A prologue describes how the barons of England, aided by the Knights Templar, fought against the tyrannical King John in a war that lasted more than three years. The war ended with King John signing Magna Carta, a document granting rights to all English freemen. John regrets signing Magna Carta and in retaliation hires an army of pagan Danish mercenaries under the leadership of warlord Tiberius to restore his absolute authority.
The Abbot Marcus leads three Templar knights on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and they take shelter from the rain at Darnay Castle. One of the knights, Thomas Marshall, is assured by the abbot that Marshall's release from the Templar Order will be sought at Canterbury. By morning, King John arrives at the castle with his army and mercenaries. Baron Darnay signed the Magna Carta and in retribution John orders him hanged. The Abbot attempts to intervene and the King orders that the abbot's tongue be cut off. Marshall and the two other knights fight the Danes, during which Marshall escapes the castle on horseback carrying the abbot; the two knights left behind are slain. The abbot dies of his wound, and Marshall breaks his vow of silence to swear that his sacrifice will not be in vain.
Once he has reached Canterbury, Marshall meets with Archbishop Langton, the author of Magna Carta, and Baron William d'Aubigny, a former soldier turned wool merchant. Langton reveals that the Pope has sided with King John and that he himself is to be excommunicated for writing the Magna Carta. The three men agree that John must be stopped and that the place to do so is Rochester Castle, the seat of Baron Cornhill and a stronghold that controls southern England and allows access to London and the rest of the country.
d'Aubigny persuades three of his men to join him, including his squire, Guy, and a petty criminal named Jedediah, but a fourth turns down the baron's call to arms. A party of seven finally leaves for Rochester where, on arriving, they discover several Danish mercenaries have already claimed the castle; the fourth man had betrayed them to the king. Aubigny's party fights and kills the Danes, and then claims Rochester Castle in the name of the rebellion, much to the displeasure of Cornhill. When John's army finally arrives and lays siege to Rochester, the garrison holds fast and manages to beat the initial Danish assault. In the aftermath, Aubigny offers his men leave if they wish; none accept.
A second assault sees the Danes' siege tower destroyed by a trebuchet crafted by the defenders from within. John's forces then attempt to starve out the defenders. The Archbishop is informed that Prince Louis is biding his time in France and negotiating with John, and sets off to expedite affairs. As the season turns to winter, the hunger of the castle's occupants continues; Marshall leaves the castle under cover of night and then returns ahead of his pursuers with food stolen from the Danish camp. Morale is bolstered by Marshall's act and gives in to the advances of Cornhill's young wife, Isabel, breaking his Templar vows.
Tiberius, threatened by John to take the castle or risk the King reneging on their bargain, adopts a different approach in his next attack and manages to sneak a small force of men over the walls before dawn to open the gates from within. Guy discovers them and sounds the alarm, but Tiberius leads the charge into the castle grounds while his Danes slaughter the garrison. During the chaos, d'Aubigny is wounded and left behind. Marshall recovers in time to don his knight's battle armour and charge the Danes on his war-horse, buying time for the survivors to pull back to the keep.
Aubigny is dragged before the King and forced to watch as the hands of two prisoners are chopped off. After a defiant verbal exchange with John, he is subjected to the same fate and then hurled by the castle trebuchet into a keep wall. Cornhill tries to surrender but is stopped; he goes instead upstairs to his bedroom and hangs himself. John's engineers have been preparing a mine under the keep's foundation. They have a herd of pigs brought and put in the mine which is then stoked, set afire and the animal fat used to damage the keep's foundation, causing it to collapse; as the keep's walls come down, the final assault begins.
The last defenders are killed except Guy, Isabel, and Marshall, the latter knocked unconscious by falling rubble. Guy goes out to die fighting where he encounters Tiberius and is almost killed, until a recovered Marshall intervenes and Marshall triumphs after a savage duel. Horns are heard in the distance as the combined English rebel and French army arrives last, and John and the remaining Danes disperse in panic. Marshall meets Prince Louis and Archbishop Langton at the castle gates; the latter tells him that he is now free of the Templar Order. Acknowledging England's new king with a nod, Marshall rides off with Isabel, while Guy tells his dead baron that "We held".
The epilogue describes King John's death during his retreat and the reconstruction of Rochester Castle, and how it, like Magna Carta, still stands.
Actress Megan Fox was attached to the film when the film's production company, Mythic, began promoting it to investors at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Fox left the film and was later replaced by Kate Mara. Due to the decreased amount of credit and financing available in 2009, the budget of the film was reduced and the entire supporting cast was changed, with the exception of actors James Purefoy and Paul Giamatti. Producer Andrew Curtis described the financing of the film as "more complex than a London Underground map" to Variety magazine; the film ended up crediting 18 executive producers.[6]
Principal photography for the film began at Dragon International Film Studios near the village Llanharan in Wales on 9 October 2009. A replica of Rochester Castle was built on the studio complex.[7] Producer Rick Benattar strove to make the film as historically accurate as possible, recreating the historical violent siege of Rochester Castle, and letting viewers experience the battle as if they were there.[8]Ironclad was the largest independent production that has been filmed in Wales,[5] and was among the largest independent films shot in Britain in 2009.
Fictional elements
The film is only loosely based on reality.[9] d'Aubigny commanded the garrison but contemporary chroniclers do not agree on how many men it consisted of. Estimates range from 95 to 140 knights supported by crossbowmen, sergeants, and others.[10] John did take the castle, most of the higher nobles being imprisoned or banished; and the French did not arrive in England until some six months after the siege had ended.[11] Characters departing significantly from the historical record include d'Aubigny, who was not an ennobled wool merchant (nor was he tortured and killed in the siege).
19th century map of medieval Rochester showing the proximity of the castle, cathedral and city
The closing narration explains that this was one of the first victories that the French had that would eventually lead to total victory. However, not mentioned in the narration was that after John's death in 1216, many of the English rebels preferred a weak English king in the person of nine-year-old Henry III over an experienced French monarch and thus rallied around Henry. The rebellion was defeated by royalist supporters in 1217.[12]
While the castle itself is depicted realistically, the nearby Norman Cathedral and the city of Rochester are completely missing from the location shots. In reality, the cathedral is only a few hundred yards from the castle walls and Rochester has been a substantial settlement since Roman times.
Thomas Marshal, the main character played by James Purefoy, is based loosely upon medieval knight and statesman William Marshal.
The movie has the Knights Templar as among the ringleaders in the battle against John Lackland. In reality, the Templars and King John had a cordial relation and they were one of the few powerful groups in England which John did not offend or alienate during his reign, and the order was amongst his financial backers providing him with the necessary funds to wage war.[13]
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 42% based on reviews from 55 critics. The site's critical consensus reads, "Ironclad serves up plenty of crunchy gore to sate action aficionados, but the sketchy story clunks like a suit of ill-fitting armor."[14] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[15]
Manohla Dargis, writing from The New York Times criticized the film for its emphasis on violent action scenes above a cohesive plot, stating that " “Ironclad” alternately feels, plays and sounds like an abridged television mini-series and a feature-length video game," and that "the action is cluttered and the story overly compressed," but conceded that the film was enthusiastic in its pursuit of violence to entertain.[16]
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Sequel
A sequel called, Ironclad: Battle for Blood, was announced as in development shortly after the film's release.[17] It is directed by Jonathan English and set five years after the end of the first film.[18] In late 2013 a trailer was released,[19] and the film was released in March 2014. The sequel went on to receive negative reviews, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 17% and many critics condemning the film for intensifying the faults from its predecessor. Leslie Felperin from The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film for its decreased budget, less famous ensemble, and "sloppier" retelling of medieval history, but complimented the film on its musical score, stating that "Andreas Weidinger's orchestral score, featuring choral elements and plenty of brass, represents a redeeming feature."[20]
John was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom.
Magna Carta Libertatum, commonly called Magna Carta or sometimes Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, to make peace between the unpopular king and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood by their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War.
Year 1215 (MCCXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
The 1210s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1210, and ended on December 31, 1219.
Stephen Langton was an English cardinal of the Catholic Church and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207 until his death in 1228. The dispute between King John of England and Pope Innocent III over his election was a major factor in the crisis which produced the Magna Carta in 1215. Langton is also credited with having divided the Bible into the standard modern arrangement of chapters used today.
Year 1216(MCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Roger Bigod was a Norman knight who travelled to England in the Norman Conquest. He held great power in East Anglia, and five of his descendants were earls of Norfolk. He was also known as Roger Bigot, appearing as such as a witness to the Charter of Liberties of Henry I of England.
Guy of Lusignan was a French Poitevin knight who reigned as the king of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla, and King of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194.
The First Barons' War (1215–1217) was a civil war in the Kingdom of England in which a group of rebellious major landowners led by Robert Fitzwalter waged war against King John of England. The conflict resulted from King John's disastrous wars against King Philip II of France, which led to the collapse of the Angevin Empire, and John's subsequent refusal to accept and abide by Magna Carta, which John had sealed on 15 June 1215.
Sir Robert de Ros was an Anglo-Norman feudal baron, soldier and administrator who was one of the twenty-five barons appointed under clause 61 of Magna Carta to monitor its observance by King John of England.
Robert Fitzwalter was one of the leaders of the baronial opposition against King John, and one of the twenty-five sureties of Magna Carta. He was feudal baron of Little Dunmow, Essex and constable of Baynard's Castle, in London, to which was annexed the hereditary office of castellan and chief knight banneret of the City of London. Part of the official aristocracy created by Henry I and Henry II, he served John in the wars in Normandy, in which he was taken prisoner by King Philip II of France and forced to pay a heavy ransom.
William d'Aubigny or D'Aubeney or d'Albini, Lord of Belvoir was a prominent member of the baronial rebellions against King John of England. He was one of the signatories of Magna Carta.
Sir Falkes de Bréauté was an Anglo-Norman soldier who earned high office by loyally serving first King John and later King Henry III in the First Barons' War. He played a key role in the Battle of Lincoln Fair in 1217. He attempted to rival Hubert de Burgh, and as a result fell from power in 1224. His "heraldic device" is now popularly said to have been a griffin, although his coat of arms as depicted by Matthew Paris in his Chronica Majora was Gules, a cinquefoil argent.
Rogues of Sherwood Forest is a 1950 Technicolor adventure film from Columbia Pictures, directed by Gordon Douglas, and starring John Derek as Robin, the Earl of Huntingdon, the son of Robin Hood, Diana Lynn as Lady Marianne, and Alan Hale, Sr. in his third Robin Hood film role as Little John during a 28-year period; he had played the part opposite Douglas Fairbanks in 1922 and Errol Flynn in 1938, one of the longest periods over which a film actor played the same major character. It was also Hale's final film before his death. Rogues of Sherwood Forest was written by George Bruce and Ralph Gilbert Bettison. The supporting cast features George Macready as King John, Billy House as Friar Tuck and John Dehner in an early appearance as Sir Baldric, billed fourteenth in the cast list.
Reginald de Cornhill was an English administrator under King John.
William de Cornhill was a medieval Bishop of Coventry.
Events from the 1210s in England.
Gérard De Athée written in Magna Carta 1215 as Gerardi de Athyes. He was a Principal military commander and Lord from Athee Sur Cher in now France. He possessed his own Castle, Arms and badge of "A Lion contrapasssant qui retourne ca tete" of Guyenne Aquitaine and that as used by King Richard Coer De Leon under whom he is first referenced. He later seamlessly transferred to King John of England from 1211 to 1215 following the death of King Richard in 1199 at the siege of Chalus.
Rochester Castle stands on the east bank of the River Medway in Rochester, Kent, South East England. The 12th-century keep or stone tower, which is the castle's most prominent feature, is one of the best preserved in England or France.
Ironclad: Battle for Blood is a 2014 epic war film directed by Jonathan English. It is the sequel to his 2011 film Ironclad. The film was a critical failure and a box-office flop.
↑ Clarke, Cath (3 March 2011). "Ironclad – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
↑ Brown, Reginald Allen (1969). Rochester Castle. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp.12–13.
↑ Hume, David (1826). "11". The history of England. Talboys and Wheeler, and William Pickering (orig. James S. Virtue). p.83. Retrieved 22 August 2011. he was content to sacrifice, in this barbarous manner, the inferior prisoners only. The captivity of William de Albiney, the best officer among the confederated barons, was an irreparable loss to their cause
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