4975 AM · 1215 CE · world history
Magna Carta
English barons force the king to admit that he too is subject to the law.
King John, defeated abroad and grasping at home, faces a baronial revolt. In a meadow at Runnymede he seals a charter of sixty-three clauses. Most concern feudal detail, but one proved immortal: no free man may be imprisoned or dispossessed except by lawful judgement. From it descend habeas corpus and constitutional limits on power.
Sources
Documents of the period
- documents and chronicles of the period — the text of the 1215 charter itself — four surviving copies
Scholarship
- studies in European history — clause 39 on judgement by one’s peers as the root of habeas corpus and of limited power
Basis: documents and evidence.