Magna Carta

England's barons forced King John to seal the Great Charter, an early statement that even the king is bound by law.

King John of England lost most of his continental lands, including Normandy, to Philip II of France and quarrelled with the pope until he was excommunicated. He taxed his barons heavily for wars to win the lands back, and after another defeat at Bouvines in 1214 the barons rebelled and took London in 1215.

In June 1215, at Runnymede on the Thames, John agreed to the Great Charter (Magna Carta) setting out the barons’ demands. It provided that the king could not levy certain taxes without the consent of the realm’s council, and that no free man could be arrested or imprisoned except by the lawful judgement of his peers or the law of the land. The king soon had the pope annul it, but the charter was revised and reissued several times afterwards.

Though at first a document defending baronial privilege, it established the principle that the king too is bound by law and is regarded as a starting point of parliamentary government and the rule of law. Along with the growth of a parliament of estates that led to the Model Parliament of the late 13th century, it was invoked to limit royal power in the 17th-century Petition of Right and Bill of Rights.