Post-classical history

1215: The Year of Magna Carta

1215: The Year of Magna Carta

On 15 June 1215, rebel barons forced King John to meet them at Runnymede. They did not trust the King, so he was not allowed to leave until his seal was attached to the charter in front of him.

This was Magna Carta. It was a revolutionary document. Never before had royal authority been so fundamentally challenged. Nearly 800 years later, two of the charter's sixty-three clauses are still a ringing expression of freedom for mankind: 'To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice'. And: 'No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or in any way ruined, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land'.

1215 - THE YEAR OF THE MAGNA CARTA explores what it was like to be alive in that momentous year. Political power struggles are interwoven with other issues - fashion, food, education, medicine, religion, sex. Whether describing matters of state or domestic life, this is a treasure house of a book, rich in detail and full of enthralling insights into the medieval world.

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Englishman’s Castle

Chapter 2. The Countryside

Chapter 3. Town

Chapter 4. School

Chapter 5. Family Strife

Chapter 6. Tournaments and Battles

Chapter 7. Hunting in the Forest

Chapter 8. The Church

Chapter 9. King John

Chapter 10. The King’s Men

Chapter 11. Trial by Ordeal

Chapter 12. A Christian Country

Chapter 13. The English and the Celts

Chapter 14. The Wider World

Chapter 15. The Great Charter

Chapter 16. The Myth

The Text of Magna Carta

Bibliography

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