Magna Carta

by Dan Jones Book 1 in the The Landmark Library series.

First published 2014

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4.4(347)

In 1215 King John faced military failure abroad, rebellion among his barons and a crisis of royal authority at home. Magna Carta emerged from that confrontation as a practical peace settlement concerned with feudal rights, taxation, justice and the limits of arbitrary rule. Dan Jones reconstructs the road to Runnymede, the interests of the king and rebels, and the civil war that showed how little immediate peace the charter achieved.

The book then follows Magna Carta through reissue, legal interpretation and political reinvention, explaining how a document rooted in medieval privilege became associated with representative government and individual liberty. The United States edition was published as Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty. Jones distinguishes the charter’s original provisions from the powerful constitutional tradition later built around its name.