II.

Origins of the Magna Carta

In England, feudal relations between kings and their vassals, called barons, dictated the rights and duties of each. The barons provided military and other services to the king and the king provided protection and grants of land, called fiefs, to the barons. In theory the king was supposed to consult his barons before raising taxes or demanding large amounts of military service.

For many years, the kings of England had used English men and money to defend English territory within France. King John acted similarly but he was relatively unsuccessful in his military campaigns. As a result, John demanded greater taxes and additional military service from his barons in order to continue fighting in France. By 1204, however, he had lost his possessions in northern France, including his family’s ancestral lands in Normandy (Normandie) and Anjou, to the French king Philip II (Augustus). Consequently, John imposed high taxes without the barons’ consent, which was a violation of feudal law and custom.

John also alienated the Roman Catholic Church by quarreling with Pope Innocent III over the appointment of the archbishop of Canterbury. The pope responded by placing England under an interdict in 1207 which halted all public church services in England. In 1209 John was excommunicated, or denied the services of the Church. Facing rising unrest, he attempted to strengthen his position by making peace with the Church. In 1213, John accepted the pope’s nominee, Stephen Langton, as archbishop of Canterbury. In 1214 he issued a charter granting concessions and liberties to the Roman Catholic Church in England. As a further pledge of loyalty, John also became a vassal of the pope and surrendered England to him. The pope then returned the kingdom to John as a feudal fief.

John lost any advantage he might have gained by his reconciliation with the Church when he lost the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, in what is now Belgium. He had spent the years since the loss of Normandy and Anjou in preparation for a large-scale military campaign to recover those lands from Philip II. To raise money for the campaign, John demanded more taxes and services from his subjects than ever before. In addition, he ruled them very harshly because he feared disloyalty from the English barons. But his campaign to recover his lands in France failed disastrously. When John returned to England to collect even more money, many of the English barons revolted. The rebel lords captured London but did not defeat John’s forces decisively. By the spring of 1215, a stalemate approached and the two sides began to negotiate. The Magna Carta was the result of these discussions, and John agreed to it in 1215 at Runnymede, a meadow near Windsor.