How did the barons force King John to sign the Magna Carta?
Magna Carta, or Magna Charta, is the thirteenth-century document regarded as the foundation of English constitutional liberty. By early spring of 1215, England was in the throes of a civil war. King John’s blundering foreign policy had disrupted the Angevin Empire and had alienated a considerable number of his former followers. His clash with Rome over the vacant See of Canterbury outraged the nation’s religious leaders. More significant were his repeated violations of feudal and common law. These abuses caused most of John’s barons to revolt. John capitulated at Runnymede on 15 June 1215. Here he gave his consent to the Magna Carta. No document in all of English history equals the Magna Carta, although none has been more misunderstood or misinterpreted. The “great charter” was a treaty won by a victorious barony from a defeated king. In its essence, the charter simply meant that John, like all the English, was to be subject to the spirit and letter of the law. His past conduct was con
