The dating of Shakespeare's King John depends upon its relationship to the anonymous Troublesome Raigne of King John, a polemical historical drama printed in two parts in 1591. While the plot and sequence of the Troublesome Raigne's scenes are similar to those of King John, the two plays share few linguistic parallels. Those who identify the Troublesome Raigne as Shakespeare's principal source comfortably date King John in the mid 1590s, sometime between the conclusion of the first historical tetralogy and the composition of Richard II. A minority of scholars consider the Troublesome Raigne to be a bad quarto of King John and date Shakespeare's original as early as 1590. Other probable sources for King John are Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1587) and John Foxe's Acts and Monuments (sometimes known as the Book of Martyrs)....
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Citation: Vaughan, Virginia Mason. "King John". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 March 2001; last revised 27 January 2019. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4236, accessed 13 December 2025.]
