Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty

Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty
By Dan Jones
Published in November 2016
288 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 5/5

Everybody heard about the Magna Carta in school; but few people really know what it means. Despite nearly a decade of intense study of medieval history, I also fell into this category.

Aliénor of Aquitaine’s worst son - King John - ended up on the throne after his older brother Richard died without any heirs. King John had a strange personality - he was paradoxically controlling and micromanaging while also being neglectful and distracted.

The King of France immediately opposed King John’s coronation. As a result, the Kingdom of King John - Normandy and England - immediately found itself at war with France. Thanks to John’s incompetent leadership, England immediately lost Normandy. This marked the beginning of Normany being permanently severed from England (although there would be brief periods of reconquest from 1346 - 1360 and again from 1417 - 1450).

John’s obsession for the rest of his reign was the recovery of England’s French territories; which would trigger nearly 300 years of broken warfare between France and England. To pay for the theoretical reconquest of Normandy, King John levied high and unpredictable taxes. Worse, the gentry was already economically suffering due to the loss of Normandy.

In 1214, King John finally launched a disastrous invasion of France. His forces were almost immediately defeated. Frustrated, the English barons launched a full scale rebellion against King John. The barons were also supported by the understandably peeved French, who even deployed a military force that campaigned in the interior of England for roughly 10 months led by the King of France himself.

King John’s military incompetence once again resulted in his repeated defeats at the hands of the Barons and French. He paid the King of France to leave England; then signed a peace treaty with the Barons to end that rebellion. Once the French left England and the Barons settled back down, King John almost immediately repudiated the peace treaty. That peace treaty was the Magna Carta.

The Barons immediately rose up again in revolt after King John repudiated the Magna Carta. The Kingdom of England was plunged into a period of anarchy and civil war. King John died in disgrace, leaving his 7 year old son Henry III to inherit the collapsing power of the throne.

Luckily, Henry III had an incredible asset: the loyal knight William Marshal. Marshal was incredibly loyal, honest, and competent. Marshal immediately confirmed the Magna Carta, but with some edits. This calmed the Barons who pledged loyalty to Henry III. Crisis was averted.

The Magna Carta went from a civil war peace treaty to the foundational document outlining the roles and responsibilities of the state. It would be repeatedly edited, changed, and slowly grant ever more freedoms and constitutional protections to the people.

Most significantly, there was a repeat of the Baron’s war. A century later, the powerful knight  Simon de Montfort made the case that the crown had neglected to preserve the rights outlined in the Magna Carta. He rose up, and once again, forced the King to reinstate and expand the protections offered by the Magna Carta. Since the Second Baron’s War, the Magna Carta has been the single most important document in British legal history.

The Magna Carta slowly came to enshrine many key protections that we today associate with Western civilization. This includes the right of the people to be consulted about their taxation; the right of trial by jury; the protection of property rights; and the ability for the people to be represented in a parliament. It also includes many rights that are mostly obsolete today but were important at the time such as the supremacy of the church over the crown; limitations on the ability of kings to create protected hunting forests; and the protection of the rights of lesser nobility.

This book was remarkably well written. Dan Jones history books are always great. They are easy to follow for readers who know only a little bit about history; but are always insightful for more advanced readers.

If you want to study English history, legal history, or the Magna Carta, then I recommend this book very strongly.