A King Forced to Compromise
King John of England was not a popular ruler. His military campaigns in France had ended in humiliation and the loss of Normandy. His taxation was rapacious. His treatment of nobles and the Church was arbitrary and often brutal. By 1215, a coalition of barons had had enough. They took London and forced John to negotiate. The result was the Magna Carta — the Great Charter — sealed at Runnymede on 15 June 1215.
What It Said
The original Magna Carta contained 63 clauses, most of which dealt with specific feudal grievances that are now historically irrelevant. But several clauses established principles of enduring importance. Clause 39 stated that no free man could be imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed or exiled except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land. Clause 40 stated: "To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice." These principles — due process, equality before the law, habeas corpus — became the foundation of modern legal systems.
Its Survival
John had no intention of honouring the charter and persuaded Pope Innocent III to annul it within months. But John died the following year, and his advisors reissued it on behalf of his nine-year-old heir Henry III as a way of building political support. It was reissued and revised multiple times over the following century, gradually becoming part of the constitutional fabric of England.
Global Legacy
The Magna Carta directly influenced the development of English common law, the English Bill of Rights (1689), the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Thomas Jefferson cited it. The American founders drew from it. It is the ancestor of every document that asserts the supremacy of law over the power of rulers.
