Magna Carta
-Chrissie and Jason

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In the decades following the failed Third Crusade (1189-1192 CE), tensions between the English crown and its nobility erupted into full-scale rebellion.  King Richard I had spent several years gathering supplies, money, soldiers, and equipment for his campaign to “liberate” Jerusalem.  While this was a Crusade called for by the Papacy, it was the English aristocracy and commoners who paid for it via a “Crusade tax,” which allowed Richard to have a large and well-equipped force.  This was a major military undertaking that asked not only money from many of the upper nobility, but also their attendance. This left their retainers and the lesser branches of the families behind to raise additional funds and soldiers.

            In Richard’s absence, the ruling of England and the continental territories held by the Plantagenet dynasty fell to his youngest brother, John, and, acting behind the scenes, their formidable mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. John was tasked with not only maintaining his brother’s kingdom but also ensuring a continued flow of resources and men to the Middle East.  This unenviable task would be further complicated by events that would critically damage John’s reputation with the English nobility.

By 1192, it was apparent that Third Crusade had failed, and the survivors drifted back to England.  Here is where things took an even worse course: while traveling through the Holy Roman Empire, Richard was taken prisoner by Duke Leopold of Austria, over perceived insults at the siege of Acre. A huge ransom was demanded for Richard’s release. Dowager Queen Eleanor was able to raise some of the funds, but the rest required further “donations” from the nobility.  By February 1194, the ransom was paid, and Richard returned home, only to raise another army in order to push his territorial claims in France.  Things further deteriorated when Richard  died from a crossbow wound while fighting outside Châlus on 6 April 1199. 

John was crowned as his brother’s successor on 27 May 1199.  He did not make a point of issuing a general charter regarding his reign and laying out the rights and responsibilities of the nobility and the crown.  Conflict between the aristocracy and sovereign was further exacerbated in 1202 when they refused to cross the English Channel in response to a rebellion in Brittany. What small army John could muster was badly defeated, and he paid the war debt by way of heavy taxes on those who had refused to support him. Pushback from the barons began but was delayed by well-placed words of support by the Dowager Queen. This thin protection disappeared when Eleanor of Aquitaine died early in 1204. By the end of that year, Normandy, the home province of the Plantagenet dynasty, had been lost and only the threat of possible French invasion of England temporarily rallied the nobles to their king. 

Desperate for more funds to maintain his authority, King John further alienated his vassals by requiring that they make up for the lost revenue of the Continental territories. Events further escalated in 1207 when King John and Pope Innocent III clashed over the choice of Stephen Langton as the new Archbishop of Canterbury.  The English king refused to acquiesce to the seating of Innocent’s candidate, prompting the Pope to excommunicate John and place England under an Interdict. This last part meant that no Catholic services could be performed; no baptisms, marriages, funerals, or other Holy Sacraments could be conducted. This was sufficient in itself to induce rebellion, and was supported by longstanding tradition that Catholics were not held to obey an excommunicate king. These acts were the keys which gave the English barons the legitimacy to rebel, and did so with the Pope’s quiet support. It took six years before John was convinced to be reconciled with the Pope, and then could only do so by taking on the role of vassal to the Papal throne.

By 1214, after further failed military campaigns in France, King John returned to find many of the nobility again in rebellion. They refused to negotiate with King John until he acknowledged, and followed, the Charter of Liberties declared by King Henry I in 1100.  This would curb his ability to punish the nobility with seizures of property and arrests. It also established a council to check the monarch’s power.  Robert Fitzwalter was elected as leader of the barons, and he agreed to meet at Oxford with King John, with Pope Innocent III acting as arbitrator.  Negotiations failed to appease the barons and the King decided that war would resolve the rebellion. This decision ended all possibility that he might maintain the unlimited authority to which he believed he had the right.  Despite ruling England, John had so little local support that he needed to hire mercenaries from France.  Letters backing John arrived from the Pope in April, but by then the rebel barons had organized into a military faction. They congregated at Northampton in May and renounced their feudal ties to John, marching on London, Lincoln, and Exeter.  Once London supported the rebellion, the king’s legitimacy and resources dwindled.  Langton, the archbishop of Canterbury and the man over whose appointment John had been excommunicated, had been working with the rebel barons on their demands. After papal arbitration failed, John instructed Langton to organize peace talks.

Between 10 and 15 June 1215, the document known as the Articles of the Baron was written, but it was not fully agreed to by both sides until 19 June. It became known as “The Great Charter,” or, in Latin, the Magna Carta. It was a compromise, but also contained important clauses designed to bring about reforms in judicial and local administration.  It promised the protection of church rights, protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and, most importantly, limitations on taxation and other feudal payments to the Crown, with certain forms of feudal taxation requiring baronial consent.

These reforms, particularly the establishment of individual rights and protections, were extended only to the free people, but generally were applied to the barons and other large landowners and rich men.  A clause in the Manga Carta created a council of 25 barons who would monitor and ensure John’s future adherence to the charter.  It did not take long before John tried to back out of the agreement.  By August 1215, warfare had broken out between the opposing sides.  John fell ill and died in October 1216, leaving the barons to decide if they would support his nine-year son, Henry III. 

King Henry III wisely swore to follow the Manga Carta and issued his own charters guaranteeing the rights of the nobility.  The Magna Carta was the first step toward England becoming a constitutional monarchy. It also is considered the ancestor of modern documents that lay out an individual’s rights and protections within a society.