Magna Carta (Latin; "Great Charter"),[1] also called Magna Carta Libertatum or The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, is an Angevin charter originally issued in Latin. It was sealed under oath by King John at Runnymede, on the bank of the River Thames near Windsor, England, on 15 June 1215.[2]
Magna Carta was the first document imposed upon a King of England by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their rights.[3] The charter is widely known throughout the English speaking world as an important part of the protracted historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law in England and beyond. The 1215 charter required King John to proclaim certain liberties and accept that his will was not arbitrary—for example by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" (in the sense of non-serf) could be punished except through the law of the land, a right that still exists under English law today. The water-meadow at Runnymede is the most likely location where, on 15 June 1215,[2] King John sealed the Magna Carta, and is the site of the Magna Carta Memorial. Magna Carta Island on the opposite bank of the river is another possible site. The charter indicates Runnymede by name. The Magna Carta influenced common and constitutional law, as well as political representation and the development of parliament. The charter's ideals of democracy, limitation of power, equality, and freedom under law is marked by monuments and commemorative symbols at Runnymede.
It was preceded and directly influenced by the Charter of Liberties in 1100, in which King Henry I had specified particular areas wherein his powers would be limited. Magna Carta was important in the colonisation of America, as England's legal system was used as a model for many of the colonies when they were developing their own legal systems. It was translated into the vernacular Norman French as early as 1219,[4] and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions. The later versions excluded the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority that had been present in the 1215 charter. The charter first passed into law in 1297; the 1225 version, with the long title (originally in Latin) "The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, and of the Liberties of the Forest", still remains on the statute books of England and Wales.[5]