0:17 sources take us back in time that's
0:19 what's so exciting about them for us as
0:22 historians the sources I'm here to see
0:24 today at the National Archives are very
0:29 the ones we're going to look at today go
0:30 back all the way to the thirteenth
0:33 century and this one is one of the most
0:35 significant and influential documents
0:43 ever written Magna Carta Magna Carta
0:47 first written in 1215 is so important
0:50 because it's the first official
0:51 protection of the rights of the
0:54 individual some sentences in this
0:57 document are still part of English law
1:03 today what's so interesting about this
1:04 document is that there's nothing
1:07 immediately obvious to signify how
1:11 important it is but if we look a bit
1:13 closer we can actually learn a lot from
1:18 its appearance we can see the writing is
1:21 very carefully laid out and this is
1:25 because it's made to be read halt
1:28 Magna Carta was written at a time when
1:30 the monarchy and the richest landowners
1:33 known as barons were in dispute about
1:37 how much power the Kings should have it
1:40 was copied and amended many times the
1:42 Barons wanted the document to be sent
1:44 around the country so people could see
1:46 the new rules they were trying to
1:50 establish to limit the Kings supremacy
1:56 and listen to this no free man shall be
1:58 seized or imprisoned or stripped of his
2:01 rights or possessions or outlawed or
2:04 exiled or deprived of his standing in
2:07 any other way
2:10 so Magna Carta is saying that no man can
2:13 just be arrested and thrown into prison
2:17 he has the right to a fair trial now
2:19 this sounds pretty obvious to us today
2:22 but at the time this was a really big
2:25 deal this document but the question is
2:33 why was this needed at all in the year
2:35 before Magna Carta was first drawn up
2:38 there were rising tensions between the
2:42 king and the Barons this is a royal
2:45 wheat with orders from King John now a
2:47 royal writ is essentially a set of
2:50 orders or instructions which are sent
2:52 throughout the lands a little bit like a
2:55 government email or a letter today this
2:58 ragged piece of parchment can actually
3:00 tell us a lot about why the Barons
3:03 wanted the King to issue Magna Carta
3:07 listen to this King to the sheriff of
3:13 Devon know that we've given back all of
3:14 the lands which william of Mandeville
3:16 held from the same in your jurisdiction
3:19 and therefore we order you to give
3:21 possession of the same aforesaid lands
3:25 to Henry without delay being made so
3:27 what we see from this source is that
3:31 King John in 1214 was taken land away
3:33 from the Barons he was actually given
3:36 this land to his son Henry
3:39 at the time there were no laws to stop
3:42 the king taxing people or taking their
3:45 land whenever he felt like it but then
3:47 something happened that shifted the
3:55 balance of power away from the king this
3:58 is a letter sent by King John a couple
4:01 of months after the rate and what
4:03 interesting about it is that his tone
4:06 has completely changed at this point
4:09 john is fighting to protect his lands in
4:11 France and he's losing them to the
4:12 French King
4:15 he needs troops and Knights and so he
4:17 writes to the barons pleading for
4:21 support the king sends his greetings to
4:24 all his Earl's barons knights and other
4:27 faithful men but now the interest and
4:33 bit we ask most attentively to us come
4:35 to us without delay to the aid of our
4:39 land which needs to be won over the King
4:42 needs the support of the very barons
4:44 that he's been taxing and they're not
4:47 send in the Knights the balance of power
4:50 has shifted and the King knows it so he
4:53 agrees to issue Magna Carta [Music]
4:55 [Music]
4:58 so a few ancient bits of parchment open
5:01 an incredible window on one of the most
5:04 important documents in our history the
5:06 reach from King John demands and land
5:08 from the Barons followed by a desperate
5:11 plea by the king to these same barons
5:13 for help in his war against the French
5:17 and it all led to a long drawn-out power
5:19 struggle between successive kings and
5:23 barons with Magna Carta finally reissued
5:27 in 1297 and part of it including the
5:29 protection of individual rights are
5:31 still more today [Music]
5:32 [Music]
5:36 by really examining sources paying
5:38 attention to what they look like and the
5:41 language used we can understand power
5:44 plays centuries ago the sources we've
5:46 looked at really help us understand the
5:49 battle between King John and the Barons
