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Runnymede - The Home of Magna Carta

The Great Charter
In the spring of 1215 England stood on the brink of civil war. A group of influential barons opposed to the heavy tax burden imposed on them to pay for unsuccessful military campaigns in France had declared against King John and seized London. John, already under pressure after a long running dispute with the powerful Roman Catholic Church, and accusations of arbitrary government, sought to play for time.

In June 1215 both parties met at Runnymede to discuss the Barons’ grievances. The precise location of the meeting is not known but the open Meadows, midway between the King’s residence at Windsor Castle and the Barons’ headquarters in Staines, were an ideal place for a large gathering of influential men with their private armies, tents and horses. After several days of negotiations, much bargaining and last minute revisions, John accepted the Barons’ demands and sealed what became known as the Magna Carta (the Great Charter) “In the Meadow that is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines on the 15th day of June in the 17th year of our reign”.

Ironically it is unlikely that the full significance of the Magna Carta was appreciated at the time. Indeed its constitutional importance for future generations derives more perhaps from modern day interpretation of its guiding principles than its actual content. The document was not a universal expression of human rights. Much of it dealt with specific baronial grievances arising from the abuse of established feudal customs of little apparent relevance to us today. Nor was it granted with enthusiasm. King John was a reluctant and unlikely reformer and the Charter was essentially a pragmatic and grudging concession on his part which he soon attempted to withdraw. Many of the barons themselves had little respect for the law and they, in turn, quickly reneged on their agreement to surrender London after the signing.

Nevertheless, the Charter was effectively the foundation of the liberties of the citizen in the English speaking world and beyond. It established, for the first time, that the power of a monarch could be constrained by the rule of law. Some attempt was made to define the limits and responsibilities of government and the legal rights of free men. The principles which underpin the Charter have resounded across the centuries. The document has become the most potent symbol of freedom under the law for western civilisation, its spirit called upon to defend the liberties of the individual whenever they appeared to be threatened, not least in the English Civil War and the subsequent troubled Parliaments of Cromwell, and the American War of Independence. The Charter has formed the basis of constitutions and statute law across the English speaking world, including the United States of America, as well as the Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Four original copies of the Charter, made in the Royal Chancery while both parties waited at Runnymede, survive. Two of these are held in the British Museum and the others are at Lincoln and Salisbury Cathedrals.

Today, visitors can look across the rolling meadows to the glittering band of the Thames and the hanging willows beyond and see a landscape which is probably relatively little changed from 1215. They can also visit the simple but effective Memorial to the Magna Carta at the foot of Cooper’s Hill. Erected in 1957 by the American Bar Association, the Memorial, in the form of a domed classical temple, was funded by contributions from some 9,000 American lawyers, inspired ‘to commemorate Magna Carta, the symbol of freedom under law’.