Magna Carta

It's the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta this year, so it seemed an appropriate topic to kick off with.

Magna Carta's one of those things, like Downton Abbey and car insurance, that everybody's heard of, but nobody's really sure what it's all about.  (Hint: it's not a Jay-Z album.)

First things first - why is it called Magna Carta?  Is it something to with the ice creams?

Er...no.

Magna Carta is a Latin name, and it means 'Great Charter' (people liked to write things in Latin back then - it made them feel clever).  A charter is a document that gives people their rights.  The United Nations have a charter that gives people all over the world their human rights, such as the right to free speech, the right to a fair trial, the right to education and the right to keep a pet unicorn on the roof of your house, etc.

So who did Magna Carta give rights to?

To answer this, we need to go back a little a bit.

In 1215, King John was on the throne of England.

(Earliest known picture of John)

He had become King after the death of his brother, Richard the Lionheart, in 1199.  Fortunately, John had some experience of ruling England, as he'd been left in charge whilst big brother Richard was away fighting in the Crusades.  Unfortunately, he was no better at being in charge when he was King than he had been as Prince.

He made some crazy decisions without asking anyone and justified them on the basis that he was the king so he could basically do whatever he wanted.

He was also a pretty bad soldier and managed to lose half of France.

He kept trying to get the land back, and kept losing.  It was all getting a little expensive.

So what did he do?  Raised taxes!

(Today, when people pay tax, the government uses it to fund useful things like schools and hospitals.  Back then, King John used the money to fight endless wars against the French.)

As if that wasn't bad enough, King John also managed to annoy the Pope, who banned all church services in England in 1207.

The barons (rich men who essentially ran the country for the King) were getting a little bit peeved about all King John's demands.  Plus, they owed him a lot of money and were getting a bit scared about their souls going to hell, what with not being able to go to church and all.

Their response was to rebel against the King.

In stepped the Archbishop of Canterbury...

To stop the spat between King John and the barons getting out of hand, the Archbishop of Canterbury drafted a charter for the King to sign.

It promised rights for the church in England and protection from illegal imprisonment for the barons, but mainly it promised that the King would stop demanding unreasonable amounts of money from them.  All this would be administered by a Council of Barons (a group of rich men sitting round a table, making decisions and eating a lot of biscuits).

King John sulked for a little bit, but eventually signed the Charter by Royal Seal at a place called Runnymede (a rather picturesque spot by the River Thames).

(King John's Royal Seal)

(Or...it may have looked more like this)

It didn't last long...

Magna Carta was a bit of a flop back in 1215, really.  Nobody really stuck to it, and the Pope declared it nul and void just 8 weeks later.

This, inevitably, led to more fighting.  (The First Barons' War)

This was all cut short when King John died in 1216 and his son, Henry III, who was only nine years old, became King.  Henry's Regency Government (a group of noblemen who made his decisions for him, since he was too busy deciding whether he wanted fish fingers or chicken nuggets for tea) decided to wave the (slightly changed) charter around in the hope that the Barons would stop hating on the whipper-snapper King.

When the First Barons' War ended in 1217, the charter formed part of the peace treaty.  This was when it first became known as Magna Carta.

And another...

When Harry-3 started to run out of money in 1225, he reissued Magna Carta in exchange for an agreement on some new taxes.

Henry's son, Edward I, followed in poppa's footsteps and did the same thing in 1297.

It's the 1297 version that finally made the Great Charter part of England's written laws.

The clauses included in the 13th century Magna Carta are pretty much obsolete (out of date) now, but nevertheless the charter is still referred to and admired by politicians today as the document that forms the foundations of representative democracy in Britain.  (Where ordinary people have a say in how the country is run, instead of the Queen just doing whatever she wants).

However, what people sometimes overlook is that Magna Carta only really gave rights to the very rich and was created to settle squabbles between the King and the aristocracy, rather than being envisaged as the start of Britain's march towards political freedom for all.  It would certainly take a long time (another 700-odd years!) before every adult in Britain had a say in how their country was run.

Sound Smart!

"It's not really the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta because it wasn't even known as Magna Carta until 1217 and the final version didn't even become proper law until 1297!"

"Magna Carta didn't really give rights to the ordinary man - it only helped the rich aristocracy."

"The 23rd clause of Magna Carta states: 'Neither a town nor a man shall be forced to make bridges over the rivers'. Remember that next time someone tries to force you or your town to build a bridge over a river."

Some other fun sources:

Horrible Histories song about the influences that Magna Carta has had...

Another Horrible Histories video (I'll be linking to them a lot!) about King John and the barons at Runnymede:

The history of representation in 60 seconds, from the UK Parliament website: