Magna Carta

It is safe to say that the power of the monarch was limited after the signing of the Magna Carta.
However, the King could go against it if he wished. This was true of Henry III’s reign. It was not until
1295, during the reign of Edward I, that there was a parliament that represented people other than
the barons. Habeas Corpus is still a significant right in British Law to this day. Some historians argue
that Magna Carta was a base for future freedom and justice, others argue that it was just a
negotiation between John and the barons.

It was only in the long term that its significance became clear. As the years have passed, Magna
Carta has developed greater significance. It applied to more people as they gained their freedom. It
introduced the idea that there were some laws that even the king had to follow. After King John
died, other kings signed similar versions of the Magna Carta.

Magna Carta was used to draw up their constitution when they became independent from Britain in
1776. It influenced the Chartist movement and the Suffragettes. When the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights was adopted in 1948, it drew upon Magna Carta, as well as the Bill of Rights (1689)
and others, for inspiration.

Simon De Montfort

Under his leadership the first English Constitution was written, a seminal document that formed a
foundation of democracy for years to come.

Overall, as a symbolic figure he has come to represent far more than he achieved in his lifetime. He
subjugated and tried to monopolise power to himself by decentralising previously-held authority of
the nobility, as well as installing a kleptocratic body in the Great Council, alluding to the autocratic
and despotic nature of his regime.

Paradoxically, his inclusion of commoner might have increased democracy for the first time, as it
extended the political extension to local members of society.

Peasant’s Revolt

The significance to the government of England was not great. The peasants went home and the King
went back on all his promises, this was not new. The leading rebels were also harshly punished. This
was not new either. However, Parliament gradually got the message that they should not try to
control the peasants’ wages.

The revolt was significant because it was the first working-class rebellion. This, they believe, marked
the beginning of English ideas of freedom. Certainly the ideas put forward by John Ball about all
men being equal were revolutionary and were to reappear in the American Declaration of
Independence in 1776.

The revolt was not a total failure. The Poll Tax was never repeated, although there were similar
charges, and taxes were never as high again. Worker’s wages began to rise, as the situation from
before the revolt was still the same: there was still a lack of workers, so the peasants could demand
higher wages. The landowners paid up, as they needed the workers. The demands of the rebel
peasants were further realised when some were able to buy their own land, because there was so
much unused after the Black Death. This freed them from having to work the lord’s land. Gradually
peasants became independent and within 100 years they were freemen.