The Articles of the Barons—the document that later became known as Magna Carta—was drawn up in response to the despotic behaviour of one of England’s least popular monarchs, King John. The fifth son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, known as John Lackland in his youth, he came to the throne in 1199. His notorious reputation comes thanks partly to his role in the Robin Hood legend, but the portrayal of a corrupt, greedy and villainous king is not that far from the truth.
Although this story ends in early 1215, soon after the King’s meeting with the barons in the Temple Church in London, on January the sixth, the struggle over Magna Carta was a long way from over. John never went to Northampton, but after months of stalling and skirmishes he finally affixed his great seal to the document in June 1215 at Runnymede, a boggy meadow on the banks of the Thames close to Windsor. Even so, it was another two years before there was finally peace, by which time John had been succeeded by his young son Henry III.
In the years since its inception, Magna Carta has become iconic as one of the most important legal documents in English history. The sixty-three clauses were intended to limit the King’s power over his people, guarantee the protection of personal freedoms, grant access to justice for all and put limitations on taxation without representation. It is the first written document we know of that states that the King is not above the law and its principles have influenced both the American Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Of around two hundred and fifty copies of Magna Carta, created and distributed throughout the country in the thirteenth century, only seventeen survive today. I was lucky enough to see one of them, alongside the lesser known Charter of the Forest and the famous Domesday Book in Lincoln Castle, as part of the eight-hundredth anniversary celebrations in 2015. This book is set in Lincolnshire for that reason and dedicated to my colleagues and students at Bishop Grosseteste University for all their help and support.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Unbuttoning Miss Matilda by Lucy Ashford.
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