Magna Carta is the 'Great Charter' that King John set his seal to in June 1215. It is the product of a rebellion, but this doesn't mean that the rebels – the English barony – were pure-hearted democrats fighting against a hated monarch. Many of them, including their leader Robert FitzWalter, were distinctly unsavoury, holding grudges against the king and resorting to plots and violence at the drop of the hat.
When the barons succeeded in persuading London to open its gates to them on 17 May 1215, John suspected that the game was up and that he would have to negotiate, if only to buy time. The result of these talks was Magna Carta.
With Magna Carta, the barons were taking a revolutionary step. The focus of their revolt was not a disaffected member of the royal family, as had been the habit of rebellions in the past. The focus in 1215 was the programme of reform outlined in the charter.
It opens with a 'chapter' guaranteeing the rights of the Church, followed by another 15 designed to stop the king exploiting loopholes in feudal customs. A further 10 chapters deal with finances. The barons also sought to ensure that John carried out his promises, safeguarded the rebels from any retaliation, demanded that he get rid of his mercenary captains and tied him to a council of 25 in an effort to ensure his co-operation.
Within all this is another important block of chapters that confirmed people's rights under the common law. These last are crucial, as they subjected the king to the law of the land for the first time in English history.
Magna Carta lasted only three months before John reneged on it. However, it formed the basis for three charters issued by supporters of John's son Henry III in 1216, 1217 and 1225, which ensured that Magna Carta remained in the public consciousness. The charter of 1225 actually entered the statute books, and three of its 63 chapters still stand, including the promise that freemen will be judged by their peers.
Four full copies of the original Magna Carta still exist, one each at Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals and two in the British Library.
British Library Treasures in Full: Magna Carta www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta /magna.html Here is one of the British Library's two copies of this precious manuscript. You can read an English translation, learn how the Magna Carta came to be written and view it, magnifying the details.
Magna Carta by J C Holt (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
Holt's study of Magna Carta – the Great Charter – sets the events of 1215 and the charter itself in the context of the law, politics and administration of England and Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. Get this book
Runnymede In Surrey, just north of the M25, between the A308 Windsor Road and the A30 Egham bypass Runnymede is the site of a meadow ('mede') where the Witan – Anglo-Saxon council of nobles – met during the reign of Alfred the Great. During the negotiations on Magna Carta in 1215, King John arrived at Runnymede from his castle at Windsor and the rebels travelled from their headquarters at Staines. Eight bishops – including the disputed archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton – attended the proceedings, as did most of the barony of England. The 188 acres that comprise the site were given to the National Trust in 1931. In 1953, a memorial to the 20,456 men and women of the Allied air forces who died during World War II was erected. Four years later, it was joined by the Magna Carta Memorial itself – a domed classical temple containing a pillar of English granite, paid for by voluntary contributions from 9,000 American lawyers. Finally, in 1965, the John F Kennedy Memorial appeared, to commemorate the life of the assassinated US president.
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