During the interdict years John used his Poitevin mercenary captains to enforce spoliation of church estates. Gerard d Athee and Fawkes de Breaute led bands that seized episcopal and monastic properties. The mercenaries were brutal and unpopular, terrorizing the local population. Their conduct became one of the principal grievances listed by the barons in 1215 as reason for revolt. John's use of foreign mercenaries against the English church became a constitutional issue at Runnymede.
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