King John, soon after signing the Magna…

King John, soon after signing the Magna Carta, manipulates Pope Innocent to declare the charter void on August 24.

In his annulment of the "shameful and demeaning agreement, forced upon the King by violence and fear," Innocent rejects any call for restraints on the King, saying it impairs John's dignity.

He sees it as an affront to the Church's authority over the King and the 'papal territories' of England and Ireland, and he releases John from his oath to obey it because he had sealed under duress.

Summoning French mercenaries and freebooters, John swiftly launches a war against the English barons.

The war begins over Magna Carta but quickly turns into a dynastic war for the throne of England.

The rebel barons, faced with a powerful king, turn to Prince Louis, son and heir apparent of Philip Augustus, King of France.

The Norman invasion had occurred only one hundred and fifty years before, and the relationship between England and France is not so simply adversarial as it will later become.

The contemporary document called the annals of Waverley sees no oxymoron in stating that Louis was invited to invade in order to "prevent the realm being pillaged by aliens".