Magna Carta Essay

How far was the creation of Magna Carta in June 1215 a baronial reaction to the personal behaviour of King John?

In June 2015, the Barons of John I were fed up with him and wanted a charter to be made to define the rules which the King should abide to, and clarify laws across the land. Whether the creation of the Magna Carter itself was entirely down to John is debatable. If it is argued that it is down to John then it is also debatable whether the Magna Carter was created due to his personal behaviour, or due to other circumstances which are out of his control. It can be argued that the baronial reaction was not just because of John, but maybe instead because of his predecessors which left him the draconian system in 1199, and the tension reached a breaking point in John’s reign, so therefore he was blamed.

It can be argued that the creation of the
For example, Anonymous of Bethune noted, “The king lusted after beautiful women and because of this he shamed the high men of the land, for which he was greatly hated.” This is another reason to suggest that the Magna Carta was created because of the baronial reaction to John’s personal behaviour as the Barons would have clearly been angered by John’s actions and would have wanted something to be done, and in this case it would be for John to comply with the Magna Carta. When the charter was created, one of the clauses within it was a security clause which demanded the return of hostages, lands and castles which had been taken away from the Barons under John’s rule. This shows that it is possible that John did this for his own personal benefits and did not have much interest in his barons, and therefore the charter was created to stop unfair occupations made by