King John and the Magna Carta, 1215

In May 1215, a group of barons formed an army in the north of England and travelled to London. John was
forced to offer talks about changing how the country was ruled. He met the barons at Runnymede in June.

John and the barons came to an agreement that would take some power away from the king and make him
work more with the barons. This agreement was the Magna Carta. It contained a total of 63 different
clauses, setting out rules concerning land ownership, taxes and people’s legal rights.

Part of clause 1, and all of clauses

13, 39 and 40 are still valid today.
Below are clauses 39 and 40:

“No free man shall be seized,

imprisoned, dispossessed,
outlawed, exiled or ruined in any
way, nor in any way proceeded
against, except by the lawful
judgement of his peers and the
law of the land.

“To no one will we sell, to no one

will we deny or delay right or
justice.”

What does this cartoon suggest

about King John and the Magna
Carta?
 What was the significance of the Magna Carta?

Task: Watch the two videos on Teams and use them to answer the questions below!

1. Why were the barons unhappy with John?

2. What is its most famous clause?

3. What was that clause not as significant at the time as it sounds?

4. Who has it inspired?

5. What kind of ideas was it the first step towards?

What caused the English barons to create the Magna Carta?

In 1204 John lost land held by
Britain in Normandy to the
French & then tried to win it
back. This cost huge amounts of
money as he needed money to pay
mercenaries to fight for him.
John’s strategies to collect money
to finance war angered the barons.
For example, Robert de Vaux was
fined 2,000 marks (£1,300) in 1211
“for the king’s benevolence”. This
was what they called a forced ‘gift’.
John regularly used scutages
(he used it 11 times since 1199),
and each time made the barons
pay more. When in 1214 the
barons had to pay another
scutage many refused to pay.

John was in dispute with the
Church as in 1207 Pope Innocent
III had appointed Stephen
Langton as Archbishop of
Canterbury. John didn’t like this
as he hadn’t chosen him. John
said he should be the one to
appoint all leading churchmen. In
response, the Pope
excommunicated John and banned
all church services in England.
In 1214, John suffered a major
defeat in France at the Battle of
Bovines. As a result, many people
no longer believed John could gain
back the land in France. Some
called him “Softsword”.
In 1212, the Pope said it was no
longer a sin to kill the King. So,
some barons to planned to kill him.
In 1208 William de Briouze paid
40,000 marks (£27,000) to
John to have his lands restored.
Despite Briouze paying him,
John stull imprisoned his wife
and son (both died in custody).
Economy (E)
War (W) Religion (R)
John’s style of ruling (J)
 Impacts of the Magna Carta

Categorise the boxes into: short term (anything up to the 1400s), and long term, success vs failure.

King John signed in in 1215
yet he didn’t intend to
follow its rules. He even
secured support from the
Pope who said that it was
“illegal, unjust, harmful to
royal rights and shameful
to the English people”, and
that it was ‘void.’
Magna Carta was reissued
several times - in Nov.
1217, the Forest Law’ or
‘small charter’ limited
the amount of hunting
forest the King
could have.
King John was very angry at being
forced to sign the Magna Carta and
did not follow the rules set out in it.
This it led to the Baron's War
where he fought a war against the
barons. This caused unrest in
England because it turned into a
Civil War & the barons invited
Prince Louis of France to take the
throne.
It showed that John was willing to
wage war to maintain his power.
The National Liberation Army in
Mexico quoted Magna Carta in 1994
to try to protect indigenous people
from exploitation in business. In
2011 the Philippines government
talked of introducing a ‘Magna Carta
for women.’
The Baron’s War
During the Baron's War, the barons
occupied Rochester Castle. In Oct.
1215, John attacked the castle with
catapults and siege towers. He laid
siege to the castle until November, even
using the fat of 40 pigs as to burn the
castle.
In 1216, French King Louis arrived in
Kent with French troops. Louis was
announced by the barons as King at St
Paul's Cathedral, but not crowned. With
the death of King John in 1216 however,
the crown went to Henry III, John's
son.
This helped the barons because as a
child, they could control him- and Henry
agreed to the resigning of the Charter.

The Magna Carta was the first time that the King's Royal The Magna Carta has influenced law
Authority had been challenged and limited. It had 63 clauses throughout history; from the UN
including: Charter, to the American Constitution.
Clauses such as ‘men have all right to a
 Someone accused of a crime could not be imprisoned or fair trial’ are fundamental principals of
punished without having a fair trial first. democracy that are used today.
 The king could not raise new taxes unless he had the
agreement of the barons.
 A council of 25 barons was set up to ensure the king followed
the rules the charter put in place.

Due to the feudal system,
peasants still had no power
so the Magna Carta did not
bring any major
representation to the
majority of the population.
In Stuart times (1600s) the Magna
Carta was quoted and used to
restrain the power of kings like King
Charles I. MPs quoted it to remind
Charles that the monarch was
subject to law and not above it.
Write at least one in each box:
:) Success
:( Failure.
Short term impact - ST
Long term impact – LT
 A timeline from the Magna Carta to Provisions of Oxford

The Magna Carta is signed by King John, 1215 The First Baron’s War, 1215 – 1217
John did not follow the Magna Carta, causing the
Baron's War where he fought against the barons. John
was losing as the barons had the support of the King of
Scotland and in 1216 the King of France arrived in
England with forces. The barons announced the King of
France as the new king (but he wasn’t coronated).

The death of King John, 1216

John died and was succeeded by his son, Henry III.
(Most English people supported Henry over King Louis
of France so Louis returned home). As Henry was only
9 a Council of Barons was made to help him rule.

Henry lost two major

wars with France in
Magna Carta is reissued in 1216, 1217 & 1225 1230 and 1242.
In 1217 it was issued alongside the Forest Law, limiting .
the amount of hunting forest the King could have.
.

Tension built between Henry and his barons

The Provisions of Oxford, 1258
In April, 7 major barons demanded changes to end the
personal rule of Henry. They met as a Parliament in
Oxford in June and created the Provisions of Oxford
(a list of demands).
The ‘Provisions of Oxford' placed the king under the
authority of a Council of Fifteen, to be chosen by
twenty-four men made up of twelve nominees of the
king, and twelve nominees of the reformers.
Other demands in the Provisions of Oxford:
• Each county would be sheriff and taxes would be
decided locally
Resentment was building because of Henry:
 Losing wars in France
 Only asking for advice from a small
group of individuals (many were foreign,
called ‘aliens’ at the time).
 Henry ruling in an arbitrary way
(meaning he did not stick to the rules).
 Royal ‘favourites’ got preferential
treatment, making others jealous.
This led to in a minor rebellion in 1233.
.

• Barons could make decisions without the King’s
presence
Magna Carta, Henry III was unhappy at the
• The king could not make decisions without approval
of the council.
• people should be represented across the whole
country so that the King could hear the grievances
of all, called ‘the Commons’ to represent the voice
of the commoners, rather than just the barons.
The Second Baron’s War, 1264 - 67
Just as John had no intention of upholding
attempt to restrict his power; this
prompted a second civil war to break out,
with Simon leading barons and knights
against Henry’s forces at the Battel of
Lewes in 1264, where Henry and his son
Edward were captured.

• Parliament should be held 3 times a year.