When was the Magna Carta signed?

The Magna Carta was sealed on 15 June 1215 by King John at Runnymede, a water meadow on the banks of the River Thames in Surrey, between Windsor and Staines.

The document was not in fact signed, a common modern misconception, but authenticated with the king's great seal in wax, which was the standard method for royal documents of the period. Its full name in Latin is Magna Carta Libertatum, meaning Great Charter of Liberties, and it was the result of a rebellion by England's barons against John's government.

The barons' grievances had built up over years of heavy taxation to fund John's unsuccessful wars in France, arbitrary justice, and disputes over the Church that had left England under a papal interdict from 1208 to 1213. By the spring of 1215, London had fallen to the rebels, and John was forced to negotiate. Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton acted as mediator, and the text drew heavily on a proposed reform document known as the Articles of the Barons.

The charter contained 63 clauses. Most dealt with immediate baronial grievances, limiting the king's ability to levy taxes without consent, protecting the rights of the Church, and regulating feudal obligations. A small number of clauses had a far longer reach. Clause 39 declared that no free man should be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled, or destroyed in any way except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. Clause 40 stated that the king would not sell, deny, or delay justice. These clauses are the ancestors of habeas corpus, due process, and the right to trial by jury.

John's assent was short-lived. Within weeks he had asked Pope Innocent III to annul the charter, and civil war followed. John died in 1216, and the charter was reissued in modified form in his son Henry III's name, then again in 1217 and 1225. The 1225 version is the one that entered English statute law.

Four original copies of the 1215 charter survive, held by the British Library (two copies), Salisbury Cathedral, and Lincoln Cathedral. The 800th anniversary in 2015 was marked by national commemorations. Its clauses shaped the English Bill of Rights of 1689, the United States Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights.