Name-dropping:
Magna Carta (MAG-nuh CAR-tuh—Latin for “Great Charter”) (agreed to in 1215).
Document granting certain liberties to the English people (by which we mean mostly “English landowning men”) that, in retrospect, seems sort of like the first step toward democracy. At the time, however, it just seemed like a fun and easy way to avoid civil war.

When to Drop Your Knowledge:
Like the Articles of the Confederation and the Big Mac Special Sauce, the Magna Carta is something we’ve all heard of but in the end don’t know a lot about. So you’re bound to impress people by dropping it into conversations about, for instance, the Big Mac Special Sauce. “I mean,” you’ll say, “I know more about King John’s grudging ratification of the Magna Carta than I do about this special sauce.”

The Basics
King John’s acceptance of the Magna Carta in 1215 set a precedent (albeit one that wouldn’t always be followed) for English monarchs: It established that monarchs were subject to earthly law. Future generations of Britons would use clauses from the Magna Carta to assert their right to a fair trial, and the U.S. Constitution would be inspired by it as well. (All this from a document that was basically plagiarized!)

In the year 1100, King Henry I issued a “Charter of Liberties,” which granted some measure of freedom and liberty to British citizens, just so long as they were English and male and of noble birth. But this docu- ment was conferred upon the people, not extracted from the king, which made it revocable (indeed, monarchs rarely abided by it).

A century later, the king was named John, and fortunately for the cause of liberty, he was awful at being king. John took the throne by murdering his nephew, and then proceeded to lose a war to the French, and finally threw a hissy fit when the Catholic Church appointed an archbishop of Canterbury whom John didn’t like.

The barons of England could rarely agree on anything back then, but they did agree that John was an idiot. So, they banded together and stormed London. Soon afterward, in the meadow at Runnymede (which to us sounds like a kind of British food), they cajoled King John into signing a document that granted them increased power and freedoms, and gave the Church a measure of autonomy. Consisting of a preamble and 63 clauses, the Magna Carta’s most important clause, to the barons at least, was number 61, which gave them the right to overrule the king if 25 barons agreed he was violating the Magna Carta. But it’s lasting importance lay in requiring fair trials before sentencing and affirming the right to dissent.

The document was repeatedly was reissued until it became permanent in 1225. While the aristocracy sometimes used it in negotiations with monarch, its primary importance was not to the 13th century but to the 18th, when those seeking liberty and representative government turned to it when drafting their own great charters.

Selections from the Magna Carta
The vast majority of the Magna Carta is devoted not to bold statements about the rights of mankind, but rather to the minutiae of aristocratic life in 13th-century Britain. Among the very important issues discussed:

Whether or not widows should be forced to marry (they should not, although they may have to leave their dead husband’s house forty days after his death).

The rights of men “who live outside the forest” (they should not have to appear before courts inside the forest).

And, of course, no Great Charter would be complete without a little misogyny. The entire 54th clause of the Magna Carta: “No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon the appeal of a woman for the death of anyone except her husband.”

The Cutting Room Floor
In the centuries after the Magna Carta took effect, the power of the British monarchy actually increased. By the 16th century, the document was thought so insignificant that it isn’t even mentioned in Shakespeare’s play King John. Too bad, since it might have improved the pay–one of Shakespeare’s lesser efforts.

Conversation Starters
◆ Believe it or not, the original Magna Carta has been lost. But about 17 copies dating from 1297 or earlier survive, and early copies of the Magna Carta are among the most sought after rare documents in the world. In fact, very few are in private hands. One notable exception is that owned by the chart-loving, big-eared, former presidential candidate/billionaire Ross Perot.

◆ In those days, anyone who lent money with interest could be excommunicated by the Catholic Church for the sin of usury. So, it’s no wonder that Jewish people became the primary lenders in medieval Europe. But debtors in default often brought their cases before Church courts, where the loans were usually declared illegal and the debts erased. As such, the Magna Carta was the first document in Britain to give some recourse to Jewish lenders, although it did annul some debts in the event of a debtor’s death.

◆ Technically, one should always say “Magna Carta” and never “the Magna Carta,” because there is no definite article in Latin. Most reference sources adhere to this rule, but we’re ignoring it due to our principled and deeply held belief that “the Magna Carta” just sounds better.