When it comes to naming their children, parents and grandparents mostly follow traditions and superstitions. Similarly, the royal family of England follows the traditional protocols of sticking to the names that exist already within the family. While the prince and princess formulate a name for their baby, the people of the kingdom predict certain names for the royalty.
The predictable names include general names like Alice and even Albert. Concurrently, everyone in the joy of predicting names for the royal family is particularly avoiding the name, John. The name is avoided because of the association with the unfortunate King John. During his rule of 19 years, he allegedly caused a myriad of problems to the country and to the royal family. Thus, the name is avoided to not welcome any possibility of unfortunate events.
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The Bad John: A Royal Family Concern
King John was born to King Henry II, as the second son, in 1166. He was also the younger brother of King Richard I. John attempted a coup when Richard I was fighting in the crusades. His foolery was exempted and forgiven. However, when he rose to power he became one of the most hated monarchs in the history of the royal family.
John Lackland, or John Softsword, during his reign, ruled over the stretches from Scotland to France. The ‘bad’ John brought in the most recognized system of record keeping of finances and also brought into being the Magna Carta. Albeit the records, he is notorious for his detrimental knowledge of the military, battles, and making the poor suffer. He raised the taxes of the people so that he could finance his war in France. The need to satiate his selfish monstrosity deemed him the title of the ‘Bad John.’
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The Villainization Of King John
Most of the transformational productions of pop culture incorporated the sanguine nature of the notorious King John into an antagonistic character. The antagonism stems from the fact that King John was ideally a poor ruler and did nothing to the people’s concerns. He is now recognized in popular culture as the chief antagonist of the Robinhood story.
His villainous acts during the regime have been adapted into popular culture a lot. The constant antagonization of King John amidst his greatest work of introducing the Magna Carta to the World, secured the deepest fear in the royal family to not opt his name to their progeny. In order to be for the people and care for the people, the Royal Family, refrains from using the name of their predecessor King John whose actions undeniably were not for the people.
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