King John (play) King John (play) The Life and Death of King John, a history play by William Shakespeare, dramatises the reign of John, King of England (ruled 1199–1216), son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of Henry III of England. It is believed to have been written in the mid-1590s but was not published until it appeared in the First Folio in 1623. King John receives an ambassador from France who demands with a threat of war, that he renounce his throne in favour of his nephew, Arthur, whom the French King Philip believes to be the
Máel Coluim, son of the king of the Cumbrians of Strathclyde. The twelfth-century "Chronicon ex chronicis" identifies him as a "son of the king of the Cumbrians" (). He was likely closely related to—and possibly descended from—Owain Foel, King of Strathclyde (fl. 1018), a monarch attested in 1018 assisting the Scots against the Northumbrians at the Battle of Carham. Not only is the fate of Owain Foel uncertain following this Scottish victory, so too is the fate of the Cumbrian kingdom. In 1054, the Kingdom of Alba was invaded by Siward, Earl of Northumbria (died 1055) in an campaign noted by the ninth- to twelfth-century "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". According to