Magna Carta Key Facts

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Magna Carta is a basic document that states liberties guaranteed to the English people. It proclaims rights that have become a part of English law and are now the foundation of the constitution of every English-speaking country.

The Magna Carta, which means “great charter” in Latin, was drawn up by English barons (nobles) and church leaders to limit the king’s power. In 1215 they forced the tyrannical King John to agree to the charter.

The Magna Carta stated that the king must follow the law and could not simply rule as he wished. It was one of the first documents to state that citizens had such rights. Today many people consider Magna Carta to be the first written constitution in Europe.

King John’s cruelty and greed united the powerful feudal nobles, the church leaders, and the people against him. He demanded too much money in taxes. While the king was waging a disastrous war in France, the leading barons of England met secretly and swore to compel him to respect the rights of his subjects. When John returned, they presented him with a series of demands.

Magna Carta: signingKing John of England signed the Magna Carta in 1215.
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John tried to gather support in order to avoid giving in to the demands, but almost all his followers deserted him. Too weak to resist the barons and bishops, at last he met with them along the south bank of the Thames River, in a meadow called Runnymede. King John affixed his seal to the Magna Carta on June 15, 1215.

The document then underwent further modifications, with the final version agreed to on June 19.

The document had 63 sections. Although much of it deals with feudal rights and duties, it also includes provisions that protect the rights of the church, merchants, and townspeople.

The Magna Carta also guaranteed the rights of women and children who inherited property, and it stated that people could not be punished for crimes unless they were lawfully convicted.

Finally, the Magna Carta gave barons the right to declare war on the king if he did not follow the charter’s provisions.

English rulers often tried to ignore the Magna Carta. However, it was the beginning of significant limitations on the English monarchs’ power.

As the monarch lost power, the nobles and, later, Parliament gained it.

Magna Carta memorialA memorial stands in the field where King John signed the Magna Carta in what is now the county of Surrey, England.
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In later centuries leaders and ordinary people cited the Magna Carta as a guarantee of basic human rights. The document has become a symbol and a battle cry against oppression, with each generation reading into it a protection of its own threatened liberties.

Today, England is part of the United Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy. That means the monarch shares power with a government that is organized according to a constitution.

The Magna Carta influenced not only English law but laws in many other countries, which later used the principles of the Magna Carta in their constitutions.

The Magna Carta is considered a forerunner of the English Bill of Rights, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In the United States both the national constitution and the state constitutions show ideas and even phrases directly traceable to the Magna Carta.

In 1948 the United Nations (UN) adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the foundational document of international human rights law. It was referred to as humanity’s Magna Carta by Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights that was responsible for the drafting of the document.

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Magna Carta | Timeline

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