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We've seen what Magna Carta said, and

we've also seen how it was made and
how it came to be made permanent.
In the early years of
the boy King Henry III.
How may we sum up its achievement?
And what an extraordinary
document it is as we've seen.
A longish document of some 63 clauses.
[...]
rather shorter in the later reissues.
But still quite a long document.
Many of those clauses rather obscure.
We have to remember that it offered a
solution to people's problems at the time.
Magna Carta was a product of its time.
And the things that bothered people then,
are not the things that
bother people today.
So to us it seems,
perhaps, rather obscure.
But it lasted.
It's become one of the most
influential documents in
the history of the English speaking world.
It's become iconic.
If Helen of Troy's face was the face that
launched a thousand ships, Magna Carta
has launched a thousand imitators,
it has spawned an enormous progeny.
From the Charter to the Virginia Company
in the 17th century,
through the American Declaration
of Independence and
the Bill of Rights in the 18th century.
To all the constitutions of
the Commonwealth countries that
gained independence from
us in the 20th century.
All of them directly or
indirectly owe something,
sometimes quite directly,
to the principles of Magna Carta.
So how do we account for
its enormous importance?
Its lasting power.
Well I suppose the first and
most obvious thing we have to say
is that amidst all the very detailed
clauses which we've talked about,
it affirms certain overarching principles
that are fundamental to our
understanding of human rights today.
We've talked about the clause that lays
down the principle of ascent to taxation,
but the most famous clauses of course,
are clauses 39 and 40.
Two of the few clauses still
on our statute book today.

Clause 39,
no free man shall be imprisoned or
disseized against the law of the land or
without the judgement of his peers.
And clause 40, to no one shall we sell,
delay, or deny right or justice.
These clauses are fundamental.
They are timeless.
They resonate over the centuries.
But there's a second point I
think we need to make, and
that is that Magna Carta has survived.
We saw it had difficult birth pangs and
let us say,
it was not unique to begin with.
Charters of liberties were
granted by kings to their
subjects in a number of other parts
of Europe in the early 13th century.
So there is a European context
to the making of Magna Carta,
it was not a uniquely English thing,
but what is unique is that it survived.
Eventually, all those other charters of
liberties in other parts of Europe fell by
the wayside.
But as a result of a reissue of 1225,
as a result of the events
of the minority years of
the reign of young King Henry III,
Magna Carta survived and
it became permanent.
The first statute on our statute book.
And it came to mean all things to all men.
To high constitutionalists in later
centuries, it meant the establishment
of the principle of the rule of law,
the foundation of every civilized state.
On the other hand, to political radicals
like the Diggers in the 17th century,
it meant the legitimization of rebellion.
Magna Carta legitimized rebellion and
occupation.
Whatever your position,
Magna Carta could legitimize it.
Magna Carta became the property
of all Englishmen.
And when England in the 18th
century became Britain,
it became the property of all Britains.
And when later still in the 19th Century,
Britain gave birth to a great empire,
all those parts of the world colored red
in the atlases of 50 to 100 years ago.
It became the property of
all of those people as well.
It became the property of parts of
the British Empire that broke away.
It became the property of Americans.
Magna Carta was claimed,

was owned by everyone all over the world.

Which is why students studying,
watching this
online course all over the world,
are learning about Magna Carta today.