King John is not remembered as one of the
worst monarchs in England’s history for
nothing. Nicknamed ‘Softsword’ and
‘Lackland’, he lost most of the Angevin
territories in France to the Capetian King
Philip II, otherwise known as Philip
Augustus, and disastrously alienated
baronial support through a mixture of
harsh taxation and the exhibition of his
immorality – not an appealing quality to
the barons, who would have preferred to
owe feudal services to a man who might at
least appear to have been appointed by
God. Following John’s disastrous defeat
King John
at Bouvines in 1214, and the campaign’s
failure to retake Normandy, the coffers were empty, and the barons had had
enough of John. Baronial resentment culminated in a rebellion against John in
1215, and they soon captured London. With the loss of his capital, John was
forced to the negotiating table at Runnymede. The resultant charter is perhaps
the most well-known version of the document, but it in fact had the least impact.
The 1215 Magna Carta was in many senses an extremely radical document, acting
to preserve the rights of free men from arbitrary abuse of power, including that
justice should not be obstructed for any free man, and limitations should be put
on feudal payments to the Crown. However, the most radical clause was that
which set up a council of twenty-five barons, who could resort to force in order
to pacify John if ever he disobeyed the laws of the charter. However, this
document was declared null and void within a number of months, as John
appealed to Pope Innocent III, and firmly repudiated the document, as he was
under duress when he signed it.
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