One-minute promo on the Magna Carta 800-year anniversary. [1 min]
An excellent six-minute animated telling of the history of the Magna Carta. [6 min]
A quick explanation of the document’s importance as the original legal fountainhead of human liberty. [2 min]
Comic telling of events at Runnymede, as told in rap. [3 min]
Crude but humorous telling of the document’s signing. [3 min]
Opening clip from the 2011 film Ironclad, tells in brief how Magna Carta came about. [2 min]
Clip from the 2010 film Robin Hood, in which King John agrees to sign the Magna Carta. [3 min]
Perhaps the best and most comprehensive telling of the story of Magna Carta is by British constitutional historian David Starkey. It can be found via google search. [59 min]
Links About Magna Carta
“[Magna Carta] set out to do three things. Firstly, to bridle a king, John, who was dangerous and unpredictable and made his whim the law, and secondly, to make it impossible for any other king to rule in the same way. It was successful in both of those things. The third thing was the great change, and something very different: it set out to create machinery that absolutely bound any king in iron to its measures…It forced governments to behave differently, and set rules for good behaviour and, once the charter was reissued in 1225, it became impossible to impose general taxation without consent.”
–Cato [quoting British historian David Starkey]
“As the first charter to grant individual liberties under the rule of law, protecting the people against tyranny, Magna Carta is the most influential and far-reaching legal text the world has ever known. [It] was serially reinterpreted by later generations, becoming a totem in fierce political debates on the liberties of the people – it became a sacred text for English puritans of the Civil War, for the American patriots of the War of Independence, and for all those in the English-speaking world who have striven to build democratic rights and freedoms in the post-colonial age.”
–Book: Magna Carta: The Foundation of Freedom 1215-2015
“The Charter of Liberties sealed by King John of England in 1215 AD, is routinely cited as one of the most important documents of our constitutional tradition. It ranks with the English Bill of Rights (1689), The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution in symbolic power…[This article] notes some of the specific points that make the Great Charter one of the most enduring documents of all ages.”
–Library of Congress: No Taxation Without Representation Circa 1215 AD, or, Magna Carta: A Beginner’s Guide