Magna Carta sealed at Runnymede
English barons forced King John to seal a charter limiting royal power — promising he would not imprison free men without lawful judgment, would not impose new taxes without the consent of a council of barons, and would obey the law the same as everyone else. John repudiated it within weeks; the Pope annulled it in August. It still became the most cited constitutional document in the English-speaking world.
Magna Carta's most famous clause — 'no free man shall be seized or imprisoned... except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land' — is the direct ancestor of habeas corpus and the Fifth Amendment. The 1215 original lasted about two months. Its reissues in 1216, 1217, 1225, and 1297 are what actually shaped history.
01 · Divine Authority
For most of human history, the explanation for power was that the powerful were chosen, descended from, or personally in contact with the gods. Pharaohs were gods. Roman emperors were deified. Chinese emperors ruled by the Mandate of Heaven. The Pope could unmake a king.
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