Shortly after John's accession the nobles occupying a part of the
English possessions in France expressed their desire that John's
nephew, Arthur, a boy of twelve, should become their ruler. John
refused to grant their request.
War, ensued, and Arthur fell into the hands of his uncle John, who
imprisoned him in the castle of Rouen, the capital of Normandy. A
number of those who had been captured with the young prince were
starved to death in the dungeons of the same castle, and not long
after Arthur himself mysteriously disappeared. Shakespeare represents
John as ordering the keeper of the castle to put out the lad's eyes,
and then tells us that he was killed in an attempt to escape.[1] The
general belief, however, was that the King murdered him.
[1] Shakespeare's "King John," Act IV, scenes i and iii.