Description

First published in 1563, John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments was a Protestant martyrology and history of the Christian Church. More popularly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, the book drew on documentary sources in a way that was unprecedented in English historical writing, but it was marked by strong anti-Catholic bias. Describing the sudden death of King John in 1216, Foxe presented him favourably, in contrast to later representations, as a noble monarch who stood up to the papacy. Foxe restated the 13th-century accusation that monks loyal to the Pope had poisoned the king. The accompanying woodcut tells this story in six separate scenes: after testing the venom on a frog, a fanatical monk from Swineshead Abbey, Lincolnshire, poisoned King John before committing suicide, a sacrifice for which he was to be praised eternally by his fraternity.