The great Henry, from whose legal reforms English-speaking
peoples receive benefit even to-day, was followed by his son, Richard, the
Lion-hearted crusader. After a short reign Richard was succeeded by his
brother, John, a man so cruel, tyrannical, and wicked that he is usually
regarded as the worst of English kings. In a war with the French ruler, Philip
Augustus, John lost Normandy and some of the other English possessions on the
Continent. In a dispute with Innocent III he ended by making an abject
submission to the Papacy. Finally, John's oppressive government provoked a
revolt, and he was forced to grant the charter of privileges known as Magna
Carta.
WINNING OF MAGNA CARTA, 1215 A.D.
The Norman Conquest had made the king so strong that his
authority could be resisted only by a union of all classes of the people. The
feudal lords were obliged to unite with the clergy and the commons, [9] in
order to save their honor, their estates, and their heads. Matters came to a
crisis in 1215 A.D., when the nobles, supported by the archbishop of
Canterbury, placed their demands for reform in writing before the king. John
swore furiously that they were "idle dreams without a shadow of
reason" and refused to make any concessions. Thereupon the nobles formed
the "army of God and the Holy Church," as it was called, and occupied
London, thus ranging the townspeople on their side. Deserted by all except the
hired troops which he had brought from the Continent, John was compelled to
yield. At Runnimede on the Thames, not far from Windsor, he set his seal to the
Great Charter.
[9] A term which refers to all freemen in town and country
below the rank of nobles.
