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1215: The Year of Magna Carta

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One of the many documents that we honor without paying much importance to what it really was in its time is the Magna Carta. There is a meadow at Runnymede, near Windsor in England, where in 1215 King John was forced to sign the document, and among other memorials there now is a little temple placed by the American Bar Association. The American Founding Fathers reverenced the document, and indeed parts of the Constitution may be easily traced to sentences within the Magna Carta. But the Magna Carta in its time was a bust; it did not bring peace between King John and the barons suing for their share of liberty and was soon trashed in civil war. _1215: The Year of Magna Carta_ (Touchstone) by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham puts the document in context. We are right to hold it in reverence, but the authors make clear that the barons were looking after their property rights easily as much as the abstract values of freedom which have inspired patriots through history, and that the document enabled serfdom rather than actual freedom.

The surprising part about this book is that the Magna Carta does not really show up until the final chapters. The title is correct; the book is largely about the year and how people in England lived at that time. There are chapters on schools, families, tournaments, trials, the church, and other important aspects of life under King John, with mere hints in each about how the Magna Carta might have affected them. The details of life in that year come thick throughout the main part of the book. Astrology was promoted, but some monks and teachers thought it was bunk. People took part in religious rituals, but one prior wrote, "There are many people who do not believe that God exists" and said the universe was ruled by chance, not providence. No one knows how many the "many people" were. There were English colonies as far away as Alexandria. Summers were warmer by one centigrade degree than they are now, with milder winters and lower rainfall. If you were right handed, you would write with a quill from the left wing of a goose (and vice versa) so that the feather would curve outwards when you wrote. Wolves roamed the forests which covered nearly a third of England. Men wore underwear but women didn't. Hay was used for toilet paper. Chess was played with enthusiasm but with simpler rules than now. Adulterers would be whipped naked through the streets. This is a lively history, and fun to read.

The book concludes with the actual signing of the Magna Carta itself and its effects. The rebellion by the barons in 1215 was quite different from the many rebellions against previous kings. Those involved fighting to restore a particular monarch to the throne. The barons had no such champion; the focus of their revolt was simply a program of reform. The document itself consists of 63 clauses, the first ten of which (and many of the subsequent ones) have only to do with maintaining the barons' property rights. There are ringing, lofty expressions of principle, but they are late in the charter, and while they are what we revere it for, they were evidently not uppermost on the minds of the barons. This does not matter, really; "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice" and that no one will have action against him "... except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land" were important principles then and now. The Magna Carta was intended as a peace treaty, but John was eager to wiggle out of it any way he could, and was helped by the Pope, who declared the Magna Carta null and void. The all-out civil war that followed was capped by John's death a year later from dysentery. The Magna Carta was reissued, as it was again in 1225, and it is the 1225 text that entered the statute books. It was this version that bad kings had to reaffirm; public cries after royal infringements, for instance, forced Edward I to confirm the charter in 1297. This spirited introduction to thirteenth century history shows that the Magna Carta thus may be more eternally important not as a foundation for specific rights, but as the primal symbol for struggle against tyranny.

On June 15, 1215, facing a rebellion of his barons, King John of England (yep, the villain of the Robin Hood movie, but that's a different subject) was forced to the conference table, and signed an historic charter - Magna Carta. Widely believed to be the very root of Anglo-Saxon, and later World, democracy, Magna Carta is venerated by many. But, what do you really know about Magna Carta?

In this fascinating book, the authors look at England in 1215, and give the reader an wonderfully in-depth understanding of what life was like at that time, what was going on in England and the rest of Europe, and finally gives the story of Magna Carta, the myths that have grown up around it and even its wording.

Every once in a while a book comes along that surprises me with its excellence - well, this is one of those books! The authors do an excellent job of giving the reader a feel for life in the thirteenth century, really bringing it to life. I enjoyed every page of this fascinating history book, and highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys reading a good book!

I am a high school student going into Sophomore year, and 1215: The Year of Magna Carta was one of my summer reading books. At first I thought it wouldn't be very interesting because from what I had heard it was basically a history textbook in paperback. However, when I read it, I found that the detail makes it so hard to look away from the page! This book is really well written, and no matter what age you are, you'll enjoy it.

Danny Danziger, author of the popular 'In the Year 1000', looks at the way of life of the English during another pivotal year - 1215, the year of the Magna Carta. In many respects, this is a much more important year than 1000 - in the first place, many people didn't realise it was the year 1000 when it was happening. A similar lack of awareness of the importance of the contemporary events takes place in 1215.

As Danziger and co-author John Gillingham note near the end of the text, 'Denounced by the pope, rejected by the king, discarded by the rebels, by the end of 1215 Magna Carta was surely dead.' This was a document that was more important in hindsight and in precedent than in actual effect. The political situation in England was precarious for most participants in 1215, and civil strife close to civil war was not solved with the stroke of the pen or the great seal being stamped onto the parchment of the Magna Carta.

This book looks more at the world of the English in 1215 rather than the document of the Magna Carta itself. In this respect, it parallels in some ways Danziger's earlier book. The authors look at life in castles, country homes of all classes, town dwellings and church institutions. The ways in which family, school, commerce and employment were dealt with are all subjects of concern here. This was still a feudal society, with overlapping hierarchies of church, crown and aristocracy, as well as contentious foreign relations (the kings of England and France still held rival claims over each other's kingdoms).

Danziger and Gillingham develop a world in which the politics of church and state are still vastly intertwined at the highest levels, but the world of the common folk remains little influenced by the great issues of state in a direct sense. On the other hand, there were popular ideas and sentiments that could make themselves felt from the ground up - the legend of Robin Hood is but one example of the ways in which people saw themselves as aspiring to a freedom more present in later constitutional development.

Each chapter of the book opens with a clause or statement taken from the Magna Carta, and thus the great document holds the organising principle for the text. It is somewhat ironic, as the authors discuss, that the main text of what we consider the Magna Carta (and the one that carried the force of law in Britain from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century) was in fact a revised edition drawn up in 1225. One gets the sense that this is a document that helps establish basic rights we take for granted, including freedom from capricious tyranny and the right to protest. 'Although there is not a word in it about the right to protest, there is a sense in which Magna Carta in its entirety represents protest.'

However, it is the Magna Carta's myth more than its substance that carries the main weight of its legacy. While the idea of the Magna Carta certainly shaped later legal and constitutional development throughout the English-speaking world, Danziger and Gillingham do a reasonably convincing job at showing that the document was in fact more a reflection of its world than a dramatic reformation of it.

This is a popular history text - it has some useful bibliographic information, but does not employ footnotes, endnotes, or other more academic devices in the text. The writing is accessible, informative and more than occasionally lively.

There is a type of history book that, no matter how interested the reader may be in the subject, is difficult to get through. Written in an acedemic style that's hard to plod through, there have been some that I've just given up on. I'm glad to say this book is not one of those.

Written in a style that's easy to read and understand, this book delves into not only the life lived by royalty and the priviledged in the year of Magna Carta (hence the title of the book), but the lives of various social strata of the time.

If you have an interest in medieval history, especially English medieval history, then I would say you would enjoy this book.

Highly recommended

Danziger and Gillingham transport us to the year 1215 to examine the social and political currents that led to the drafting of the Magna Carta. Their goal, admirably met, is to help us understand the why and how of the document, rather than the what. They do this by introducing us to the institutions and customs of the England of the time, referring often to contemporary commentators.

In fourteen well-organized chapters they cover homes and architecture, the countryside, town life, education, family life, hunting, religion, the legal system, and other topics before turning to the Magna Carta itself only late in the book. They also debunk many of the myths surrounding the charter, which looms larger when viewed through the haze of the intervening years than it did at the time. This is a most interesting and informative read.

Ironically, the Magna Carta was a failed bit when first signed by King John in 1215. It truly came into prominence in 1225, and its importance grew with the passing years. It has now long been considered a landmark in the evolution of individual rights and freedoms. Danziger and Gillingham present a sweeping overview of the changes in culture, politics, and religion that led to the creation of this important document. They set the stage for understanding the purpose and meaning of the Magna Carta in the time of its origin. The full text of this significant charter is included at the end of the book.

The authors do a great job of presenting the chain of events leading up to the rebellion against King John. Land rights for the rich were clearly center stage during the writing of the Magna Carta. But because this was a new kind of rebellion (one without an alternative king to sponsor), the barons found it necessary to add the clauses protecting the rights of all men so they could feel justified in their rebellion.

The descriptions of everyday life for the rich and poor highlight the issues that the Magna Carta was meant to address. The actual clauses in the charter come alive when presented in context. Understanding the era is key, such as knowing why so much of England was designated as "forest" land, whether or not it actually contained a real forest. The authors also debunk a few common myths about the times such as the idea that people thought the world was flat.

Full of fun, interesting facts about life around the 1200s, none of the information will be new for students of the era. However, the book succeeds marvelously as a popular history. This is a relatively small and easily digestible book. The writing is clear and concise. I recommend this captivating portrayal of a fascinating time period to anyone with even a passing interest in history.

This book brings to life the middle ages in a way that most "history books" seem unable to do. Rather than tell us about twelfth and thirteenth-century England in dry chronological order, each chapter addresses a particular social, political, or religious topic. By doing so, the narrative travels across two centuries in a discontinuous fashion but gives the reader a much better understanding of how political and religious conflicts led to the writing of the Magna Carta.

Not every topic seems equally-well researched and described, but still, this book delivers the goods for those wanting to understand events that so heavily shaped western democratic principles of government.

While not quite on the level of a David McCullough biography, the authors nevertheless manage to entertain while informing.

What is really great about this book is not that it gives you an insight into the Magna Carta, one of the most famous documents of all time, but that it looks at the time in which it was written. And this is rich fodder for some really great story telling. Of course the Magna Carta is discussed in context, and written in its entirety at the back of the book (the first time I have read it), but it is the story of how it came to be that is the real meat in this fabulous book.

First we have the Plantagenets, and what a fascinating family they were. John was on the throne in 1215, but his mother, father, and assorted siblings were among the most interesting people English history have to offer. The entire family provided the greatest soap opera scripts ever written!

Then we have the local aristocracy. Driven by John's fickle nature (and who could blame him with such a family!) they were faithful, faithess, loyal and treacherous all, some all at once.

And then we have the local times themselves. There are chapters on the church, justice and how the everyday people lived their lives. The aristocracy lived exceptionally well of course, perhaps better than we in the 21st century realise.

All in all this is an absolutely fascinating snapshot of an interesting year in a turbulent time. And it is even more interesting to speculate how events so long ago impact on the way we live our lives today. This is a great book - entertaining, thoughtful and fascinating. What more could you ask?

Anyone who reads this book will know that much more than Magna Carta happened in the year 1215. Of course were it not for that revered document the year in question would probably not have inspired this, or any other, little book. Pay close attention to the book's subtitle: "the year of Magna Carta." Many will likely focus on the last two words of this phrase and, understandably, expect a thorough and detailed account of the origins and influence of that Great Charter. Expect some disappointment with that approach, because the key words in the subtitle are actually "the year of" not "Magna Carta." "The Year of 1215" may actually serve as a more accurate title. Still, Magna Carta does appear here, but only as a theme sinewed around numerous other themes, all of which revolve around the year emblazoned on the cover. Everything gets covered, from the daily lives of nobles and peasants, to medicine, entertainment, tournaments, law, religion, education and urban and rural life. The lesson of law in 1215 was simply to avoid being accused of anything, guilty or not. If accused, trial by water, iron, or battle may profess guilt in cases where evidence remains inconclusive. None of these present good options, especially with their almost certainly random outcomes. More fascinating tidbits pervade the highly readable text, along with some rather unsavory examples of 13th century justice. Those with overactive morbid fascinations unite!

Something else also looms, the seeming progenitor of the Great Charter, King John. Anyone wanting to know why King John typically gets classed as possibly the worst English King ever ("an absolute rotter," as a BBC "In Our Time" radio guest recently stated) will find ample reasons here. Arguably, John's very unskillful ruling led to the forging of the Magna Carta by the nobility. A rebellion of the mighty against the mightier ensued, much like the later American Revolution, which found inspiration in the highly experimental medieval document. The tale of the Magna Carta remains inextricably bound with that of King John. Apart from losing English territories in France (leading to his derisive nickname "Lackland"), secretly killing his nephew Arthur, attempting to betray his captured crusader Brother King Richard I, being excommunicated by Pope Innocent III, allegedly making salacious moves on the wives of his nobility, "afforesting" to a nauseating but self-beneficial degree, he also receives credit for starting a civil war. He simply, and in almost every way, went too far. People from all walks of life revolted. From this an entirely new concept emerged: a document that represented an ideal. Previously, claims to power were supported by an alternate monarch of proper pedigree. But in 1215 the rebellion offered a document backed by no royal claimant. They offered concepts instead. This was absolutely new and served as the western world's first, though somewhat primordial, constitution. A concept we take, maybe a little too much, for granted now. But as a means to secure peace in 1215 this experiment absolutely failed. It proved too radical even for those protesting against of one England's most corrupt Kings. A rewrite in 1225 removed much of the "distasteful" elements and brought Magna Carta back to the forefront and into the law books. Parts of it still remain, nearly verbatim, in British law.

This book provides a great overview of life in tumultuous medieval England. Even Robin Hood pops up (though tales of this famous robber supposedly predate King John's reign). Other juicy stories, such as the origins of Oxford and Cambridge, or the rise of new religious orders, or debunking myths about the beliefs of the time (few thought the earth was flat and organized education was available to those who could pay). Since the book aims for an exhaustively comprehensive view, it defies summary. As such, it manages to cover multifarious aspects of medieval life while maintaining a furiously page-turning intensity in many parts. Those wanting the brute reality of medieval romances will find enough brutality here for years to come. Of course those wanting granular details about Magna Carta will have to look elsewhere, though this book contains a great introduction to the document. The full text, all 63 clauses, appears at the book's end. A great introduction to an impressive document that embodied ideals that influenced all successive generations right up to the present.