BL3294695: An Anonymous Account of King John. John has frequently been characterised as a bad king, even in the Middle Ages. This poem on the kings of England, traditionally attributed to John Lydgate (d. c. 1449/50), describes John's reign in negative terms. The poet also reports the story that John had been poisoned by a monk of Swineshead Abbey, and that nobody lamented his demise. This image, painted in the fifteenth century, shows John wearing a fine cloak of regal purple, red, white and blue, with pointed blue shoes; he stands above five crowns denoting his surviving children / Bridgeman Images