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00:00John, by the grace of God, the King of England,
00:28Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou,
00:34to his archbishops, abbots, earls, barons, justices, foresters, sheriffs, governors, officers,
00:41and to all bailiffs and faithful subjects, greeting.
00:46In the year 1215, a bargain was struck between an unwilling English king and his discontented barons.
01:05This has come to be known as Magna Carta, or the Great Charter.
01:09But to learn the meaning of Magna Carta, we must go back to another milestone of English history,
01:16as recorded in the Great Bio-Tapestry.
01:24The Bio-Tapestry, woven 900 years ago, stands alone as a visual record of warfare
01:31during the Great Age of Feudalism.
01:33In the year 1066, Norman warriors from the north of France invaded Saxon England.
01:43The Anglo-Saxons fought a defensive battle behind a wall of shields.
01:49Their weapons, the lance, and the two-handed axe,
01:53opposing the Norman bowmen and the terrible charges of the Norman cavalry.
01:58The End
02:25The Anglo-Saxons were defeated at the Great Battle of Hastings, and for the next hundred
02:37years England was to be ruled by the Norman French. The first of the Norman rulers, William
02:45the Conqueror.
02:46If any man know what manner of man the Conqueror was, then will we describe him.
03:04He was more feared and more powerful than all former kings of the land.
03:10The land of Britain was under his sway. There was nothing in the land that was not his.
03:26He loved wild beasts as though he were the father of wild beasts.
03:36He decreed that whosoever killed a stag or a buck was to be blinded.
04:06Very lamentable indeed was the downfall of our dear country England.
04:13All were reduced to such a state of woe and slavery that it was considered a disgrace to be called an Englishman.
04:23Yet no man dared complain, for all power lay with the king.
04:35Thus William the Conqueror, he had besides conquering the land and its people, introduced a new form of feudalism into Britain.
04:50Anglo-Saxon kings had held England with loose reins.
04:55But William took firm possession of all the land.
04:59Now the king distributed these English lands among those warriors who had fought with him at Hastings.
05:08But none owned land but the king. His barons held it by his favor and must will all that he willed if they would keep their possessions.
05:21William's land holding barons had, out of their vast estates, distributed land to their own vassals or followers.
05:31Such was the ancient custom of feudalism.
05:34But William the Conqueror made his own rules.
05:38As Roger of Wendover, a 13th century historian, continues.
05:43Now at length the king sent to his men all over England to ascertain what lands he possessed therein and how much revenue.
05:56Thus William decreed that a great survey be made.
06:00His purpose? To tax not only his barons, but his barons' vassals.
06:06William's nobles objected to this survey, called the Doomsday Book.
06:12They expected to render military service to the king in exchange for their estates.
06:19This was a time-honored feudal custom.
06:22But with a doomsday survey, William set aside an equally time-honored custom of feudalism.
06:29The right of the local lord to tax his own tenants.
06:34But the king would hear no complaints.
06:37And thus he extorted from his subjects many marks of gold.
06:43He was fallen into covetousness.
06:46And greediness he loved withal.
06:52Whether he had become greedy or not,
06:55William the Conqueror had created in the crown a powerful central government.
07:07To all faithful subjects, both French and English,
07:19know that I, Henry, have been crowned king of England.
07:25Henry I promised much in his coronation charter.
07:30But the nobles who placed him upon the throne got more than they had bargained for.
07:35In the past, the king's tax collectors had used Roman numerals for computing taxes due.
07:43And with Roman numerals, even simple arithmetic is difficult.
07:48Henry introduced the exchequer.
07:53The word exchequer comes from the checkered cloth covering the accounting table.
07:59Like the abacus, the exchequer table was a kind of primitive adding machine.
08:05And Henry's barons did not approve of it.
08:08In times past, crown monies had been collected irregularly.
08:15For instance, aides were collected to meet a king's ransom.
08:19Under Henry, however, these aides were turned into a permanent source of revenue.
08:27Thus, Henry's barons saw another important feudal right usurped by a powerful king.
08:32When Henry was dead, Stephen, his nephew,
08:46now tempted God and seized the crown of the kingdom.
09:05For the people of England, the reign of Stephen was a tragic time of dissension and civil war.
09:12I cannot and may not tell of all that I have ever seen before.
09:41The world of all that was the torture inflicted upon the wretched people of the land during King Stephen's reign.
09:48It was said openly that Christ and his saints slipped.
09:54The choice before England seemed to be lawless chaos or a king with absolute power over all men.
10:05Now there was great tranquillity in England for the love which the people felt for Henry Plantagenet, their future sovereign.
10:18But this great tranquillity did not last long under Henry II's rule.
10:24To replenish the royal treasury, Henry must find new ways to raise money.
10:35He sent royal judges throughout the land to hold court and administer justice.
10:44Such odium there lies sheltered in the avarice of kings.
10:48Our Henry Plantagenet bethinks himself so sturdy he wrecks naught.
10:52Under the old feudal system, the local barons had administered local justice.
10:58Now the king sought to take over this task and something more.
11:03The money collected as fines.
11:06Thus, as time went on, Henry's exchequer became a storehouse of grievances, as well as gold.
11:15I've done homage to King Henry and swore oaths to him that he's in no fair kept.
11:30With every bag of gold, he asks another in replacement.
11:34That a man should carry himself and his pride above all.
11:41And in this way did gold and the power of gold come to the king.
11:50King Richard the Lionheart was a brave warrior and a most noble crusader.
12:06Twice, with great energy and skill, he led the Christian host to the very gates of the holy city.
12:14But these crusades were costly.
12:17And Richard raised money for them by every means.
12:21And moreover, it must be said to his discredit, that while he fought these wars bravely, he left his kingdom to take care of itself.
12:36After, however, this noble Richard had gone the way of all flesh, killed not in the holy wars, but in France,
12:48John, his brother, came over into England to be crowned there.
12:53And on the 27th of May, in the year of our Lord, 1199, Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, placed the crown upon his head.
13:14Much has been written about the misrule and the cruel tyranny of this same King John.
13:35But it may be claimed with justice that much of the discontent of his reign stemmed from earlier times.
13:43William I had conquered England and introduced new forms of feudalism.
13:58William the Conqueror's son, Henry I, introduced systematic taxation and usurped ancient feudal rights of his noblemen.
14:11During King Stephen's reign, the power of the crown declined, but the land was torn by civil war.
14:23Henry II reasserted the powers of the crown by taking over from the feudal barons the administration of local justice.
14:33Thus, the history of England preceding the crowning of John is a history of conflict between the kings, who attempted to center absolute power in the crown, and the feudal barons who sought to preserve the old forms of feudalism.
14:51But at last, during John's reign, an attempt was to be made on the fields of Runnymede to resolve this conflict by drafting a written charter of rights and liberties, which in later times was to be called Magna Carta.
15:10Beginning in 1066 with William the Conqueror was a period of conflict between the Norman kings and their barons.
15:29The kings attempted to center absolute power in the crown. The barons jealously guarded their ancient feudal rights and local customs. At last, in the year 1199.
15:44Richard the Lionheart was dead. But now his brother, John, came over into England, where Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, placed the crown upon his head.
16:07At his coronation, this same King John bound himself by a triple oath, namely, to love the Holy Church and its ordained priests, to do away with the bad laws of the old kings,
16:34and to see justice rightly administered throughout England.
16:41But of all the kings of England, John was to be judged the most harshly by his subjects.
16:50The judgment of contemporaries, we must remember, is apt to be faulty.
16:58We know, however, that from the first, John lived in his native England, like a conqueror in the midst of a hostile race.
17:10Taking hostages from the barons' families, and keeping them prisoner to answer for attempts at revolt.
17:18Take him!
17:20Take him!
17:21No! No, no, no, no!
17:22No! No!
17:23No!
17:24No!
17:25No!
17:26No!
17:27No!
17:28No!
17:29No!
17:30No!
17:31No!
17:33No!
17:34No!
17:35No!
17:36No!
17:38No!
17:39No!
17:40Oh, no!
17:41No!
17:42The almighty God show mercy to his soul, and grant him the forgiveness of his sins.
17:44English land. Whether King John was in fact the cruel tyrant painted by his
17:54contemporaries is open to question, but he was a most unlucky monarch. As the
18:0113th century historian Roger Wendover continues. Now the French King laid siege
18:09to several castles in Normandy belonging to the King of England and many castles
18:15fell. But that noble and warlike Englishman, the Constable of Chester, still
18:22defended the entrance against the French. He preferred to die in battle to being
18:28starved, on which he and his knights armed themselves, flew to horse and sallied
18:35from the castle.
19:05But at last all kind of defense failed in those provinces. And the whole of Normandy
19:10Tours and Anjou fell to the dominion of France.
19:15But at last all kind of defense failed in those provinces. And the whole of Normandy, Tours and Anjou fell to the dominion of France.
19:33And the whole of Normandy, Tours and Anjou fell to the dominion of the King of the French.
19:43And messengers then came to King John with the news, saying, the King of the French has entered your territories as an enemy,
19:51has taken such and such castles, carried off the governors of them ignominiously bound to their horses' tails.
20:00And when the King had read this news, he said, let him do so. Whatever he now seizes on, I will one day recover.
20:15But the earls and barons, when they learned of John's incorrigible idleness, returned home and so left him with only a few soldiers.
20:29On the 13th of July, in the year 1205, Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, died.
20:42Hubert's death was a great delight to the King, for he had suspected him of being too familiar with the King of the French.
20:56The appointment of a new Archbishop, however, led the King to a quarrel with the great and powerful Roman Pope, Innocent III.
21:06Christ our Lord, left to St. Peter, the governance not of the Church only, but of the whole world.
21:25And this quarrel was readily taken up by the Pope's ally, Philip, King of France.
21:31The most potent King of the French is ready to come down upon you and your kingdom, and to expel you from it by force.
21:54As an enemy of the Lord, and his holiness, the Pope.
22:06And so John hastily made his peace with Rome.
22:09John, by the grace of God, King of England, etc., to all faithful subjects, we wish it to be known to you that we have in many things offended God and our mother of the Holy Church.
22:25After this matter was settled then, Pope Innocent sent letters to the King of England, earnestly asking him to receive with kindness Master Stephen Langton as the Archbishop of Canterbury.
22:41The King now, in the year 1214, invaded the lost provinces in France, calling upon his barons to send knights to support him, as was the ancient customs.
22:59But many of his barons refused to send aid, saying they did not owe the King military service for foreign wars.
23:11The King.
23:37the fortunes of war
24:07favoured the English invaders at first
24:13only to ruin them completely in the end
24:22when at length the news of these hard defeats came to the knowledge of John's barons in England who had opposed his costly war
24:31these same barons determined to act
24:36about this time then the earls and barons
25:04assembled at St Edmund's as if for religious duties
25:09after they had discoursed together secretly for a time
25:13there was placed before them the charter of King Henry I
25:18which charter contained certain liberties and laws granted to the Holy Church as well as to the nobles of the kingdom
25:27all therefore swore on the great altar
25:31that if the king refused to grant these liberties they would withdraw from their allegiance to him and make war
25:40and word of these matters was brought to John who had taken up his abode once again in London
25:58from the time of his defeats in France
26:01John's condition had become worse and worse
26:06indeed in so little respect was the power of the English crown held
26:12that few could be found who would pay taxes to the king or obey him in anything
26:19why amongst these unjust demands did not the barons ask for my kingdom also
26:37I will never grant them liberties which will make me a slave
26:44never
26:46but when John learned at length that he was deserted by almost all
27:01John was much alarmed and sent word to the barons to appoint a fitting day and place to meet
27:09hence the barons in their great joy appointed the 15th day of June for the king to meet them at Runnymede
27:29a field lying between Staines and Windsor
27:32Accordingly the king and nobles came to the appointed conference
27:39and at length King John seeing that he was inferior in strength to the barons
27:51granted his charter as follows
27:55we will sell to no man
27:59we will not deny to any man
28:02either justice or right
28:04no free man shall be taken or imprisoned
28:09or in any way destroyed
28:11unless by the verdict of his peers
28:15or the law of the land
28:18wherefore it is our will
28:21and we firmly enjoined
28:23that the English church
28:25shall be free
28:27thus on a June day
28:29more than 700 years ago
28:31an English king met with his nobleman
28:34to discuss a charter of liberties
28:37to the common people of the time it is true
28:40the provisions of the charter meant little
28:43yet although John's barons had for the most part selfish aims
28:49Magna Carta limited the powers of the king
28:53the barons brought the king
28:56in other words
28:57under the law
28:59thus
29:00no matter what the barons aims
29:02Magna Carta established forever
29:05a timeless idea
29:07the idea that government
29:09whether royal or otherwise
29:11is limited by the written law of the land
29:15and hence as the centuries passed
29:21the charter was to prove the forerunner
29:24of the Declaration of Parliament
29:26and the English Bill of Rights
29:28of the American Declaration of Independence
29:31and the Constitution
29:33it was to be recognized
29:36as one of the great documents of freedom
29:39the way
29:46and
29:48the
30:01the