Free About 1 hr0 learners Rev. 2026-10-13 0

The most famous charter of liberty in history spends a surprising amount of its length on fish traps, inheritance fees and the size of a measure of ale. It was written for a few dozen angry barons, cancelled by the pope within ten weeks, and its royal author died the following year in the middle of a civil war.

So how did a failed medieval peace deal end up on the seal of revolutionary Massachusetts, in the US Bill of Rights and in a Supreme Court ruling about Guantánamo Bay? Follow King John's money troubles to the meadow at Runnymede, read the clauses that mattered, and watch lawyers like Sir Edward Coke turn old Latin into a weapon against kings. You will come away able to tell the myths from the record, and to apply the charter's core test to any government that wants to lock someone up without a hearing.

Levels

  1. 1 1. England Before the Charter 5-question quiz
  2. 2 2. King John's Troubles 5-question quiz
  3. 3 3. Rebellion and Runnymede 5-question quiz
  4. 4 4. What the Charter Said 5-question quiz
  5. 5 5. Failure, War and Rebirth (1215 to 1297) 5-question quiz
  6. 6 6. The Charter Reinvented: Coke and the Stuarts 5-question quiz
  7. 7 7. Across the Atlantic and Around the World 5-question quiz
  8. 8 8. Myth, Limits and the Rule of Law Today 5-question quiz

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