Magna Carta Signed — 811 Years Ago

When a King Was Forced to Share Power

On June 15, 1215, England's King John met a group of rebellious barons at Runnymede, a meadow near the Thames River, and was forced to put his seal on a document called the Magna Carta — Latin for "Great Charter." The barons had had enough: John had raised taxes repeatedly, seized land without due process, and ignored the traditional rights of English nobles. The Magna Carta was their list of demands, backed by an army.

What It Said

The original Magna Carta had 63 clauses dealing mostly with feudal grievances — how much the king could charge for inheriting land, how widows should be treated, fish weirs on rivers. But buried in those clauses were two principles that echoed through centuries: no free man could be imprisoned or punished except by lawful judgment of his peers, and no one — not even a king — was above the law. John died the following year, never intending to honor it.

Eight Centuries of Influence

The Magna Carta was reissued, amended, and reconfirmed dozens of times by later kings. By the 17th century, English lawyers were using it to argue against royal tyranny. American colonists cited it when protesting British rule in the years before the Declaration of Independence. The principles of due process and the rule of law embedded in it underpin the legal systems of most English-speaking countries today. Only three of its original clauses remain law in England.