History › Middle ages
Magna Carta
June 15, 1215· Book, artwork, monument or document· Europe
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
A charter of liberties that rebel barons forced England's King John to accept in 1215, putting the king under the law.
See it on the History map →What happened
John had lost his French lands and raised heavy taxes to win them back. Rebel barons seized London, and at Runnymede, near Windsor, he agreed to 63 clauses. Most dealt with feudal fees, but clause 39 promised no free man would be jailed except by lawful judgment of his peers or the law of the land. The pope annulled it within ten weeks and civil war followed, but it was reissued in 1216, 1217 and 1225.
Why it matters
It became the founding symbol of the rule of law and limited government, cited by English Parliamentarians and American colonists alike.
Think of it like
Like the anchor tenants forcing the owner to sign rules binding the owner too; the barons were literally the king's tenants-in-chief.
How we know
Four original 1215 copies survive, two in the British Library; royal records of the reissues; chronicles of the barons' revolt.
Still debated
How much it protected ordinary people, rather than barons, is debated; its fame owes much to later lawyers like Edward Coke in the 1600s.
Connections (2)
▸Magna Carta inspired limits on power in the US ConstitutionMostly agreed
The connection
Magna Carta established that even the king was bound by law and could not imprison free men without lawful judgment. English lawyers like Edward Coke later made it a symbol of ancient liberties, which American colonists claimed as their own. Its promise of judgment by 'the law of the land' reappears as 'due process of law' in the Fifth Amendment.
When and how
Runnymede, England, 1215; revived by Edward Coke in the 1600s; cited by American colonists in the 1760s and by the framers in 1787 to 1791.
How sure are we?
Colonial pamphlets and charters invoke it, and the phrase 'due process of law' traces to a 1354 English restatement of Magna Carta.
Debates and open questions
The 1215 charter protected barons, not common people, and the pope annulled it within ten weeks. Its American role owes much to later myth-making about its original meaning.
▸Magna Carta foreshadowed the limited government of John Locke's Two Treatises (natural rights)Mostly agreed
The connection
Magna Carta set the precedent that a ruler is bound by law and by agreements with the ruled. In the 1600s, Parliament's struggles with the Stuart kings made it a rallying cry for limiting royal power. Locke wrote within that tradition but went further, grounding limits on government in natural rights and consent rather than old charters.
When and how
England: the charter of 1215; the Stuart-era conflicts of the 1600s, when Edward Coke revived it; Locke's Two Treatises, published in 1689.
How sure are we?
The line runs through 1600s English politics: Coke's writings and the 1628 Petition of Right invoke Magna Carta, and Locke wrote amid the same debates.
Debates and open questions
Locke barely cites Magna Carta. How much he drew on English legal tradition, versus abstract philosophy, is debated; the link is a shared tradition, not direct borrowing.