What is the Magna Carta?
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Key Provisions & Original Scope
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A Kingdom Under Pressure
In the early 1200s, England was ruled by , a monarch whose reign was marred by failed military campaigns in France and exorbitant taxes imposed on his own subjects to fund those war efforts.
The nobility, known as the , grew tired of John's arbitrary rule and heavy-handed taxation. Frustrated and facing financial ruin, they took the dramatic step of rising in open rebellion against the Crown in 1215.
Continue to the Runnymede meeting in 1215
So, in June 1215, King John and the rebel barons met at , a neutral meadow on the banks of the River Thames near Windsor.
The agreement they came to wasn't originally intended to be a grand declaration of human rights. Instead, it was drafted as a practical peace treaty designed to avert an immediate, full-scale civil war between the king and his wealthy landholders.