SOURCE: Sibly, John. “The Anomalous Case of King John.” ELH 33, no. 4 (December 1966): 415-21.

In the following essay, Sibly describes King John as a strongly anti-papal drama depicting themes of usurpation and political legitimacy that were especially relevant in the Elizabethan era.

Most writers on the subject of King John have been puzzled by the emphasis Shakespeare lays on the fact that the eponymous monarch was an usurper. In what must for many years remain the standard study of the History plays, for instance, Mr. Reese¹ speaks of ‘Shakespeare's curious insistence that John was a usurper. …’ E. A. J. Honigmann in his Preface to the New Arden King John² says ‘John's “usurpation” is Shakespeare's fiction, for his “right” is not seriously questioned in the chronicles.’ Recently, John R. Elliott has pointed out³ that Shakespeare presumably got the idea of making him an usurper from the Tudor historian Polydore Vergil...