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Magna Carta, issued in 1215

Inscribed 2009

What is it

Magna Carta (or Great Charter) is the document recording the agreement made at Runnymede in 1215 between King John and the English barons, at the conclusion of a series of political crises of John’s reign.

Why was it inscribed

Magna Carta is one of the most celebrated documents in English history. The charter limited for the first time royal authority in tax, feudal rights and justice. It also reasserted the power of customary practice to limit unjust and arbitrary behaviour by the king. In essence, it established the principle that the king was not above the law, but had to rule within it.

Magna Carta has now become a byword and icon of freedom and democracy with an impact and influence across the world.

Where is it

British Library, London, UK; Lincoln Castle, Lincoln, UK; Salisbury Cathedral Chapter House, Salisbury, UK

The issuing of Magna Carta was one of the most famous acts in history, but its immediate origins lay not only in English Common Law but also in the immediate political context of the period.

John’s brother King Richard II, the Lionheart, had lost some of the family’s lands in France and committed his successor to enormous expense in the attempt to hold on to Aquitaine and their homelands in Normandy. After his accession to the English throne in 1199, John’s own military, political and personal shortcomings brought the almost complete loss of their French possessions by 1204. For the rest of his reign, the recovery of Normandy remained his primary aim.

For this John needed money, and the dispensation of royal justice was a key source. Taxes were increased and privileges and offices within the king’s gift were also sold to raise funds. The heavy financial and judicial burdens of his policies were felt keenly.

John’s political position had been weakened by his six-year disagreement with the powerful Pope Innocent III over the succession to the Archbishopric of Canterbury which had resulted in the king’s excommunication and England’s being placed under an interdict disallowing church services. John’s popularity with his God-fearing subjects – including his barons – declined further. In theory, the terms of the interdict also absolved the king’s subjects from their allegiance and allowed a Christian ruler to invade England to take the throne. John’s disagreement with the papacy was settled only weeks before he went into battle against the French in July 1214.

Despite his success in raising money for his war chest and re-cementing relations with the pope, John failed in the decisive battle at Bouvines with the French King Philip II and was forced to return to England empty-handed with his barons.

The loss of Normandy and John’s attempts to raise more money opened the floodgates for protest and within months the king faced a baronial revolt. On the back foot, he was forced to meet with the rebels at Runnymede near Windsor in June 1215. Archbishop Langton, the man John had rejected for the vacant see at Canterbury, mediated the peace agreement which was made orally and subsequently written up by royal scribes. Copies were then despatched around the country.

Inside the Magna Carta Memorial at Runnymede.

A later depiction of King John signing Magna Carta at Runnymede before his barons and the archbishop.

Four copies of the charter as issued in 1215 are listed on the Memory of the World Register. Two are in the British Library although one of these was badly damaged by fire in 1731; nevertheless, this is the only copy to retain a trace of the royal seal. The others are in Lincoln and Salisbury and are assumed to be the copies sent to those towns.

The charter sought to establish boundaries to kingship. Its intent was to limit the king’s money-making operations, make his justice more equitable, reform the abuse of his local agents and prevent his acting in an arbitrary fashion against individuals. Although it initially failed to end the conflict between the barons and the king, the subsequent issues of Magna Carta have assured that its long-term effects on English legal and social history have been profound.

However, Magna Carta as it has come to be interpreted reaches far beyond its immediate context of 13th-century England. It was cited in the 17th century as a factor in the Parliamentarians’ struggle against King Charles I, in the American colonists’ fight for independence from Great Britain in the 18th century and in the subsequent American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Its renown grew with the spread across the world of the British Empire and it still endures as an icon of hope for those who consider themselves oppressed today.