Was England ever on the verge of becoming an Islamic state? In 1215 King John was forced to accept the Magna Carta, that touchstone of English liberties. But according to one medieval chronicler, only two years previously he was toying with passing the country over to Sharia.
The claims appear in the Chronica Majora written some years after the event by a Benedictine monk by the name of Matthew Paris.
In 1207 Pope Innocent III placed England under an interdict that effectively closed down the country's churches. He excommunicated John two years later. Facing war with France and rebellion at home, the monarch was in a tight spot.
If Matthew Paris is to be believed, this was the background to perhaps the most bizarre diplomatic initiative in English history. John dispatched Thomas of Erdington, Radulus, son of Nicholas Esquire, and a cleric, Robert of London, on a top secret mission to Morocco... |