The Magna Carta

The Magna Carta was a document written in 1215 AD, and is often considered one of the most important documents in the world. In 1199 King John I of England became the king of England, after his brother Richard died. He has been nicknamed John “Lackland” because he was the youngest of eight siblings, and was thus never expected to gain any land, but since all his siblings had claimed other land, and Richard died by a crossbow bolt John got his chance to be king. He is always remembered as a horrible king, and oftentimes serves as an antagonist for Robin Hood. While John would go on to be a bad king, the population would dislike him right of the bat simply because he was replacing Richard, since Richard Lionheart was well loved by his people, this eventuality wouldn’t play out. The reason for this was that while Richard was fighting in the Third Crusade John was left as regent, or temporary ruler. While regent John attempted to buy the barons favor and depose Richard while he was in the holy land. This failed, and left John more hated than ever. This meant that the population of England disliked and verged on hating their new ruler when he had barely had the crown. It would have taken a miracle to get the population to like him again, but John wasn’t interested in miracles. The first of his acts as king was to demand the right to appoint the next Archbishop of Canterbury in 1205, an important position in the church. The Pope responded by saying that only the Pope could appoint church officials, and when John pressed the matter the Pope excommunicated him. This meant that John was officially excluded from the church, and though he tried to fight it, he eventually capitulated in 1213. In 1215 he tried raising taxes among the whole of England, and this was the final straw for the barons. The barons of the different parts of England all came together because the king was supposed to get support from the majority, if not all, of the barons before raising taxes, but John had ignored their place in the feudal system entirely on this matter. The barons drafted their armies together (which wasn’t too hard) and laid siege to London. When they got inside (which didn’t take long, seeing as John was a poor strategist) they demanded John sign the Magna Carta, or “Great Charter” which said, among other things, that the king couldn’t tax people without approval of a council, that no matter the position all criminals would be tried by a jury (so John couldn’t throw anyone in jail, and could be thrown in jail), that the king could not interfere in the church, and that the king was to abide by his own laws (he was no longer above the law). The Magna Carta was completely ignored during Johns life and he went on to die during a war with his barons in 1216. Despite this the Magna Carta was the first time people had officially said that the king was not all-powerful. The Magna Carta would go on to be revised and actually, y’know, enforced, later on, but this charter was the first time any idea of independence was introduced to the people, and it would go on to influence many important law systems, including the American Declaration of Independence.