King John Loyalty Quotes

These lines from near the very beginning of the play show us a character who adheres closely to the standards of loyalty demanded by his job. As a messenger, Châtillon will deliver a defiant message from one king to another, but he won't add anything extra; there will be no special digs from Châtillon himself. In this close attention to duty, Châtillon will provide a contrast to other characters later in the play who are not so dedicated to this principle.

Here the Bastard gives us a typically jokey twist on the whole theme of loyalty. When he first speaks, we think that he is expressing the supreme loyalty a subordinate can offer to a person higher up in the social hierarchy: the Bastard says he will follow Eleanor even if it means his own death. But Eleanor is clever enough to realize that the Bastard could be sneakily promising no such thing; maybe he's saying that he wants her to meet death first, allowing him time to make a convenient exit out the back. But the Bastard has his own retort to this, disguised by politeness: "You first, ma'am." These lines show that the Bastard can think for himself; he isn't loyal to the point of blindness.

Much like the Bastard in the previous quotation, a citizen here shows that people in lower positions on the social hierarchy need to be careful about whom they give their loyalty to. If you think about it, this makes total sense: if the citizens of Angers make an alliance with the weaker of the two kings, then the stronger of the two kings will just attack them, anyway, and defeat them. Then, that king will probably kill the citizens of Angers, just to punish them for having supported the other guy. On the other hand, if the citizens of Angers side with the stronger king, then they will be protected against the weaker king if the weaker king then attacks them. So, the smart way to be loyal is only to be loyal to the strongest person. But is that really being loyal at all?