Magna Carta: history and meaning

Magna Carta – Latin for the Great Charter – is perhaps the most famous document in English history. It is almost universally regarded as having laid the legislative foundations of personal freedom in the English-speaking world.  

The Charter was agreed at a meeting held at Runnymede in June 1215 to end the civil war brought about by King John’s misrule. Paradoxically, however, instead of ending the war, it simply started another - the war of Magna Carta. By the time of King John’s death in October 1216 the Charter seemed a failure, a document destined to be forgotten. Yet in the minority of the reign of John’s son and successor Henry III, it was to experience an extraordinary revival. Dusted down, abbreviated and reissued by the Regent, William Marshal, and the papal legate, Guala, it was to form the basis for a new political dispensation, a new style of kingship. In its final form, agreed when the young king came of age in 1225, the Charter became, in effect, England’s basic law, its essential statute.  

Such was the Charter’s prestige and importance that in the late Middle Ages, whenever there was a political crisis, the first demand of any opposition was for its reissue. Over time, however, the Charter’s relevance was to become less. As the nature of political life changed, and as new issues came to the fore not addressed in its clauses, so its status became increasingly symbolic. Stage by stage, parliamentary legislation took the Charter’s place as the most effective means by which arbitrary kingship could be curtailed. It was only in the political crises of the early 17th century, in the reigns of James I and Charles I, that the Charter was once again to take centre-stage in the nation’s political life. The formidable lawyer Sir Edward Coke, champion of the ‘ancient constitution’, found in the Charter’s terms precisely the text that he needed to legitimise his assault on what he considered Stuart tyranny. Since the 17th century, the Charter has never really looked back. The celebrations staged in 2015 to mark the 800th anniversary of its making, culminating in a visit to Runnymede on anniversary day itself by HM the Queen, reaffirmed its central position in English national life.  

The course will examine the long history of the Charter from its beginnings in the 13th century down to its reinvention in the 17th and its role in the creation of human rights legislation in more recent times. The first class will look at the physicality of the Charter: that is to say, at the four surviving ‘originals’ - two in London, one at Lincoln and one at Salisbury – thinking about how they came to be written, distributed and preserved. Next, consideration will be given to the origins of the Charter in the tangled politics of John’s reign, focusing on the tensions that arose between the arbitrary character of the king’s rule and the yearning of his subjects for fairer, more regular governance based on the rule of law. The third class will take the form of a detailed examination of the most important clauses of the Charter, including the famous clauses 39 and 40, considering what they said and the grievances that they were concerned to address. The fourth class will look at the sequel to the celebrated meeting at Runnymede – that is, at the collapse of the settlement agreed there, the Charter’s resurrection in Henry III’s reign, and the emergence of what was to be the final form of the Charter in 1225. The final class will examine the political rediscovery of the Charter by Sir Edward Coke in the 17th century and its elevation to the status of a national icon by the constitutional writers in the century that followed. Teaching will be by means of informal lectures at which questions and discussion will be encouraged. 

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are:

• The ability to evaluate and interpret the clauses of Magna Carta
• The ability to reflect critically on changing interpretations of the Charter and its meaning
• The ability to comprehend the relationship between a document and its place in historical time

Classes

1. Anniversaries and texts  
2. The making of the Charter  
3. Clause by clause  
4. Reissue and survival  
5. Icon and myth

Required reading

David Carpenter, Magna Carta (Penguin Classics, 2015), which prints the text of the Charter and offers a full contextual discussion of its contents 

Please bring a text of the Charter with you to the classes. 

Typical week: Monday to Friday

For each week of study you select a morning (Am) and an afternoon (Pm) course, each course has five sessions, one each day Monday to Friday. The maximum class size is 25 students. Your weekly courses are complemented by a series of two daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £65 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically within a week of your courses finishing.