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This week,
we've studied the political landscape
of England in the early 13th century.
And we've seen how Magna Carta
grew in importance and
stature, as it was successively
reissued in 1215, 1217 and 1225.
We have seen how the document went from
being a list of demands of unhappy barons
to being a royal document, laying out
the principals of justice for all.
Magna Carta came to protect
the freedoms of all free men,
guaranteeing their rights and
holding the monarch to account.
The concerns that founded Magna Carta,
were not peculiar to England at this time,
various European countries were seeking
ways to hold their rulers to account,
to protect their right to own property,
and to retain their own
personal liberty unless they
needed to be tried for a crime.
But England was politically precocious, in
that the nation as a whole, rallied behind
the Charter that was produced, and
stuck to it over the successive reissues.
Magan Carta's freedoms,
however, only applied to some and
not a large proportion of the population.
Only free men were protected by Magna
Carta, not the peasants who were forced to
stay on the land that belonged to the Lord
of the Manor in their region, and work for
him to grow food.
Magna Carta only protected
the interests of the powerful, and
it did not bring an end to
tyranny in the fields of England.