington 2" (2017), "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" (2018), and "The Tragedy of Macbeth" (2021). He is also known for his leading roles in films such as "The General" (1998), "In Bruges" (2008), "The Guard" (2011), "Calvary" (2014), "Frankie" (2014), and "The Banshees of Inisherin" (2022).


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: He won an Primetime Emmy Award in 2009 for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the television film "Into the Storm". He also received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance as Donald Trump in the Showtime series "The Comey Rule" (2020). From 2017 to 2019 he starred in the crime series "Mr. Mercedes". He received an Emmy Award nomination for his role in the Stephen Frears comedy series "State of the Union" (2022).


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: Gleeson was born in Dublin, the son of Pat (1925–2007) and Frank Gleeson (1918–2010). Gleeson has described himself as having been an avid reader as a child. He received his second-level education at St Joseph's CBS in Fairview, Dublin where he was a member of the school drama group. He received his Bachelor of Arts at University College Dublin, majoring in English and Irish. After training as an actor, he worked for several years as a secondary school teacher of Irish and English at the now defunct Catholic Belcamp College in North County Dublin, which closed in 2004. He was working simultaneously as an actor while teaching, doing semi-professional and professional productions in Dublin and surrounding areas. He left the teaching profession to commit full-time to acting in 1991. In an NPR interview to promote "Calvary" in 2014, Gleeson stated he was molested as a child by a Christian Brother in primary school but was in "no way traumatised by the incident."


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: As a member of the Dublin-based Passion Machine Theatre company, Gleeson appeared in several of the theatre company's early and highly successful plays such as "Brownbread" (1987), written by Roddy Doyle and directed by Paul Mercier, "Wasters" (1985) and "Home" (1988), written and directed by Paul Mercier. He has also written three plays for Passion Machine: "The Birdtable" (1987) and "Breaking Up" (1988), both of which he directed, and "Babies and Bathwater" (1994) in which he acted. Among his other Dublin theatre work are Patrick Süskind's one-man play "The Double Bass" and John B. Keane's "The Year of the Hiker".


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: Gleeson started his film career at the age of 34. He first came to prominence in Ireland for his role as Michael Collins in "The Treaty", a television film broadcast on RTÉ One, and for which he won a Jacob's Award in 1992. He has acted in such films as "Braveheart", "I Went Down", "Michael Collins", "Gangs of New York", "Cold Mountain", "28 Days Later", "Troy", "Kingdom of Heaven", "Lake Placid", "A.I. Artificial Intelligence", "", and "The Village". He won critical acclaim for his performance as Irish gangster Martin Cahill in John Boorman's 1998 film "The General".


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: In 2003, Gleeson was the voice of Hugh the Miller in an episode of the Channel 4 animated series "Wilde Stories".


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: While Gleeson portrayed Irish statesman Michael Collins in "The Treaty", he later portrayed Collins' close collaborator Liam Tobin in the film "Michael Collins" with Liam Neeson taking the role of Collins. Gleeson later went on to portray Winston Churchill in "Into the Storm". Gleeson won an Emmy Award for his performance.


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: Gleeson played Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody in the fourth, fifth and seventh "Harry Potter" films. His son Domhnall played Bill Weasley in the seventh and eighth films.


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: Gleeson provided the voice of Abbot Cellach in "The Secret of Kells", an animated film co-directed by Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey of Cartoon Saloon which premiered in February 2009 at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: Gleeson starred in the short film "Six Shooter" in 2006, which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. This film was written and directed by Martin McDonagh. In 2008, Gleeson starred in the comedy crime film "In Bruges", also written and directed by McDonagh. The film, and Gleeson's performance, enjoyed huge critical acclaim, earning Gleeson several award nominations, including his first Golden Globe nomination. In the movie, Gleeson plays a mentor-like figure for Colin Farrell's hitman. In his review of "In Bruges", Roger Ebert described the elder Gleeson as having a "noble shambles of a face and the heft of a boxer gone to seed."


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: In July 2012, he started filming "The Grand Seduction", with Taylor Kitsch, a remake of Jean-François Pouliot's French-Canadian "La Grande Séduction" (2003) directed by Don McKellar; the film was released in 2013. In 2016, he appeared in the video game adaptation "Assassin's Creed" and Ben Affleck's crime drama "Live by Night". In 2017 he finished "Psychic", a short he directed and starred in.


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: Gleeson is a fiddle and mandolin player, with an interest in Irish folklore. He played the fiddle during his roles in "Cold Mountain", "Michael Collins", "The Grand Seduction", and "The Banshees of Inisherin", and also features on Altan's 2009 live album. In the Coen brothers' "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" (2018), Gleeson sings "The Unfortunate Rake". He has also made a contribution in 2019 to the album by Irish folk group Dervish with a version of "Rocky Road To Dublin".


title: Brendan Gleeson

text: He has been married to Mary Weldon since 1982. They have four sons; Domhnall, Fergus, Brían, and Rory. Domhnall and Brían are also actors. Gleeson speaks fluent Irish and is an advocate of the promotion of the Irish language. Gleeson is a fan of English football club Aston Villa, as is his son Domhnall.


title: John, King of England

text: John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of , a document considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom.


title: John, King of England

text: John was the youngest of the four surviving sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was nicknamed John Lackland because he was not expected to inherit significant lands. He became Henry's favourite child following the failed revolt of 1173–1174 by his brothers Henry the Young King, Richard, and Geoffrey against the King. John was appointed Lord of Ireland in 1177 and given lands in England and on the continent. He unsuccessfully attempted a rebellion against the royal administrators of his brother, King Richard, whilst Richard was participating in the Third Crusade, but he was proclaimed king after Richard died in 1199. He came to an agreement with Philip II of France to recognise John's possession of the continental Angevin lands at the peace treaty of Le Goulet in 1200.


title: John, King of England

text: When war with France broke out again in 1202, John achieved early victories, but shortages of military resources and his treatment of Norman, Breton, and Anjou nobles resulted in the collapse of his empire in northern France in 1204. He spent much of the next decade attempting to regain these lands, raising huge revenues, reforming his armed forces and rebuilding continental alliances. His judicial reforms had a lasting effect on the English common law system, as well as providing an additional source of revenue. An argument with Pope Innocent III led to John's excommunication in 1209, a dispute he finally settled in 1213. John's attempt to defeat Philip in 1214 failed because of the French victory over John's allies at the battle of Bouvines. When he returned to England, John faced a rebellion by many of his barons, who were unhappy with his fiscal policies and his treatment of many of England's most powerful nobles. Although both John and the barons agreed to the peace treaty in 1215, neither side complied with its conditions. Civil war broke out shortly afterwards, with the barons aided by Louis VIII of France. It soon descended into a stalemate. John died of dysentery contracted whilst on campaign in eastern England during late 1216; supporters of his son Henry III went on to achieve victory over Louis and the rebel barons the following year.


title: John, King of England

text: Contemporary chroniclers were mostly critical of John's performance as king, and his reign has since been the subject of significant debate and periodic revision by historians from the 16th century onwards. Historian Jim Bradbury has summarised the current historical opinion of John's positive qualities, observing that John is today usually considered a "hard-working administrator, an able man, an able general". Nonetheless, modern historians agree that he also had many faults as king, including what historian Ralph Turner describes as "distasteful, even dangerous personality traits", such as pettiness, spitefulness, and cruelty. These negative qualities provided extensive material for fiction writers in the Victorian era, and John remains a recurring character within Western popular culture, primarily as a villain in films and stories depicting the Robin Hood legends.


title: John, King of England

text: John was born on 24 December 1166. His father, King Henry II of England, had inherited significant territories along the Atlantic seaboardAnjou, Normandy and Englandand expanded his empire by conquering Brittany. John's mother, the powerful Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, had a tenuous claim to Toulouse and Auvergne in southern France, and was the former wife of King Louis VII of France. The territories of Henry and Eleanor formed the Angevin Empire, named after Henry's paternal title as Count of Anjou and, more specifically, its seat in Angers. The Empire, however, was inherently fragile: although all the lands owed allegiance to Henry, the disparate parts each had their own histories, traditions and governance structures. As one moved south through Anjou and Aquitaine, the extent of Henry's power in the provinces diminished considerably, scarcely resembling the modern concept of an empire at all. Some of the traditional ties between parts of the empire such as Normandy and England were slowly dissolving over time. The future of the empire upon Henry's eventual death was not secure: Although the custom of primogeniture, under which an eldest son would inherit all his father's lands, was slowly becoming more widespread across Europe, it was less popular amongst the Norman kings of England. Most believed that Henry would divide the empire, giving each son a substantial portion, and hoping that his children would continue to work together as allies after his death. To complicate matters, much of the Angevin empire was held by Henry only as a vassal of the king of France of the rival line of the House of Capet. Henry had often allied himself with the Holy Roman Emperor against France, making the feudal relationship even more challenging.


title: John, King of England

text: Shortly after his birth, John was passed from Eleanor into the care of a wet nurse, a traditional practice for medieval noble families. Eleanor then left for Poitiers, the capital of Aquitaine, and sent John and his sister Joan north to Fontevrault Abbey. This may have been done with the aim of steering her youngest son, with no obvious inheritance, towards a future ecclesiastical career. Eleanor spent the next few years conspiring against Henry and neither parent played a part in John's very early life. John was probably, like his brothers, assigned a "magister" whilst he was at Fontevrault, a teacher charged with his early education and with managing the servants of his immediate household; John was later taught by Ranulf de Glanvill, a leading English administrator. John spent some time as a member of the household of his eldest living brother Henry the Young King, where he probably received instruction in hunting and military skills.


title: John, King of England

text: John grew up to be around tall, relatively short, with a "powerful, barrel-chested body" and dark red hair; he looked to contemporaries like an inhabitant of Poitou. John enjoyed reading and, unusually for the period, built up a travelling library of books. He enjoyed gambling, in particular at backgammon, and was an enthusiastic hunter, even by medieval standards. He liked music, although not songs. John would become a "connoisseur of jewels", building up a large collection, and became famous for his opulent clothes and also, according to French chroniclers, for his fondness for bad wine. As John grew up, he became known for sometimes being "genial, witty, generous and hospitable"; at other moments, he could be jealous, over-sensitive and prone to fits of rage, "biting and gnawing his fingers" in anger.


title: John, King of England

text: During John's early years, Henry attempted to resolve the question of his succession. Henry the Young King had been crowned King of England in 1170, but was not given any formal powers by his father; he was also promised Normandy and Anjou as part of his future inheritance. His brother Richard was to be appointed the count of Poitou with control of Aquitaine, whilst his brother Geoffrey was to become the duke of Brittany. At this time it seemed unlikely that John would ever inherit substantial lands, and he was jokingly nicknamed "Lackland" by his father.


title: John, King of England

text: Henry II wanted to secure the southern borders of Aquitaine and decided to betroth his youngest son to Alais, the daughter and heiress of Humbert III of Savoy. As part of this agreement John was promised the future inheritance of Savoy, Piedmont, Maurienne, and the other possessions of Count Humbert. For his part in the potential marriage alliance, Henry II transferred the castles of Chinon, Loudun and Mirebeau into John's name; as John was only five years old his father would continue to control them for practical purposes. Henry the Young King was unimpressed by this; although he had yet to be granted control of any castles in his new kingdom, these were effectively his future property and had been given away without consultation. Alais made the trip over the Alps and joined Henry II's court, but she died before marrying John, which left the prince once again without an inheritance.


title: John, King of England

text: In 1173 John's elder brothers, backed by Eleanor, rose in revolt against Henry in the short-lived rebellion of 1173 to 1174. Growing irritated with his subordinate position to Henry II and increasingly worried that John might be given additional lands and castles at his expense, Henry the Young King travelled to Paris and allied himself with Louis VII. Eleanor, irritated by her husband's persistent interference in Aquitaine, encouraged Richard and Geoffrey to join their brother Henry in Paris. Henry II triumphed over the coalition of his sons, but was generous to them in the peace settlement agreed at Montlouis. Henry the Young King was allowed to travel widely in Europe with his own household of knights, Richard was given Aquitaine back, and Geoffrey was allowed to return to Brittany; only Eleanor was imprisoned for her role in the revolt.


title: John, King of England

text: John had spent the conflict travelling alongside his father, and was given widespread possessions across the Angevin empire as part of the Montlouis settlement; from then onwards, most observers regarded John as Henry II's favourite child, although he was the furthest removed in terms of the royal succession. Henry II began to find more lands for John, mostly at various nobles' expense. In 1175 he appropriated the estates of the late Earl of Cornwall and gave them to John. The following year, Henry disinherited the sisters of Isabella of Gloucester, contrary to legal custom, and betrothed John to the now extremely wealthy Isabella. In 1177, at the Council of Oxford, Henry dismissed William FitzAldelm as the Lord of Ireland and replaced him with the ten-year-old John.


title: John, King of England

text: Henry the Young King fought a short war with his brother Richard in 1183 over the status of England, Normandy and Aquitaine. Henry II moved in support of Richard, and Henry the Young King died from dysentery at the end of the campaign. With his primary heir dead, Henry rearranged the plans for the succession: Richard was to be made King of England, albeit without any actual power until the death of his father; Geoffrey would retain Brittany; and John would now become the Duke of Aquitaine in place of Richard. Richard refused to give up Aquitaine; Henry II was furious and ordered John, with help from Geoffrey, to march south and retake the duchy by force. The two attacked the capital of Poitiers, and Richard responded by attacking Brittany. The war ended in stalemate and a tense family reconciliation in England at the end of 1184.


title: John, King of England

text: In 1185 John made his first visit to Ireland, accompanied by 300 knights and a team of administrators. Henry had tried to have John officially proclaimed King of Ireland, but Pope Lucius III would not agree. John's first period of rule in Ireland was not a success. Ireland had only recently been conquered by Anglo-Norman forces, and tensions were still rife between Henry II, the new settlers and the existing inhabitants. John infamously offended the local Irish rulers by making fun of their unfashionable long beards, failed to make allies amongst the Anglo-Norman settlers, began to lose ground militarily against the Irish and finally returned to England later in the year, blaming the viceroy, Hugh de Lacy, for the fiasco.


title: John, King of England

text: The problems amongst John's wider family continued to grow. His elder brother Geoffrey died during a tournament in 1186, leaving a posthumous son, Arthur, and an elder daughter, Eleanor. Geoffrey's death brought John slightly closer to the throne of England. The uncertainty about what would happen after Henry's death continued to grow; Richard was keen to join a new crusade and remained concerned that whilst he was away Henry would appoint John his formal successor.


title: John, King of England

text: Richard began discussions about a potential alliance with Philip II in Paris during 1187, and the next year Richard gave homage to Philip in exchange for support for a war against Henry. Richard and Philip fought a joint campaign against Henry, and by the summer of 1189 the king made peace, promising Richard the succession. John initially remained loyal to his father, but changed sides once it appeared that Richard would win. Henry died shortly afterwards.


title: John, King of England

text: When Richard became king in September 1189, he had already declared his intention of joining the Third Crusade. He set about raising the huge sums of money required for this expedition through the sale of lands, titles and appointments, and attempted to ensure that he would not face a revolt while away from his empire. John was made Count of Mortain, was married to the wealthy Isabella of Gloucester, and was given valuable lands in Lancaster and the counties of Cornwall, Derby, Devon, Dorset, Nottingham and Somerset, all with the aim of buying his loyalty to Richard whilst the King was on crusade. Richard retained royal control of key castles in these counties, thereby preventing John from accumulating too much military and political power. The King named his four-year-old nephew Arthur as his heir. In return, John promised not to visit England for the next three years, thereby in theory giving Richard adequate time to conduct a successful crusade and return from the Levant without fear of John seizing power. Richard left political authority in England—the post of justiciar—jointly in the hands of Bishop Hugh de Puiset and William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex, and made William Longchamp, the Bishop of Ely, his chancellor. Mandeville immediately died, and Longchamp took over as joint justiciar with Puiset, which would prove a less than satisfactory partnership. Eleanor, the queen mother, convinced Richard to allow John into England in his absence.


title: John, King of England

text: The political situation in England rapidly began to deteriorate. Longchamp refused to work with Puiset and became unpopular with the English nobility and clergy. John exploited this unpopularity to set himself up as an alternative ruler with his own royal court, complete with his own justiciar, chancellor and other royal posts, and was happy to be portrayed as an alternative regent, and possibly the next king. Armed conflict broke out between John and Longchamp, and by October 1191 Longchamp was isolated in the Tower of London with John in control of the city of London, thanks to promises John had made to the citizens in return for recognition as Richard's heir presumptive. At this point Walter of Coutances, the Archbishop of Rouen, returned to England, having been sent by Richard to restore order. John's position was undermined by Walter's relative popularity and by the news that Richard had married whilst in Cyprus, which presented the possibility that Richard would have legitimate children and heirs.


title: John, King of England

text: The political turmoil continued. John began to explore an alliance with King Philip II of France, who had returned from the crusade in late 1191. John hoped to acquire Normandy, Anjou and the other lands in France held by Richard in exchange for allying himself with Philip. John was persuaded not to pursue an alliance by his mother. Longchamp, who had left England after Walter's intervention, now returned, and argued that he had been wrongly removed as justiciar. John intervened, suppressing Longchamp's claims in return for promises of support from the royal administration, including a reaffirmation of his position as heir to the throne. When Richard still did not return from the crusade, John began to assert that his brother was dead or otherwise permanently lost. Richard had in fact been captured shortly before Christmas 1192, while en route to England, by Duke Leopold V of Austria and was handed over to Emperor Henry VI, who held him for ransom. John seized the opportunity and went to Paris, where he formed an alliance with Philip. He agreed to set aside his wife, Isabella of Gloucester, and marry Philip's sister, Alys, in exchange for Philip's support. Fighting broke out in England between forces loyal to Richard and those being gathered by John. John's military position was weak and he agreed to a truce; in early 1194 the King finally returned to England, and John's remaining forces surrendered. John retreated to Normandy, where Richard finally found him later that year. Richard declared that John—despite being 27 years old—was merely "a child who has had evil counsellors" and forgave him, but removed his lands with the exception of Ireland.


title: John, King of England

text: For the remaining years of Richard's reign, John supported his brother on the continent, apparently loyally. Richard's policy on the continent was to attempt to regain through steady, limited campaigns the castles he had lost to Philip II whilst on crusade. He allied himself with the leaders of Flanders, Boulogne and the Holy Roman Empire to apply pressure on Philip from Germany. In 1195 John successfully conducted a sudden attack and siege of Évreux castle, and subsequently managed the defences of Normandy against Philip. The following year, John seized the town of Gamaches and led a raiding party within of Paris, capturing the Bishop of Beauvais. In return for this service, Richard withdrew his (ill-will) towards John, restored him to the county of Gloucestershire and made him again the Count of Mortain.


title: John, King of England

text: After Richard's death on 6 April 1199 there were two potential claimants to the Angevin throne: John, whose claim rested on being the sole surviving son of Henry II, and young Arthur I of Brittany, who held a claim as the son of John's elder brother Geoffrey. Richard appears to have started to recognise John as his heir presumptive in the final years before his death, but the matter was not clear-cut and medieval law gave little guidance as to how the competing claims should be decided. With Norman law favouring John as the only surviving son of Henry II and Angevin law favouring Arthur as the only son of Henry's elder son, the matter rapidly became an open conflict. John was supported by the bulk of the English and Norman nobility and was crowned at Westminster Abbey, backed by his mother, Eleanor. Arthur was supported by the majority of the Breton, Maine and Anjou nobles and received the support of Philip II, who remained committed to breaking up the Angevin territories on the continent. With Arthur's army pressing up the Loire Valley towards Angers and Philip's forces moving down the valley towards Tours, John's continental empire was in danger of being cut in two.


title: John, King of England

text: Warfare in Normandy at the time was shaped by the defensive potential of castles and the increasing costs of conducting campaigns. The Norman frontiers had limited natural defences but were heavily reinforced with castles, such as Château Gaillard, at strategic points, built and maintained at considerable expense. It was difficult for a commander to advance far into fresh territory without having secured his lines of communication by capturing these fortifications, which slowed the progress of any attack. Armies of the period could be formed from either feudal or mercenary forces. Feudal levies could be raised only for a fixed length of time before they returned home, forcing an end to a campaign; mercenary forces, often called Brabançons after the Duchy of Brabant but actually recruited from across northern Europe, could operate all year long and provide a commander with more strategic options to pursue a campaign, but cost much more than equivalent feudal forces. As a result, commanders of the period were increasingly drawing on larger numbers of mercenaries.


title: John, King of England

text: After his coronation, John moved south into France with military forces and adopted a defensive posture along the eastern and southern Normandy borders. Both sides paused for desultory negotiations before the war recommenced; John's position was now stronger, thanks to confirmation that the counts Baldwin IX of Flanders and Renaud of Boulogne had renewed the anti-French alliances they had previously agreed to with Richard. The powerful Anjou nobleman William des Roches was persuaded to switch sides from Arthur to John; suddenly the balance seemed to be tipping away from Philip and Arthur in favour of John. Neither side was keen to continue the conflict, and following a papal truce the two leaders met in January 1200 to negotiate possible terms for peace. From John's perspective, what then followed represented an opportunity to stabilise control over his continental possessions and produce a lasting peace with Philip in Paris. John and Philip negotiated the May 1200 Treaty of Le Goulet; by this treaty, Philip recognised John as the rightful heir to Richard in respect to his French possessions, temporarily abandoning the wider claims of his client, Arthur. John, in turn, abandoned Richard's former policy of containing Philip through alliances with Flanders and Boulogne, and accepted Philip's right as the legitimate feudal overlord of John's lands in France. John's policy earned him the disrespectful title of "John Softsword" from some English chroniclers, who contrasted his behaviour with his more aggressive brother, Richard.


title: John, King of England

text: The new peace would last only two years; war recommenced in the aftermath of John's decision in August 1200 to marry Isabella of Angoulême. In order to remarry, John first needed to abandon his wife Isabella, Countess of Gloucester; the King accomplished this by arguing that he had failed to get the necessary papal dispensation to marry the Countess in the first place—as a cousin, John could not have legally wedded her without this. It remains unclear why John chose to marry Isabella of Angoulême. Contemporary chroniclers argued that John had fallen deeply in love with her, and John may have been motivated by desire for an apparently beautiful, if rather young, girl. On the other hand, the Angoumois lands that came with her were strategically vital to John: by marrying Isabella, John was acquiring a key land route between Poitou and Gascony, which significantly strengthened his grip on Aquitaine.


title: John, King of England

text: Isabella, however, was already engaged to Hugh IX of Lusignan, an important member of a key Poitou noble family and brother of Raoul I, Count of Eu, who possessed lands along the sensitive eastern Normandy border. Just as John stood to benefit strategically from marrying Isabella, so the marriage threatened the interests of the Lusignans, whose own lands currently provided the key route for royal goods and troops across Aquitaine. Rather than negotiating some form of compensation, John treated Hugh "with contempt"; this resulted in a Lusignan uprising that was promptly crushed by John, who also intervened to suppress Raoul in Normandy.


title: John, King of England

text: Although John was the Count of Poitou and therefore the rightful feudal lord over the Lusignans, they could legitimately appeal John's actions in France to his own feudal lord, Philip. Hugh did exactly this in 1201 and Philip summoned John to attend court in Paris in 1202, citing the Le Goulet treaty to strengthen his case. John was unwilling to weaken his authority in western France in this way. He argued that he need not attend Philip's court because of his special status as the Duke of Normandy, who was exempt by feudal tradition from being called to the French court. Philip argued that he was summoning John not as the Duke of Normandy, but as the Count of Poitou, which carried no such special status. When John still refused to come, Philip declared John in breach of his feudal responsibilities, reassigned all of John's lands that fell under the French crown to Arthur—with the exception of Normandy, which he took back for himself—and began a fresh war against John.


title: John, King of England

text: John initially adopted a defensive posture similar to that of 1199: avoiding open battle and carefully defending his key castles. John's operations became more chaotic as the campaign progressed, and Philip began to make steady progress in the east. John became aware in July that Arthur's forces were threatening his mother, Eleanor, at Mirebeau Castle. Accompanied by William de Roches, his seneschal in Anjou, he swung his mercenary army rapidly south to protect her. His forces caught Arthur by surprise and captured the entire rebel leadership at the battle of Mirebeau. With his southern flank weakening, Philip was forced to withdraw in the east and turn south himself to contain John's army.


title: John, King of England

text: John's position in France was considerably strengthened by the victory at Mirebeau, but John's treatment of his new prisoners and of his ally, William de Roches, quickly undermined these gains. De Roches was a powerful Anjou noble, but John largely ignored him, causing considerable offence, whilst the King kept the rebel leaders in such bad conditions that twenty-two of them died. At this time most of the regional nobility were closely linked through kinship, and this behaviour towards their relatives was regarded as unacceptable. William de Roches and other of John's regional allies in Anjou and Brittany deserted him in favour of Philip, and Brittany rose in fresh revolt. John's financial situation was tenuous: once factors such as the comparative military costs of materiel and soldiers were taken into account, Philip enjoyed a considerable, although not overwhelming, advantage of resources over John.


title: John, King of England

text: Further desertions of John's local allies at the beginning of 1203 steadily reduced his freedom to manoeuvre in the region. He attempted to convince Pope Innocent III to intervene in the conflict, but Innocent's efforts were unsuccessful. As the situation became worse for John, he appears to have decided to have Arthur killed, with the aim of removing his potential rival and of undermining the rebel movement in Brittany. Arthur had initially been imprisoned at Falaise and was then moved to Rouen. After this, Arthur's fate remains uncertain, but modern historians believe he was murdered by John. The annals of Margam Abbey suggest that "John had captured Arthur and kept him alive in prison for some time in the castle of Rouen ... when John was drunk he slew Arthur with his own hand and tying a heavy stone to the body cast it into the Seine." Rumours of the manner of Arthur's death further reduced support for John across the region. Arthur's sister, Eleanor, who had also been captured at Mirebeau, was kept imprisoned by John for many years, albeit in relatively good conditions.


title: John, King of England

text: In late 1203, John attempted to relieve Château Gaillard, which although besieged by Philip was guarding the eastern flank of Normandy. John attempted a synchronised operation involving land-based and water-borne forces, considered by most historians today to have been imaginative in conception, but overly complex for forces of the period to have carried out successfully. John's relief operation was blocked by Philip's forces, and John turned back to Brittany in an attempt to draw Philip away from eastern Normandy. John successfully devastated much of Brittany, but did not deflect Philip's main thrust into the east of Normandy. Opinions vary amongst historians as to the military skill shown by John during this campaign, with most recent historians arguing that his performance was passable, although not impressive.


title: John, King of England

text: John's situation began to deteriorate rapidly. The eastern border region of Normandy had been extensively cultivated by Philip and his predecessors for several years, whilst Angevin authority in the south had been undermined by Richard's giving away of various key castles some years before. His use of mercenaries in the central regions had rapidly eaten away his remaining support in this area too, which set the stage for a sudden collapse of Angevin power. John retreated back across the Channel in December, sending orders for the establishment of a fresh defensive line to the west of Chateau Gaillard. In March 1204, Gaillard fell. John's mother Eleanor died the following month. This was not just a personal blow for John, but threatened to unravel the widespread Angevin alliances across the far south of France. Philip moved south around the new defensive line and struck upwards at the heart of the Duchy, now facing little resistance. By August, Philip had taken Normandy and advanced south to occupy Anjou and Poitou as well. John's only remaining possession on the Continent was now the Duchy of Aquitaine.


title: John, King of England

text: The nature of government under the Angevin monarchs was ill-defined and uncertain. John's predecessors had ruled using the principle of ("force and will"), taking executive and sometimes arbitrary decisions, often justified on the basis that a king was above the law. Both Henry II and Richard had argued that kings possessed a quality of "divine majesty"; John continued this trend and claimed an "almost imperial status" for himself as ruler. During the 12th century, there were contrary opinions expressed about the nature of kingship, and many contemporary writers believed that monarchs should rule in accordance with the custom and the law, and take counsel of the leading members of the realm. There was as yet no model for what should happen if a king refused to do so. Despite his claim to unique authority within England, John would sometimes justify his actions on the basis that he had taken council with the barons. Modern historians remain divided as to whether John suffered from a case of "royal schizophrenia" in his approach to government, or if his actions merely reflected the complex model of Angevin kingship in the early 13th century.


title: John, King of England

text: John inherited a sophisticated system of administration in England, with a range of royal agents answering to the Royal Household: the Chancery kept written records and communications; the Treasury and the Exchequer dealt with income and expenditure respectively; and various judges were deployed to deliver justice around the kingdom. Thanks to the efforts of men like Hubert Walter, this trend towards improved record keeping continued into his reign. Like previous kings, John managed a peripatetic court that travelled around the kingdom, dealing with both local and national matters as he went. John was very active in the administration of England and was involved in every aspect of government. In part he was following in the tradition of Henry I and Henry II, but by the 13th century the volume of administrative work had greatly increased, which put much more pressure on a king who wished to rule in this style. John was in England for much longer periods than his predecessors, which made his rule more personal than that of previous kings, particularly in previously ignored areas such as the north.


title: John, King of England

text: The administration of justice was of particular importance to John. Several new processes had been introduced to English law under Henry II, including "novel disseisin" and "mort d'ancestor". These processes meant the royal courts had a more significant role in local law cases, which had previously been dealt with only by regional or local lords. John increased the professionalism of local sergeants and bailiffs, and extended the system of coroners first introduced by Hubert Walter in 1194, creating a new class of borough coroners. The King worked extremely hard to ensure that this system operated well, through judges he had appointed, by fostering legal specialists and expertise, and by intervening in cases himself. He continued to try relatively minor cases, even during military crises. Viewed positively, Lewis Warren considers that John discharged "his royal duty of providing justice ... with a zeal and a tirelessness to which the English common law is greatly endebted". Seen more critically, John may have been motivated by the potential of the royal legal process to raise fees, rather than a desire to deliver simple justice; his legal system also applied only to free men, rather than to all of the population. Nonetheless, these changes were popular with many free tenants, who acquired a more reliable legal system that could bypass the barons, against whom such cases were often brought. John's reforms were less popular with the barons themselves, especially as they remained subject to arbitrary and frequently vindictive royal justice.


title: John, King of England

text: One of John's principal challenges was acquiring the large sums of money needed for his proposed campaigns to reclaim Normandy. The Angevin kings had three main sources of income available to them, namely revenue from their personal lands, or "demesne"; money raised through their rights as a feudal lord; and revenue from taxation. Revenue from the royal demesne was inflexible and had been diminishing slowly since the Norman conquest. Matters were not helped by Richard's sale of many royal properties in 1189, and taxation played a much smaller role in royal income than in later centuries. English kings had widespread feudal rights which could be used to generate income, including the scutage system, in which feudal military service was avoided by a cash payment to the King. He derived income from fines, court fees and the sale of charters and other privileges. John intensified his efforts to maximise all possible sources of income, to the extent that he has been described as "avaricious, miserly, extortionate and moneyminded". He also used revenue generation as a way of exerting political control over the barons: debts owed to the crown by the King's favoured supporters might be forgiven; collection of those owed by enemies was more stringently enforced.


title: John, King of England

text: The result was a sequence of innovative but unpopular financial measures. John levied scutage payments eleven times in his seventeen years as king, as compared to eleven times in total during the reign of the preceding three monarchs. In many cases these were levied in the absence of any actual military campaign, which ran counter to the original idea that scutage was an alternative to actual military service. John maximised his right to demand relief payments when estates and castles were inherited, sometimes charging enormous sums, beyond barons' abilities to pay. Building on the successful sale of sheriff appointments in 1194, the King initiated a new round of appointments, with the new incumbents making back their investment through increased fines and penalties, particularly in the forests. Another innovation of Richard's, increased charges levied on widows who wished to remain single, was expanded under John. John continued to sell charters for new towns, including the planned town of Liverpool, and charters were sold for markets across the kingdom and in Gascony. The King introduced new taxes and extended existing ones. The Jews, who held a vulnerable position in medieval England, protected only by the King, were subject to huge taxes; £44,000 was extracted from the community by the tallage of 1210; much of it was passed on to the Christian debtors of Jewish moneylenders. John created a new tax on income and movable goods in 1207—effectively a version of a modern income tax—that produced £60,000; he created a new set of import and export duties payable directly to the Crown. He found that these measures enabled him to raise further resources through the confiscation of the lands of barons who could not pay or refused to pay.


title: John, King of England

text: At the start of John's reign there was a sudden change in prices, as bad harvests and high demand for food resulted in much higher prices for grain and animals. This inflationary pressure was to continue for the rest of the 13th century and had long-term economic consequences for England. The resulting social pressures were complicated by bursts of deflation that resulted from John's military campaigns. It was usual at the time for the King to collect taxes in silver, which was then re-minted into new coins; these coins would then be put in barrels and sent to royal castles around the country, to be used to hire mercenaries or to meet other costs. At those times when John was preparing for campaigns in Normandy, for example, huge quantities of silver had to be withdrawn from the economy and stored for months, which unintentionally resulted in periods during which silver coins were simply hard to come by, commercial credit difficult to acquire and deflationary pressure placed on the economy. The result was political unrest across the country. John attempted to address some of the problems with the English currency in 1204 and 1205 by carrying out a radical overhaul of the coinage, improving its quality and consistency.


title: John, King of England

text: John's royal household was based around several groups of followers. One group was the , his immediate friends and knights who travelled around the country with him. They also played an important role in organising and leading military campaigns. Another section of royal followers were the ; these were the senior officials and agents of the King and were essential to his day-to-day rule. Being a member of these inner circles brought huge advantages, as it was easier to gain favours from the King, file lawsuits, marry a wealthy heiress or have one's debts remitted. By the time of Henry II, these posts were increasingly being filled by "new men" from outside the normal ranks of the barons. This intensified under John's rule, with many lesser nobles arriving from the continent to take up positions at court; many were mercenary leaders from Poitou. These men included soldiers who would become infamous in England for their uncivilised behaviour, including Falkes de Breauté, Geard d'Athies, Engelard de Cigongé, and Philip Marc. Many barons perceived the King's household as what Ralph Turner has characterised as a "narrow clique enjoying royal favour at barons' expense" staffed by men of lesser status.


title: John, King of England

text: This trend for the King to rely on his own men at the expense of the barons was exacerbated by the tradition of Angevin royal ("anger and ill-will") and John's own personality. From Henry II onwards, had come to describe the right of the King to express his anger and displeasure at particular barons or clergy, building on the Norman concept of —royal ill-will. In the Norman period, suffering the King's ill-will meant difficulties in obtaining grants, honours or petitions; Henry II had infamously expressed his fury and ill-will towards Thomas Becket, which ultimately resulted in Becket's death. John now had the additional ability to "cripple his vassals" on a significant scale using his new economic and judicial measures, which made the threat of royal anger all the more serious.


title: John, King of England

text: John was deeply suspicious of the barons, particularly those with sufficient power and wealth to potentially challenge him. Numerous barons were subjected to his , even including the famous knight William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, normally held up as a model of utter loyalty. The most infamous case, which went beyond anything considered acceptable at the time, was that of the powerful William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, who held lands in Ireland. De Braose was subjected to punitive demands for money, and when he refused to pay a huge sum of 40,000 marks (equivalent to £26,666 at the time), his wife, Maud, and one of their sons were imprisoned by John, which resulted in their deaths. De Braose died in exile in 1211, and his grandsons remained in prison until 1218. John's suspicions and jealousies meant that he rarely enjoyed good relationships with even the leading loyalist barons.


title: John, King of England

text: John's personal life greatly affected his reign. Contemporary chroniclers state that John was sinfully lustful and lacking in piety. It was common for kings and nobles of the period to keep mistresses, but chroniclers complained that John's mistresses were married noblewomen, which was considered unacceptable. John had at least five children with mistresses during his first marriage, and two of those mistresses are known to have been noblewomen. John's behaviour after his second marriage is less clear, however. None of his known illegitimate children were born after he remarried, and there is no actual documentary proof of adultery after that point, although John certainly had female friends amongst the court throughout the period. The specific accusations made against John during the baronial revolts are now generally considered to have been invented for the purposes of justifying the revolt; nonetheless, most of John's contemporaries seem to have held a poor opinion of his sexual behaviour.


title: John, King of England

text: The character of John's relationship with his second wife, Isabella of Angoulême, is unclear. John married Isabella whilst she was relatively young—her exact date of birth is uncertain, and estimates place her between at most 15 and more probably towards nine years old at the time of her marriage. Even by the standards of the time, she was married whilst very young. John did not provide a great deal of money for his wife's household and did not pass on much of the revenue from her lands, to the extent that historian Nicholas Vincent has described him as being "downright mean" towards Isabella. Vincent concluded that the marriage was not a particularly "amicable" one. Other aspects of their marriage suggest a closer, more positive relationship. Chroniclers recorded that John had a "mad infatuation" with Isabella, and certainly the King and Queen had conjugal relationships between at least 1207 and 1215; they had five children. In contrast to Vincent, historian William Chester Jordan concludes that the pair were a "companionable couple" who had a successful marriage by the standards of the day.


title: John, King of England

text: John's lack of religious conviction has been noted by contemporary chroniclers and later historians, with some suspecting that he was at best impious, or even atheistic, a very serious issue at the time. Contemporary chroniclers catalogued his various anti-religious habits at length, including his failure to take communion, his blasphemous remarks, and his witty but scandalous jokes about church doctrine, including jokes about the implausibility of the Resurrection of Jesus. They commented on the paucity of John's charitable donations to the Church. Historian Frank McLynn argues that John's early years at Fontevrault, combined with his relatively advanced education, may have turned him against the church. Other historians have been more cautious in interpreting this material, noting that chroniclers also reported his personal interest in the life of St Wulfstan and his friendships with several senior clerics, most especially with Hugh of Lincoln, who was later declared a saint. Financial records show a normal royal household engaged in the usual feasts and pious observances—albeit with many records showing John's offerings to the poor to atone for routinely breaking church rules and guidance. The historian Lewis Warren has argued that the chronicler accounts were subject to considerable bias and the King was "at least conventionally devout", citing his pilgrimages and interest in religious scripture and commentaries.


title: John, King of England

text: During the remainder of his reign, John focused on trying to retake Normandy. The available evidence suggests that he did not regard the loss of the Duchy as a permanent shift in Capetian power. Strategically, John faced several challenges: England itself had to be secured against possible French invasion, the sea-routes to Bordeaux needed to be secured following the loss of the land route to Aquitaine, and his remaining possessions in Aquitaine needed to be secured following the death of his mother, Eleanor, in April 1204. John's preferred plan was to use Poitou as a base of operations, advance up the Loire Valley to threaten Paris, pin down the French forces and break Philip's internal lines of communication before landing a maritime force in the Duchy itself. Ideally, this plan would benefit from the opening of a second front on Philip's eastern frontiers with Flanders and Boulogne—effectively a re-creation of Richard's old strategy of applying pressure from Germany. All of this would require a great deal of money and soldiers.


title: John, King of England

text: John spent much of 1205 securing England against a potential French invasion. As an emergency measure, he recreated a version of Henry II's Assize of Arms of 1181, with each shire creating a structure to mobilise local levies. When the threat of invasion faded, John formed a large military force in England intended for Poitou, and a large fleet with soldiers under his own command intended for Normandy. To achieve this, John reformed the English feudal contribution to his campaigns, creating a more flexible system under which only one knight in ten would actually be mobilised, but would be financially supported by the other nine; knights would serve for an indefinite period. John built up a strong team of engineers for siege warfare and a substantial force of professional crossbowmen. The King was supported by a team of leading barons with military expertise, including William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, William the Marshal, Roger de Lacy and, until he fell from favour, the marcher lord William de Braose.