00:01Ah, England, the glorious forebear of Western civilization and creator of the chip, the
00:10English contribution to world cuisine.
00:13There's a little-known story about our dear motherland that you won't find in the school
00:18curriculum, and that's the one time England almost converted to Islam.
00:24Yes, it's quite a bizarre story, and it starts with our good friend King John.
00:30You see, while being King of England usually came with a number of benefits, unfortunately
00:35for John in 1199, having money was not one of them.
00:40The previous King of England, John's brother, Richard, aka Richard the Lionheart, aka Brave
00:48Daddy, don't call him Dick, he doesn't like that, had been rather liberal with his
00:53spending.
00:54First, he went off to reclaim Jerusalem in the Third Crusade, with the end result being
01:00a mountain of expenses and a grand total of zero reclaimed Jerusalems.
01:05Although honorable mentions, he did conquer Sicily and Cyprus on the way there.
01:11However, on the way back, Richard was imprisoned by the opportunistic Holy Roman Emperor, Henry
01:18VI, who really just couldn't resist earning some free money.
01:23That little maneuver cost the English crown two years of its revenues, thank you very
01:28much.
01:28And in the end, it was all for naught.
01:31For just a few years later, Dick, Richard, that is, died of an infected crossbow wound.
01:37And thus, jolly old John was left with a lot of land to defend.
01:42Remember, England at the time owned vast swathes of what we'd now call France, and precious few
01:49resources with which to defend it.
01:51What followed was arguably the worst series of defeats in English history.
01:56In the span of several years, John lost Normandy, Anjou, and Maine.
02:02He got excommunicated by the Pope, and his English vassals would eventually sit him down
02:07and get him to sign the Magna Carta.
02:09Suffice to say, King John was not having a good time.
02:14He was in desperate need of new allies.
02:17And so, he did what any sensible medieval monarch would do.
02:22He expanded his Tinder discovery settings.
02:26Swipe left, swipe left, swipe left, oh, bingo!
02:28One of the first new matches was Al-Nasir, the Caliph of the Almohads.
02:34His Muslim realm stretched across North Africa and into modern Spain.
02:39Yet, it was threatened to the north by France and the rising Iberian Kingdoms.
02:45Now, while military aid between the two realms would have been logistically difficult, it
02:51was theoretically possible.
02:53And for John, that was good enough.
02:56In 1212, he sent a royal delegation to the Muslim ruler.
03:01The man in charge was a curious fellow, Robert of London, a Jewish convert with a love for
03:07gold and intrigue.
03:10Supposedly, Robert conveyed to Al-Nasir the following offer.
03:14King John was ready to swear fealty and to abandon Christianity in favour of Islam.
03:20As long as the Muslims were willing to help him reclaim his lost territories in France.
03:26It's questionable how receptive the English population would have been to such a radical
03:32change.
03:33But ultimately, things never got that far.
03:36For in private, Robert told Al-Nasir that King John was a cruel tyrant who knew only failure.
03:44The Caliph rewarded Robert for his honesty and sent the rest of the envoy off empty-handed.
03:50When Robert returned to his king, he showed the gifts as proof that he'd had a very productive
03:57conversation with the Muslim ruler, for which John rewarded him with even more gifts and a
04:02position as abbot of St. Albans.
04:06The fact that we even know of this story is because Robert bragged to the wrong person.
04:11He told all of this to a monk at his abbey, who happened to have the hobby of writing everything
04:18down.
04:19Funnily enough, that monk would later write that Robert was eventually caught and exiled
04:24for embezzling church funds.
04:27But anyway, this whole ordeal ultimately amounted to nothing, for Al-Nasir died a year later
04:34at the hands of the Crusaders, with King John himself kicking the bucket not long after.
04:40Of course, there are some arguments that Robert had intentionally mistranslated the king's
04:46proposal.
04:47Perhaps what John was really offering was to merely pay tribute.
04:52Some historians even argue that the meeting never took place.
04:56Shock horror.
04:57Which may very well be the case, though one should never underestimate the power of desperation.
05:03Unlike King John, we here at SideQuest intend on being much more successful in our conquests.
05:11In fact, I dare say that the conquest of YouTube has been coming along quite nicely these past
05:17few weeks.
05:18So a big hearty thanks to you all out there for proudly flying the SideQuest banner.
05:24And if you happen to be new here, please make sure to subscribe and to share our videos around,
05:31and maybe even consider purchasing a minor title of nobility on our Patreon.
05:37They're very hot commodities these days, you know.
05:40In any case, as Morgan would say, you gotta keep a watchful eye out over the coming weeks
05:45for the next fantastically feudal episode of SideQuest.
05:50Cause at Shawshank, Andy never misses an episode.
05:57Hey, now wait a second.
05:59I thought you told my agent that my name was gonna be up on that scrolling screen thing
06:03over there.
06:04Oh yes, we'll get that sorted.
06:06Don't worry.
06:06Good.
06:07Oh, look over there.
06:08Pizza.
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