1-627-795 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

King John (1167-1216) kneeling before the Pope's legate, 1213. Following a dispute between King John and Pope Innocent III regarding John's insistence on his sole right to elect a new Archbishop of Canterbury (following the death of Hubert Walter in 1205), John was excommunicated in 1209 and, in 1213, Innocent threatened stronger measures unless John submitted. The papal terms for submission were accepted in the presence of the papal legate Pandulph in May 1213. In addition, John offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to God and the Saints Peter and Paul for a feudal service of 1000 marks annually, 700 for England and 300 for Ireland. With this submission, John gained the valuable support of his papal overlord in his new dispute with the English barons.