The Foundation of our Liberties

Monday, June 10, in the year of our Lord 1215 was a fateful day. On this Monday morning in the beauty of an early English summer a group of Barons and churchmen, the 'Army of God and Holy Church' were gathered to await their King. They were extremely courageous men because they were waiting for King John, described by a Victorian historian as a 'monster of iniquity'. His ferocious temper was legendary and the barons could not be sure what his reaction would be. However, although brave they were also extremely angry with the way in which they had been treated by this avaricious King and they had an important mission. They wanted the King to agree to the terms of an important document, a document which would be called 'the foundation of our liberties' and would form the basis of the great English constitution. This document, the most famous in legal history, would be called the Magna Carta, Latin for 'Great Charter'.

King John was a good soldier, a reasonable judge and a cultured and intelligent man who owned a library of excellent books. Unfortunately he was also greedy, extravagant and wasted money. He was also a womaniser who chased his baron's wives. If this wasn't enough to annoy them, he extorted high feudal dues from them and constantly increased taxes. He was a tyrannous King, often cruel. Unsurprisingly he wasn't religious, refusing Communion, and known to interrup Bishop's sermons by saying that he wanted breakfast and loudly jangling the coins in his purse!

He was also widely suspected of murdering his nephew Arthur, who had a better claim to the throne than he did. 'Within me is a Hell', King John's character said in Shakespeare/'s play King John, and it appears that this may have been somewhat true.

To give him his dues, however, King John had much to cope with. He inherited huge expenses because of the Third Crusade and the payment of ransom for Richard 1's abduction by the Holy Roman Emporer. He also suffered the loss of Normandy, another blow. These expenses were some of the causes of the immense taxation that he introduced.

Some of his troubles, however, he brought on himself. He fought with the Pope who wanted the reformer and scholar, Stephen Langton to be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Instead he appointed one of his own advisers, John de Grey. The Pope punished him by excommunicating him and France became an ally of Rome, threatening England. King John now stooped to raiding the baron's and clergy's property and money to ward off invasion by France and increasing taxation to ward off invasion by France.

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