On a summer day in 1215, in a meadow beside the River Thames, an English king agreed to a long document written in Latin that limited his own power. Most of its clauses dealt with matters that seem dull today: inheritance fees, fish traps, the rights of widows, the size of a measure of ale. Yet the document, which came to be called Magna Carta, Latin for “the Great Charter,” became one of the most famous texts in the history of law. To understand why, we start with the kingdom it was written for.

The Norman Conquest

In 1066 William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England and defeated the English king Harold at the Battle of Hastings. William and his followers replaced most of the English aristocracy. He claimed that all land in England ultimately belonged to the king, and he granted great estates to his leading followers, the barons, in return for loyalty and military service. Twenty years later, his officials surveyed the kingdom in the Domesday Book (1086), recording who held what land and what it was worth, a tool for taxation and control unmatched in Europe at the time.

Feudal bargains

The resulting system is often called feudalism, though historians debate the term. Its basic idea was a chain of personal obligations. The king granted land to barons, who owed him service, especially knights for his army. Barons in turn granted land to knights, who owed them service. At the bottom, most of the population were peasants, many of them villeins, unfree peasants bound to their lord's land, who owed labor and could not leave without permission.

The bargain gave the king many ways to collect money. When a baron died, his heir paid a fee called a relief to inherit. If the heir was a child, the king could take control of the estate and its income until the heir came of age. The king could sell the right to marry a wealthy widow or heiress. Barons who did not serve in person could pay scutage, “shield money,” instead. None of these payments had fixed limits, which left room for abuse.

Henry II and the common law

Henry II, who ruled from 1154 to 1189, built the foundations of English law. He sent royal judges around the country to hear cases, and over time their decisions formed a body of law applied in the same way throughout the kingdom: the common law, common because it was shared by all of England rather than varying from place to place. Henry also encouraged juries of local men to report crimes and settle disputes over land. These reforms made royal justice popular, but they also made it a source of income, since people paid to have their cases heard.

Henry ruled much more than England. Through inheritance and marriage, especially his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, he controlled about half of what is now France, from Normandy to the Pyrenees. Historians call this the Angevin Empire. Defending it was expensive, and English taxes paid much of the cost.

Richard the Lionheart

Henry's son Richard I, the Lionheart, ruled from 1189 to 1199 but spent only about six months of his reign in England. He led the Third Crusade to the Holy Land, and on his way home he was captured and held for ransom by the Holy Roman Emperor. England paid a ransom of 150,000 marks, a staggering sum, raised by heavy taxes. Richard then spent the rest of his reign fighting in France. He was a celebrated warrior, but his wars left the crown deep in debt and his subjects used to heavy demands.

Older promises

Magna Carta was not the first royal promise of good government. When Henry I took the throne in 1100, he issued a Charter of Liberties, promising to end the abuses of his predecessor and to respect the customs of the barons and the church. Kings largely ignored it afterward, but it was not forgotten. In 1215 the rebel barons would point to it as a precedent: proof that a king could be expected to bind himself in writing.

Worked example: the price of an inheritance

Imagine a baron named Walter who dies in 1205, leaving a twelve-year-old son and a widow. Under the customs of the time, follow what the king can do.

• Wardship. Because the heir is a child, the king takes control of the estate. He may rent it to a royal favorite, who strips its forests and drains its income until the boy comes of age.
• Marriage. The king sells the right to marry the boy to the highest bidder, who chooses a bride from his own family.
• The widow. The king can pressure the widow to remarry a man of his choosing, or charge her a fine to remain single.
• Relief. When the boy turns twenty-one, the king demands a relief to let him inherit, and since no law fixes the amount, he names a huge sum. If the young man cannot pay, he borrows from moneylenders or loses part of his land.

Each step was legal by custom. But together they could ruin a family. Notice that the problem was not a lack of rules but a lack of limits on how the rules were applied. Magna Carta's earliest clauses would attack exactly these practices, fixing fees, protecting heirs and allowing widows to refuse remarriage. Before it was a symbol of liberty, the charter was a list of very practical complaints.