The Magna Carta, 1225
TITLE ON WORD- WHY DOES
MAGNA CARTA MATTER?
The wax seal depicting King John
attached to Magna Carta, 1215
READ THE FOLLOWING NOTES. THEY
EXPLAIN WHAT THE MAGNA CARTA WAS
 In May 1215, the Barons, unhappy with King
John’s behaviour and the failures of his reign,
rebelled. London was captured by the barons
in June and John had no choice but to meet
them at Runnymede, west of the city on the
River Thames, to agree to their peace terms.
 They presented him with a contract which he
sealed with wax which was designed to end
the civil war between them.
 Later generations have interpreted the Magna
Fun Fact: Magna Carta consists of 3,350 words written
in Latin on sheepskin parchment.
Only 4 copies from 1215 survive today.
Carta as the first written guarantee of an
individual’s right to certain freedoms.
Much of Magna Carta’s contents were specific to the time it was written. Over the years many of its 63 clauses have fallen
out of use or been replaced by new, more relevant laws.
Task- questions:
1. Which clause is the most important in guaranteeing an individual’s rights and why?
2. Which 3 clauses are still part of English & Welsh law today? Use the internet to help you. If you are not
please more on to the next question.
Clause 1: The English Church shall
be free, and shall have its rights
undiminished, and its liberties
unimpaired.
Clause 8: No widow shall be
compelled to marry, so long as she
wishes to remain without a husband.
Clause 12: No scutage [TAX] may
be raised in our kingdom without its
general consent.
Clause 13: The city of London shall
enjoy all its ancient liberties and free
customs.
Clause 21: Earls & Barons shall be
fined only by their equals.
Clause 23: No town or person shall
be forced to build bridges over rivers
except those with an ancient
obligation to do so.
Clause 30: No sheriff, royal official
or other person shall take horses and
carts for transportation from any
free man, without his consent.
Clause 35: There shall be standard
measures of wine, ale and corn
throughout the kingdom. Weights are
to be standardised similarly.
Clause 39: No freeman is to be
arrested, or imprisoned save by the
lawful judgment of his peers or by
the law of the land.
Clause 40: To no one will we sell, to
no one will we deny or delay right or
justice.
Clause 49: We will at once return all
hostages delivered up to us as
security for peace.
Clause 54: No one shall be arrested
or imprisoned on the appeal of a
woman for the death of any person
except her husband.
WHY WAS THE
MAGNA CARTA
NOT SO GREAT?
3. Look at Source A. Does clause 39
protect the liberties of everyone in
England? Explain your answer.
4. Read Source B. Why did the Magna
Carta not solve the problem of bad
King John?
‘No freeman is to be arrested, or imprisoned
save by the lawful judgment of his peers or
by the law of the land.’
Source A - Clause 39 from Magna Carta
‘We utterly reject and condemn this
settlement, and under threat of
excommunication we order that the king
should not dare to observe it and that the
barons and their associates should not
require it to be observed: the charter, with all
undertakings and guarantees whether
confirming it or resulting from it, we declare
to be null, and void of all validity for ever.’
Source B - Response of Pope Innocent III to a
secret appeal from King John for help after
he signed Magna Carta, 24th August 1215
THE SURVIVAL OF MAGNA CARTA
 Within months of Magna Carta being agreed, John had chosen to ignore
the document and the war with the barons resumed.
 The rebellious barons decided a new king was needed and offered the
throne to a French Prince. Louis invaded England with a French army in
1216 and seized control of London. He made no reference to Magna Carta
as he took control of more than half the country.
 John, already on the run from the French & the barons, died of dysentery in
The tomb of King
John in Worcester
Cathedral
October.
 The following month, the governors of John’s nine year old son, now King
Henry III, reissued Magna Carta in the new King’s name.
 The following year the rebels made peace with King Henry’s governors and
Prince Louis, defeated in battle returned to France.
5. Why did Magna Carta succeed in 1216 when it failed in 1215?
6. Read the sources below. Why does Magna Carta still matter today? Answer this question with quotations from at least
three sources!
“No person shall be deprived of
life, liberty or property without
the due process of law.’
The Fifth Amendment of the
United States Constitution, 1791
“No one shall be subjected to
arbitrary arrest, detention or
exile.”
Article 9 of The United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, 1948
“Everyone has the right to liberty
and security of person.”
Article 5 of The European
Convention of Human Rights,
1953
“The significance of Magna Carta
lay not only what it actually said
but… in what later generations
claimed and believed it had said.”
Lord Bingham, former chief justice
of England & Wales, 2010
“The democratic aspiration is no
mere recent phase in human
history. It is human history. It
permeated the ancient life of early
peoples. It blazed anew in the
Middle Ages. It was written in
Magna Carta.”
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
in a speech during World War 2,
1941