In 1215 English barons forced King John to accept a written limit on his power. Magna Carta, or the Great Charter, addressed feudal grievances, protected certain rights of free men, and established that the king was subject to law.

Most of its original clauses dealt with specific thirteenth-century issues and were later revised or discarded. A few principles—especially those concerning due process and consent to taxation—were repeatedly invoked in later constitutional struggles in England and its colonies.

The charter’s symbolic importance grew over centuries. Seventeenth-century opponents of royal absolutism and eighteenth-century American revolutionaries cited it as evidence of an ancient constitution restraining rulers. Original engrossments survive and are treated as foundational documents of legal tradition, even though their medieval context differs sharply from modern constitutionalism.

• 1215 charter limiting English royal power
• Addressed baronial and legal grievances
• Later interpreted as a constitutional landmark
• Surviving copies are iconic legal artifacts