In 1207, Pope Innocent III installed Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. King John of England had another candidate in mind, and refused to acknowledge Langton, which according to Pope Innocent III was an act of "impious persecution."ⁱ Innocent eventually excommunicated King John for his stubbornness—in effect barring him from God's forgiveness—causing John to write a concession that would change the course of history:

As a result, the pope laid on England an interdict (1208-14), a sort of religious "strike", wherein no religious service be performed for anyone, guilty or innocent. When this didn't work, the king, himself, was excommunicated. Caving-in under that pressure, John wrote a letter of concession to the pope, hoping to have the interdict and the excommunication lifted (1213). John‘s concession which, in effect, made England a fiefdom of Rome, worked like a charm. The satisfied pope lifted the yoke he had hung on the people of England and their king (emphasis added).ⁱⁱ

Read the full text of John's Concession, a charter outlining the terms of the fiefdom. If these terms were not met, according to the charter, the crown of England would be surrendered to the Roman Catholic Church forever.

Soon after writing the concession, King John couldn't keep up with the necessary payments to Rome. So, in 1215 he broke the concession by signing the Magna Carta. At that time, Pope Innocent took official ownership of the crown:

King John broke the terms of this charter by signing the Magna Carta on June 15, 1215. Remember; the penalty for breaking the 1213 agreement was the loss of the Crown (right to the kingdom) to the Pope and his Roman Church. It says so quite plainly. To formally and lawfully take the Crown from the royal monarchs of England by an act of declaration, on August 24, 1215, Pope Innocent III annulled the Magna Carta; later in the year, he placed an Interdict (prohibition) on the entire British empire. From that time until today, the English monarchy and the entire British Crown belonged to the Pope (emphasis added).ⁱⁱⁱ

Only three of the original clauses in Magna Carta are still law. One defends the freedom and rights of the English church, another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns, but the third is the most famous:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, nor will we proceed with force against him, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

...it has resonant echoes in the American Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.^iv

The Papacy has never given up this authority, and to this day is still the legal power ruling Great Britain. So when the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope knelt at the murder scene of Thomas Becket, it was a reminder to Britain that the Papacy still rules.

Is there other proof that Rome owns the crown of England and Ireland? Find out in our next article