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800th anniversary of the Magna Carta

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Picture: CM Dixon / Print Collector / Getty Images
How did a laboriously inscribed parchment drawn up to curb the power of a tyrannical king and appease his rebellious nobles eight centuries ago, survive as the cornerstone of democracies around the world? Here we explore key events surrounding England's “Great Charter” of 1215, and its enduring principle that no one is above the law
Illustration of King John signing the Magna Carta, from a Chronicle of England by James Doyle

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Picture: Alex Lecea / Flickr
Charter of Liberties 1100
Over 100 years before Magna Carta, Henry I – a son of William the Conqueror – issued new rules in his Coronation Charter of 1100, governing property, taxation and the freedom of the Church. Also known as the Charter of Liberties, it bound the King to uphold these laws
The Charter was issued from the Norman Chapel in the Tower of London

3. Picture: The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England / Wikimedia Commons
King John c1167-1216
Under the reign of the autocratic King John, demand grew for a fairer society. Taxing his subjects heavily, to fund his futile attempts to regain land lost in France, John drove his powerful barons to rebellion
King John on a stag hunt, from the illuminated manuscript “De Rege Johanne”, 1300-1400

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Picture: Antony McCallum / Wikimedia Commons
Barons’ Revolt 1214-15
Led by Robert Fitzwalter, the barons renounced their allegiance to the King and seized power in London. From his stronghold at Windsor, John was forced into negotiations. Meetings were held midway between the two camps, beside the River Thames at Runnymede
View from the north bank of the Thames over Magna Carta Island

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Picture: Culture Club / Getty Images
Articles of the Barons 1215
By early June, an outline settlement was reached in the Articles of the Barons, a list of reforms which, for the first time, limited royal powers. The King set his seal on the document – not yet known as Magna Carta, latin for “the Great Charter” – and the date was inscribed: “the fifteenth day of June”
John refusing to sign the Articles of the Barons when first presented to him

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Picture: Matt Cardy / Getty Images
Magna Carta
The 4,000-word peace treaty between the King and his barons was written up in proper legal form, in medieval latin on sheepskin parchment. Copies were distributed throughout the country, of which four survive and will be displayed together for the 2015 anniversary
Facsimile copy of the 1215 Magna Carta in the library at Salisbury Cathedral

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Picture: Lonpicman / Wikimedia Commons
Clauses 39 and 40
Dealing with personal liberty and justice, these two clauses – out of 63 in the 1215 original – are seen as the cornerstone of English law including the jury system, expressed as a free man’s entitlement to “lawful judgment of his equals” Lady Justice statue atop the Old Bailey courthouse in London

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Picture: The Illustrated London News, December 9, 1865, p. 556 / Wikimedia Commons
Death of King John 1216
Seething at the constraints on his sovereignty, King John appealed to Rome and persuaded Pope Innocent III to declare the charter null and void. While still at war with his barons, John died suddenly in October 1216, at Newark Castle, leaving the crown to his nine-year-old son
Scene from Shakespeare’s “King John” at London’s Drury Lane Theatre

9 Picture: Val_McG / Wikimedia Commons
Henry III r.1216-1272
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, ruled as regent and reissued the Magna Carta, removing Clause 61, which had denied the authority of the monarch. When Henry acceded to the throne in 1225, he revised and reissued it again, in what is now regarded as the definitive text
Tomb effigy of Henry III in Westminster Abbey

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Picture: National Portrait Gallery / Wikimedia Commons
Petition of Right 1628
English lawyer and parliamentarian Sir Edward Coke invoked Magna Carta in his “Petition of Right” to counter the tyrannical behaviour of Charles I, a ruler who believed in absolute monarchy, rode roughshod over the rights of his subjects and was eventually beheaded
The execution of Charles I outside the Banqueting House, London. Etching by unknown artist, c.1649

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Picture: Elliott Brown / Flickr
“Magna Farta” 1653
Puritan leader of the republican army in the English Civil Wars, Oliver Cromwell showed his revolutionary disdain for the old order by famously declaring “I care not for the Magna Farta!” His persecution of Catholics, especially in Ireland, would appear to bear this out Statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster

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Picture: Private collection of S. Whitehead / Wikimedia Commons
Bill of Rights 1689
After the upheaval of revolution, a new democracy was established under the co-regency of William and Mary, who signed the Bill of Rights upon accession, promoting free speech, regular elections and the right to petition the monarch without fear of retribution
Engraving of King William III and his wife Queen Mary

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Picture: nyctreeman / Wikimedia Commons
Declaration of Independence 1776
English settlers in the New World enshrined in their new communities the same claims for liberty and justice they had left behind in the Old Country. As the colonists’ demand for independence from George III led to war, they drafted their own Magna Carta of “unalienable Rights”
1890s caricature of Americans kicking out the British

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Picture: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
“A Magna Carta for all humanity” is how the United Nations continues to describe this milestone document, created in the aftermath of World War II. It took the UN’s 58 member states two years and 1,400 rounds of voting to agree its 30 clauses of universal freedoms Former U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with the English version of the Declaration

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Picture: Associated Press / Christian Lutz
European Convention on Human Rights 1950
This treaty of citizens’ rights, drawn up by the Council of Europe, echoes Magna Carta’s stance on impartial justice, notably in Article 6 which protects the right to a fair trial, presumes innocence and provides for a proper defence
The Convention established the European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg

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Picture: Associated Press
Impeachment of U.S. President Richard Nixon 1974
In his opening remarks to the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in July 1974, chairman Peter W. Rodino Jr. cited “the great doctrine of Magna Carta” to prosecute President Nixon, recalling that “the King, like each of his subjects, was under God and the law”
Nixon resigned in August 1974 in the face of almost certain impeachment over the Watergate scandal